Monday 23 February 2015 16:23, UK
Stuart Pearce insists Nottingham Forest will not be the last job of his managerial career.
The former England defender was sacked by chairman Fawaz Al-Hasawi on February 1 after recording just three victories in 21 league games, leaving the club’s Championship status hanging in the balance.
Pearce, who played 12 years at Forest, including a long stint as captain, lasted just 12 months in his job.
Despite his dismissal from the City Ground, his time there ended far from acrimoniously, with Al-Hasawi immediately offering the 52-year-old an alternative position.
“I sat with the owner on a Sunday night and he said ‘Look, I’ve decided to make a change’,” Pearce told Sky Sports News HQ.
“I think it pained him to do so, I think he was desperate for me to be successful at the club. On the back of that, he said ‘Look, I’d like to keep you on, you stay at the football club and be my adviser at the football club and whatever’."
But Pearce had no hesitation in turning down the offer, claiming his presence at the club would not be the ideal way for his successor, Dougie Freedman to take up the reins.
“I just didn’t think it was fair on Dougie to be honest with you, and myself as well," he added. “I don’t think I was ready, at my age, to be an adviser at a football club, albeit Nottingham Forest.
“For my point of view there’s not too many managers that get sacked and in the next breath get offered to stay on, on the same wages you were earning as a manager at the time.
There’s not too many managers who get sacked and in the next breath get offered to stay on, on the same wages you were earning as a manager at the time.
“I just don’t think it would be workable or fair on the next manger through the door.”
Freedman, the seventh manager at Forest since Al-Hasawi completed his takeover in the summer of 2012, has recorded three wins in his four matches.
Pearce, capped 78 times for England, was replaced by Freedman within a matter of hours but said his time as a football manager was far from over.
“I’m trained as a manager, I’ve gone through every possible coaching badge that I could possibly do, and the more time you’re in football the more information you gain.
“I’m a more rounded manager today than I probably was last summer: more games under my belt, more experience.”
Pearce also said that, when his managerial days did come to an end, he would look to reignite his media and corporate speaking roles.
