41: Stuart Pearce, England, Panini England European Football Championship ’96

In today’s post Richard Allinson takes a look at a man who became such an icon of Euro 96 that he achieved what all professional footballers must dream of and was immortalised in a World Cup song. We’ll ignore the fact it was a slightly ropey version of the song from the previous tournament and England subsequently failed to bring anything home apart from a talented youngster with a one-match ban and a centre-half with a chip on his shoulder. Still, a better result than either Euro 2000 or the 2014 World Cup. Over to Rich.

The arrival of a major football tournament always gets me thinking of my 'All Time England XI' and Euro 2020/21 was no exception. Really though, I don't know why I bother because it is the same every time. However, for a while, my pick at left back was a question that needed answering. Ashley 'Cashley' Cole or Stuart 'Psycho' Pearce? Apologies to Stephen Warnock and Nicky Shorey, but you didn't enter the reckoning. Cole was a very talented footballer, of that there is no doubt, however, I can't forgive (amongst other more dubious acts) the National Lottery advert where, alongside Cheryl Cole, he dressed up as part angel, part N*Sync backing dancer and part knobhead. Therefore, Stuart Pearce gets the nod. Partly because he was a brilliant full back, and partly because his Pizza Hut adverts were better than Cole's Lottery one.

As we're on the subject of the filming of the Pearce, Waddle and Southgate pizza commercial, Psycho tells this rather excellent anecdote in his autobiography about how well looked after the new entrant to the International Penalty Missers Club was: "It was hardest for Gareth in every sense - he was the butt of the joke and he was the one who had to keep eating the pizzas. The pizza he was seen eating in the advert had to look hot and steamy so someone kept blowing cigarette smoke on it. Imagine how that was for a non-smoker and fitness fanatic. Chris and I kept cocking it up on purpose so that he had to take yet another bite. We had him on about 20 takes before we relented." To me, this is further proof that the nineties were a much simpler and better time.

The incidents that spawned the Pizza Hut adverts, Pearce's penalty miss versus West Germany and subsequent redemption against Spain, are what a lot of people first think of when his name is mentioned. Being seven years old whilst Italia 90 was on and thirteen during Euro 96, I was feeling similar emotional highs and lows as what I imagine Psycho was going through, albeit without the pressure of a nation on my shoulders. Not that I actually witnessed either of these two spot kicks with my own eyes, as I was behind the settee against Germany and in the pantry against Spain, unable to watch. Stuart Pearce though was so much more than just a punk rock fan that took a couple of penalties in the nineties.

Having been rejected by Queen’s Park Rangers and Hull City as a youngster, Pearce found his way into football with Wealdstone. Rumours that the Wealdstone Raider asked Stuart if he "wanted some" are unfounded. However, if he had wanted some, the Raider would have definitely given it to him. In total, Pearce played 176 games for The Stones and scored ten goals before he moved on to Bobby Gould's Coventry City. The fact that he played for the Sky Blues was news to me until now, I always thought he had just gone straight to Forest, but there you go. Not wanting to dismiss his time at Highfield Road or anything, but after 52 games and four goals he made his way to Nottingham Forest.

I'm sure every football fan from every era has teams that define their youth. For me, the Forest sides of the late eighties and early nineties fall into this category. The Umbro/Shipstones Beers kit was iconic, as were some of the players that wore it: Steve Sutton, Mark Crossley, Gary Charles, Steve Chettle Des Walker, Brian Laws, Pearce, Gary Crosby, Garry Parker, Roy Keane, Steve Hodge, Nigel Clough et al. and of course all the while they were managed by Old Big 'Ead himself, Mr Brian Clough. Pearce would go on to play more than 500 times for Forest and it was whilst with the club that he made his England debut. On receiving news of his first call up, Clough summoned Pearce into his office:

Clough: "I see you're in the England squad, do you think you're good enough?"

Pearce: "I'm not so sure."

Clough: "I don't, get out!"

Where a modern-day footballer is likely to react to this by putting a sepia toned quote by 'Unknown' about empathy on Instagram and then asking their agent to get them a transfer, Pearce used it as fuel: "Because he knew me, he was delivering a couple of messages. Firstly, keep your feet on the floor and secondly, I honestly believe he thought I wasn't good enough. For me, as a nervous player that was worried about meeting up with Bryan Robson and thinking 'am I good enough to play against the likes of Brazil?', all my nerves diminished then. By the time I got up and thanked him for his kind words and got out the door, all of that diminished and I had someone to prove wrong." This wasn't the only interaction between Clough and Pearce to come off the back of an international call up. In his Wealdstone days, Psycho had trained and worked as an electrician, a job he continued with in his early days at the City Ground, even advertising the family business in the match day programme. Clough saw both Pearce's appearance for England and the advert and decided to raise both issues in front of the first team squad. Again, I hand over to our two protagonists:

Clough: "How'd you think you did for England in midweek?"

Pearce: "Alright."

Clough: "I don't think so, I thought you were shocking. Well, our captain, lads, is a fraud." Clutching a copy of the programme, Clough continued: "If my Barbara rings that number, are you going to answer it if a light bulb has gone in the house?"

Pearce: "It would actually be my brother that would answer."

After once again calling Pearce a fraud, Clough went on: "If you're any good, my Barbara's iron is broken. Fix it by Saturday or you're not playing" before shoving a plastic carrier bag containing a knackered iron into Pearce's hands.

Luckily for Stuart, and Barbara, he knew what he was doing and by the Saturday Mrs Clough had got her iron back and England's left back had regained his place as captain of Nottingham Forest.

As always with these blog posts, I could go on and on about the player and Stuart Pearce is no exception. In a career spanning almost 25 years, he played 747 games for six clubs (and one amateur side, dubbed the 'worst team in the world'), scoring 82 goals in the process and I really do think he was a genuinely excellent footballer. His penalties and free-kicks were (mostly) unstoppable and as I have said before, I think it is criminal that the free-kick he scored against Tottenham Hotspur in the 1991 FA Cup Final flies so far under the radar. He really did leather the f**k out the ball and Erik Thorstvedt stood absolutely no chance of keeping it out. As a manager, Pearce hasn't yet hit the heights that many perhaps expected, although managing in the Premier League, at international level and in the Olympics isn't exactly bad. However, maybe the fact he hasn't achieved long-term success as a manager was because he put his substitute goalkeeper at centre forward. Or maybe it was just because Ben Thatcher was really shit at fixing irons.