I know it is the responsibility of fans to support the decisions of the manager but Pearson's latest strop beggars belief.
His initial reaction to St Ledger and now Mills is (in my opinion) downright childish.
This is not the recipe for success.
Poor man management
posted on 26/2/12
Its all about opinions on here and thats the fun.
I think NP is a good manager but a bully who wants his control things like the media which he has no right too!
With Mills if he does not want him end of .But to say is God like in his man management is laughable.
He got lucky with SSL and loaning Mills to leeds will help them more than us unless its foe a month to get some games without the home fans on his back.
Sven was one win from keeping his job Managers survive and fall by results and if NP cant get the some consistancy in his results he will follow Sven out the door by the end of this season IMO.
posted on 26/2/12
I must admit to be being slightly surprised by the unflinching support for NP.
I am not against disciplining players who step out of line - far from it. My criticism was based on this pattern of wanting to get rid of every player that doesn't always agree with him.
This aggressive approach comes out in his dealings with the media - at first amusing, now down-right embarrasing!
Perhaps I will be proved wrong and he will put together a team of "like-me's" prepared to run through brick walls for him.
The real proof will be our League position in about twelve month's time.
posted on 26/2/12
lcfcprawnsandwich & Nev- you've hit the nail on the head with your last posts. We can all have our opinions on whether we think Pearson has or hasn't managed a situation well, but ultimately he'll be judged on results.
I hope he's given at least the whole of next season to see whether he can deliver or not.
posted on 26/2/12
Hi Mersey.
Strangely, I am not calling for anyone's head - far from it.
I am pleased that he has finally "put his arm around" St Ledger's shoulder and seems to be getting more commitment from Beckford.
But he is as guilty as some of his players of "toys out of the pram". As a manager, you have to be bigger than that.
Whether he is right or wrong about Mills is not my contention. I am not convinced he manages personalities well.
But as we all agree, the proof of the pudding will be in his performance next year.
posted on 26/2/12
prawnsandwich - You may be right, and in a sense it is concerning that this is not the first player in the squad who has had a 'bust up' with the manager. Also, I do think that Pearson has had a time when he threw the toys out of the pram himself - it resulted in him going to Hull, a decision that he can't have been that glad of in retrospect given that he's returned. It's probably for that reason that people like John Gee are suspicious of him now (John keeps mentioning loyalty, probably for that reason) and in a way it's hard to argue against that.
That said, this situation is a bit different and goes back to his (sometimes misinterpreted) "delusions of grandeur" comment. Whatever we think of it, the way some of the players have acted has backed up this idea - the recent reports on Mills being the latest that fit this pattern. John suggests that Pearson's been trying to force Mills out - I don't see it myself for several reasons - but I wonder if he's brought Wes Morgan in partly to see how the other players would react. As it happens, St. Ledger has reacted positively, Mills negatively and we'll have to see about Bamba (it sounds like he tried hard at right back even though he made mistakes and if so that should be viewed as a positive thing).
If there were people around the club who were too big for their boots and not even playing well, his abilities to go around massaging their egos was severely limited. Instead, he may have needed to try to prompt them into action, to see whether they would play for the club or not. At a guess, maybe he tried to back Mills up initially, to put an arm around him, and perhaps he didn't respond to it. Or maybe he found Mills to be as cold and unresponsive as I've always found him in interviews and just couldn't work with him. Either way, the relationship between these two individuals has broken down and the rest of the team hardly seem to be up in arms about the result of this.
While it is possible that Pearson has handled the situations with Mills and St. Ledger badly, it may also be that these things were likely to bubble over anyway at some point and Pearson has tried to act in the best interests of the team as a whole - and yes, that is his team, and a weak manager will never do any good. This is the conlusion I draw based on what information I've seen and heard anyway.
posted on 26/2/12
Well put Dunge.
posted on 26/2/12
Brilliant article, thought provoking comments, a credit to all contributing Foxes supporters. Enjoyed the input here and has made me think a bit and hopefully others too. Thank you all
posted on 26/2/12
I think Pearson was well within his rights to drop Matt Mills and if he's reacted in a manner that means Pearson has felt the need to ship him off to a potential play-off rival then it must have been something serious.
It's not Pearson's fault that Mills cannot take being dropped. I would also like to point out that this isn't the first time Mills has reacted like this - he also did at Reading under Brendan Rpdgers apparently.
As for Pearson, if we were going to list his qualities, then man management would be top or near the top of that list. He gets players that are willing to buy into his ethos playing for him and to the best of their abilities and generates great team spirit and that is a great quality in a manager. Reminiscent of a certain Northen Irishman who used to manage us. I think a better advert for these qualities would be Beckford rather than SSL.
I really rate NP as a manager and I do think he's destined for good things. I can't recall a bad job he's done anywhere and his fellow professionals speak highly of him too. I think, given a summer to properly get his squad in shape, he is capable of getting us promoted - especially with a talent spotter like Steve Walsh on board and the resources to buy this talent.
I just hope our owners feel the same.
posted on 26/2/12
Letting Pearson go 2 years ago was a huge mistake in hindsight - everyone was on the roller coaster of the Eriksson bandwagon, me icluded, but I firmly believe Pearson has the qualities to get us out of this division. He makes good signings, gets players playing for the team, instills a good work ethic which makes his teams difficult to beat.
On the Mills front, I thought this would have been an excellent signing, but for whatever reason Mills has rarely performed to expectations this season. He has cost us points and missed 7 games through ill discipline and his temper now appears to have put his career at Leicester in jeopardy. I think Mills has the potential to be an outstanding defender, but no one player is bigger than the club and I'm affraid Mills needs to accept others are playing better than him at present. He needs to take a leaf out of SSL's book, buckle down, work hard and if he gets another chance, take it. Alas, I don't think he has the maturity to accept that he might be wrong and therefore he is unlikely to play for us again whilst Pearson is manager.
posted on 29/2/12
"It's probably for that reason that people like John Gee are suspicious of him now…"
John Gee was opposed to Pearson being appointed the first time around – when the job was to get us out of L1. That can't possibly be explained by reference to the later excursion to Hull.