Nigel Pearson

Nigel Graham Pearson (born 21 August 1963) is an English football manager and former professional player.

He was most recently the manager of Championship club Bristol City.

During his playing career, he was a defender and played for Shrewsbury Town, Sheffield Wednesday and Middlesbrough.

As a coach he has taken charge of Hull City, Southampton, Carlisle United, Leicester City, Derby County, OH Leuven, and Watford; and was assistant manager for England Under-21s and Newcastle United.

Pearson was born in Nottingham where he attended William Sharp Comprehensive School, and began his playing career with non-league Heanor Town before joining Second Division Shrewsbury Town in November 1981.

He made his first-team debut in a 1–0 defeat at Oldham Athletic on the opening day of the 1982–83 season.

Pearson's first Football League goal came on 12 March 1983 in a 3–1 win against Barnsley at Gay Meadow.

Pearson ended the season with 39 out of a possible 42 starts as Shrewsbury finished in ninth place in the table.

The following season, Shrewsbury finished one place higher but injuries restricted Pearson to 26 games.

Injury prevented him from playing at all in 1984–85, when Shrewsbury again finished eighth in the table, but he returned in 1985–86 making 35 appearances as Shrewsbury dropped to 17th.

In 1986–87 he was an ever-present, making 42 appearances and contributing three goals, as the Shrews finished in 18th place.

He started the next season, before being signed by Sheffield Wednesday's manager Howard Wilkinson on 12 October 1987 for a fee of £250,000.

In his six years with Shrewsbury Town, he made a total of 181 appearances in all competitions, scoring five goals.

Pearson moved to Sheffield Wednesday in 1987.

He won the League Cup as Sheffield Wednesday captain, during the 1990–91 season, being selected as "Man of the Match" in the final at Wembley.

In the same season, he also helped Sheffield Wednesday win promotion to Division One.

During the 1992–93 season, he helped Sheffield Wednesday reach both domestic cup finals, but broke his leg in the League Cup semi-final, and therefore could not play in either final.

In all, Pearson made more than 200 appearances for the Owls, scoring 14 league goals – including the club's first in the Premier League in a 1–1 draw with Everton at Goodison Park on the opening day of the 1992–93 season.

Middlesbrough manager Bryan Robson signed Pearson for £750,000 in 1994.

Pearson captained them to promotion twice and to three domestic cup finals.

Pearson retired from playing in 1998.

As manager of Carlisle United, Pearson helped to keep the club in the Football League at the end of the 1998–99 season.

He signed goalkeeper Jimmy Glass on loan, who scored an injury-time goal against Plymouth Argyle, saving the club from relegation to the Football Conference at the expense of Scarborough.

The match was Pearson's last in charge of the Brunton Park outfit.

In 1999, he was recruited as Stoke City's first team coach by Gary Megson.

Although Megson was sacked later that year by the club's Icelandic consortium, Pearson was kept on for a further two years under Guðjón Þórðarson, before being sacked in 2001.

Pearson moved to West Bromwich Albion in November 2004 as assistant manager to Bryan Robson, and took over as caretaker manager when Robson left the club in September 2006.

Albion won three and drew one of his matches in charge, before stepping down from the role in preparation for the arrival of new manager Tony Mowbray.

On 19 October 2006, he was linked with the Sheffield Wednesday manager's position but instead took over as assistant manager of Newcastle United, replacing Kevin Bond, who was dismissed following allegations he was prepared to take bungs for players whilst at Portsmouth.

On 1 February 2007, Pearson was confirmed as assistant coach to Stuart Pearce, the England U21 team manager, until after the 2007 UEFA European Under-21 Championship.

As Pearce's contract limited him to involvement in only one friendly before the Championship, Pearson led the under-21s in their 3–3 draw against Italy on 24 March 2007, the first game at the new Wembley Stadium.

When Newcastle manager Glenn Roeder resigned on 6 May 2007, Pearson took charge of the remaining game of the season, away to Watford.

Pearson stayed on at Newcastle as a coach following the arrival of Sam Allardyce as manager at the club.

On 9 January, following the departure of Allardyce, he was re-appointed as caretaker manager for Newcastle's trip to Manchester United.

Newcastle lost 6–0, after a Cristiano Ronaldo hat-trick, a brace from Carlos Tevez and a Rio Ferdinand goal.

On 16 January 2008, after Kevin Keegan had been announced as the next permanent manager of the club, Pearson took charge of the team for the 3rd round FA Cup replay against Stoke City, which Newcastle won 4–1.

On 8 February, Pearson left the club.

On 18 February 2008, Pearson was appointed as manager of Southampton on a rolling contract.

On 19 February 2008, his career at Southampton got off to a poor start, losing 2–0 at home to Plymouth Argyle in front of 17,806, the lowest recorded crowd at St Mary's Stadium.

On 22 February 2008, Southampton gained their first point under his managership, drawing 1–1 away to Scunthorpe United.