Determined dyche

Ex-Forest KEITH MENARY on how one unheralded contemporary defender has overtaken a more illustrious

How he’s outshone Stuart Pearce

THIS season has shown that one of the brightest stars in the management firmament is proving to be an ex-Nottingham Forest defender with a stare every bit as ferocious as the aggression that went into his trademark wholehearted challenges.

But instead of this being a eulogy to the legendary left-back Stuart Pearce, the stopper in question is Burnley boss Sean Dyche, who began his career as a central defender at the City Ground, but failed to make a single firstteam appearance.

Indeed, while Dyche’s stock keeps on rising, Pearce’s has hit rock bottom: it seems as if the footballing gods have decreed that there is space in the management heavens for only one former Forest defender at a time.

Operating on a budget so meagre that it wouldn’t even begin to cover the monthly cost of fake tan and hair gel at more celebrated Premier League clubs, Dyche has impressed by wringing every ounce of talent possible from the players at his disposal.

His teams always appears to be on-message and willing to have a go, and in players such as Danny Ings, Kieran Trippier and Tom Heaton, the Burnley boss has polished a few gems that could well go on to win international honours.

In particular, the 43-year-old deserves great credit for the way he handled the difficult introduction to life in the top flight that the Clarets experienced as they endured an agonising search for their first win, before finally taking three points from a home fixture against Hull in early November.

At no time during this torturous run did Dyche throw the toys out of the pram or rant against refs or throttle opponents (yes, Mr Pearson, that is a reference to you).

Instead, he remained focused and passionate during games, and calm and positive when interviewed afterwards. Exactly what his team needed as they made the necessary adjustments to a higher grade of football.

Sadly, it is the opposite for Stuart Pearce. He took over at Forest as the people’s choice and seemed to be exactly what was needed as the club set about repairing their tarnished image after the fractious dictatorial reign of Billy Davies, whose petty fighting, score-settling and desire to control narratives had led to many in the media referring to the club as the North Korea of professional football.

This had come on top of a period of quickfire managerial chopping and changing under new chairman Fawaz Al-Hasawi, which had seen three sackings in his first eight months.

By appointing arguably the most popular player that had ever graced the City Ground and then splashing the cash for powerful attackers such as Britt Assombalonga and Michail Antonio, it seemed that Al-Hasawi had finally assembled the right pieces of the puzzle and the club could finally move in the right direction.

Certainly this seemed to be the case as Forest made a superb start to the season which saw them top of the table for the first two months and unbeaten until mid-October.

The City Ground had the feel-good factor and it looked like Stuart Pearce was doing the job he was destined for. And then it all went horribly wrong. The wins turned into draws and the draws turned into defeats, and Forest tumbled out of the play-off places towards the lower reaches of the table.

The players looked shot of confidence and Pearce looked helpless in the dugout, unable to provide the leadership he had shown as a player and painfully exposing the limitations in his tactical thinking.

Off the field, the club was hit with a transfer embargo under financial fair play regulations and the instability which has been a feature of the postClough years on Trentside was once more to the fore. By the time Forest surrendered meekly to Rochdale in the FA Cup third round, there was a quiet air of desperation surrounding the City Ground faithful as the realisation dawned that their former hero was living on borrowed time and, despite a brave victory over bitter rivals