What did Pearce say at half-time?August 25th, 2006

Does the fact that Thatcher’s assault came just three minutes into the second half tell us anything about Pearce’s management style?

According to Portsmouth boss Harry Redknapp, Thatcher was clearly fired up after the restart. “When I saw Thatcher running towards Mendes, I knew exactly what was going to happen five seconds before it did. I would have bet my life on it,” Redknapp said after the game.

Which makes you wonder exactly what type of team-talk Pearce gave to his players at half-time.

Frank Clark’s autobiography, Kicking With Both Feet, offers this fascinating insight into Pearce’s dressing room behaviour:

Minutes before an important European match, my captain Stuart Pearce is in the dressing room shaking his fists and screaming at the rest of the players. He’s been listening to his punk rock music and he’s all psyched up. Sitting in front of him are an array of different nationalities: Dutch, Norwegian, Italian, Scottish, Welsh, Irish. Pearce is shouting at them all, explaining why we’re better than the French opposition and why we’re going to win.

He punches the air. ‘Because we’re English!’ he screams. ‘Because we’re English!’ The factual inaccuracy of the statement doesn’t seem to occur to Stuart. I’m not sure if it occured to his Norwegian, Dutch, Italian, Scottish, Welsh and Irish team-mates, but if it did, none of them seemed in much of a hurry to point out his mistake. In fact, from the nervous looks on their faces, a few of them might have been considering changing nationality.

So did Pearce issue one of his rousing “get at ‘em” talks at half-time, and a fired-up Thatcher take the manager’s instructions to be more combative to obscence lengths?

A look at Thatcher’s career reveals a long list of violent conduct. Typing the words “Ben Thatcher” and “incident” into The Guardian’s search box brings up these results:

Dec 2005: Takes West Brom’s Diomansy Kamara out with his elbow
Oct 2004: Accused of stamping on a Polish player
Dec 2003: Stamps on Freddie Ljungberg
Jan 2000: Elbows Nicky Summerbee in the face

While Pearce has now called Thatcher’s actions “indefensible” (link), it’s possible that his initial reluctance to publicly criticise the player was partly because he felt the incident was related to his half-time talk. Admittedly, we can only speculate. What is certain is that the club’s response so far is wholly inadequate.

“The Club does not condone such action and the matter has been dealt with internally by Stuart Pearce,” has been the only official response so far (link)

The statement shows how out-of-step the club is with the fans, who have been scathing about the player’s actions on the talkboards.

Thatcher has tarnished the club’s image, and by refusing to condemn his actions publicly, the club has left a stain on our character.

City fans overwhelmingly want to see justice done, and done publicly.

The atmosphere at Eastlands

Just how many season tickets have been sold?

Wednesday’s official attendance of 37,214 was the lowest ever at Eastlands and 5,769 down on the first game of last season.

With season ticket holders automatically included in the offical figure, some fans at the game estimated the real gate was around 30,000, while a poster on the Bluemoon talkboard claimed 5,000 tickets were given away for the game. If true, that would mean there were only around 25,000 paying customers at the game.

If the size of the crowd was worrying, the mood in the stadium should be of even more concern.

Gavin, one of the owners of Citymancs talkboard, posted this comment at the site (link):

The consensus in the South Stand bar was that it was hardly worth bothering to go and watch the second half. Never not even in the second division have I sensed such a combination of apathy and depression. It’s not helped by the stadium being half empty and having the atmosphere of a morgue. However mainly the team is just shit and Pearce saying the team put in the effort for him but need to be more ‘cute’ every week just doesn’t cut it for me.

There’s an excellent thread on the Blueheaven talkboard about the atmosphere at the game (link) which finishes with long-term supporter Cheadle Blue offering these thoughts:

Well I sort of made this decision at the end of last season, that was not to renew my season ticket for the first time in ages.
I did attend last night and decided I am enjoying the experience less and less and will be taking a back seat for a while.
Our 16 seater minibus has gone to an 8 seater and this will not be full each week cause of the non renewals to city cards.
The whole thing had become a bore, the attitude of the fans is nearly one of self loathing and I’ve had it with the bar staff (they really are crap).
It’s the pub or the armchair for me for a while.

It’s almost as though the lack of ambition in the boardroom has infected City fans and is being amplified back towards the team.

We are dangerously close to being locked into a destructive pattern of behaviour, where the frustration at poor performances affects team morale, causes performances to slip further, and in turn, sours the atmosphere even more.

With just six days to go before the transfer window closes, signing a creative midfielder may be the only way out of this dangerous downward spiral.

Best of the boards

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Bizarre Marketing from City - New adverts for City feature a pregnancy testing kit.
Can’t sleep.. - Stuart, who is currently battling cancer, believes Chelsea could be in for a surprise on Sunday.
Driver with 2 left feet crashes car… - zandvoort blue has a take on Titus Bramble’s recent accident.
Quality, FAT footballers - William “Fatty” Foulke seems to win that one, but was comedian Eddie Large really on City’s books?

Apology on Behalf Of City fans To Mendes/Petition to release - No disagreement so far about this one.
Are we Premiership standard? - comeoncity, a 14-year old City fan from London, posts his thoughts after seeing the game. Telling him it’s not too late to change, Murph warns him that in ten years’ time City will have driven him to despair, alcholism, and a dependency for anti-depressants.
Ok then, who’s most over-rated at City Posters can’t agree, so have a fierce argument about whether Boumsong is worse than Distin.
MCFC or The Missus??? - Uncomfortable reading for the wives of Mancityfans posters.
We Are Top Of The League, I Said … - City podcast tops download chart.
Leeds Utd statement - With link to Ken Bates’ official statement and Guardian story about it.

Do City charge kids for the honour of being mascot? - A report in the Observer claims it can cost up to £3,525 to be a mascot. City charge for some games, but it’s not clear how much.
Metrolink to CoMS? - Detailed look at the expansion plans for Metrolink - and the fines for not having a ticket.
Premiership Managers - Update - As an experiment, CBSL2 has written to every Premiership manager and asked for a photo. FleetwoodBlue offers suggestions on what the responses will be.
Google trends - rm has fun finding out where United supporters are from.

The ticket office, pass me the smelling salts!! - reddish blue has a good experience with the ticket office - and is still recovering from the shock.
Have a look at this.. - Does Christian Negouai deserve to be listed at rubbishfootballers.com, asks mcfc-bry?
Wordsworth looks forward to the new season - Bluetaff gets poetical for the start of the season.

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