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As Nigel Pearson prepares to guide Watford into what is something of a nightmare debut at Liverpool on Saturday, he has admitted he found it “a bit surprising” that he was given the chance to return to top-flight management four and a half years after his last experience ended in dismissal by Leicester City. Asked whether he expected to get another chance at Premier League level, he replied: “The honest answer is no. I didn’t think I would.”
Pearson said: “I’ve not reflected on it being lucky. What I’ve reflected on is how a club has looked at what they feel are my strengths and they feel I’m the right person to come in. That is, I think, very reassuring for me. It doesn’t make the job any easier but I think, speaking to the club before I actually joined, it was very clear in my mind that they wanted someone with my kind of style to come in and galvanise the team. It’s not going to be an easy thing to do but it’s certainly possible.”
Though Pearson has made several unsuccessful attempts to return to management since his seventh and most recent job, at Oud-Heverlee Leuven in the Belgian second division, came to an end in February, he had not been feeling desperate to return to work when the Watford opportunity presented itself.
“This happened so quickly and I didn’t give myself time to overthink it,” he said. “I really do believe very much in backing your instinctive emotional feel on things and I was very pleasantly surprised just how motivated I was to get involved in this situation, which on the face of it was very difficult. I didn’t have to talk myself into it. I was clear in my own mind that I’ve got the motivation to do it.”
Pearson is Watford’s third manager of the season and arrives with the club bottom of the table, six points from safety and having scored only nine goals in their 16 matches. It is not a completely foreign situation for the former centre-back, whose first managerial appointment was at Carlisle in 1998-99, when they were saved from relegation only by a stoppage-time goal from their goalkeeper on the final day.
In the Premier League he was assistant to Bryan Robson when West Bromwich Albion rescued themselves in 2004-05 and manager of Leicester when they achieved a similar feat a decade later. Both of those sides had only 10 points at Christmas, one more than the Hornets have now.
“At West Brom we had a really tough approach to Christmas but what we knew was we had a core of players who had got a very tenacious and battle-hardened mentality and who totally threw themselves into being underdogs,” he recalled.
“The difference between that and the Leicester situation would be that at Leicester – yes, we had a really tough run of results but for the most part our performances were competitive. We just hadn’t found the right formula to turn performances into results. Circumstances will always be different. The similarities are more the mental approach to it, the ability to embrace the challenge, man up to it and take it head on.”
The 56-year-old insists, however, that he offers more than just advanced escapology and a reputation for occasionally frosty dealings with the press. “I need a very open-minded view on bringing people together, to be as inclusive as possible, to give distinct messages and show leadership – and I’m sure I’ll be able to bring that to this group. I’m not going to try to reinvent the wheel.
“First and foremost it’s the mindset of the players. If it has been damaged, if their confidence has been eroded through us not being able to find the answers this season, then myself and the staff will do everything we can to help them on the journey. We’ve got to start winning football matches and more than anything our players need to be free enough to go out and play.”
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