A PearceDawg is for life - The Square Ball 23/6/22

OOOOOO THIS IS DECENT

Written by: Rob Conlon

If you had asked me to guess which footballers were invited to Liam Cooper’s wedding, the summer sun would have changed for the bleak skies of winter before I mentioned the name Scott Wootton. Paudie O’Connor maybe? What about Vurnon Anita? Didn’t Souleymane Doukara RSVP? I’m yet to see any of them in the photos, but there’s Scott Wootton — and look how happy Kalvin is to see him!

Without wanting to be rude to Wootton, it made me wonder what he had done to be invited that Jason Pearce hadn’t. While Wootton was flying to Ibiza for the big do after ending the season in the A-League with Wellington Phoenix, Pearce was announcing his retirement from playing after spending the last six years with Charlton. His interview with Charlton’s official YouTube channel is a sombre watch; Pearce wanted to play for one more season but was told it wouldn’t be with Charlton, and none of the offers he got to continue were as appealing as a gig coaching Charlton’s Under-18s. The comments from fans calling him a legend are more wholesome, as is Pearce’s open letter to supporters:

‘To captain every club, staying up starting the season on -17 points, to achieve three promotions and lift the trophy at Wembley, I have achieved more than I could have imagined. But it hasn’t all been highs. I’ve had three relegations, two due to administration, injuries, set-backs, lots of things which you have to take in the right way and learn from and come back stronger.

‘I always remember Shaun North at the Portsmouth pre academy meeting speaking to the apprentices-to-be; he said don’t ever think you’ve made it until you have played over 500 league games.

‘I can say “I’ve made it.” To any young players reading this: Your career goes by very quickly, give it your best shot, try and make the right choices, learn from setbacks and above all else ENJOY IT!’

Maybe it would have been awkward for Cooper to invite Pearce to his wedding given he took PearceDawg’s place in the team at Leeds. When Cooper joined in the summer of 2014, Pearce was captain, wearing the armband for the first seventeen games of the season. After a one-match ban, Pearce found Stephen Warnock was the new skipper. Before long he was on the bench watching Cooper ahead of him, and he was sold to Wigan in January 2015. It was nothing personal; basically every senior player was available as Massimo Cellino stripped the wage bill, putting his faith in academy prospects, Serie B Football Manager regens, and carthorses like Steve Morison who nobody else wanted. Warnock also left for Derby that month, meaning Leeds had swapped selling their captain to Norwich every summer for selling two captains to Championship rivals in the space of a month.

Wootton left even earlier, joining Rotherham on an emergency loan in November. Looking back today, I assumed that was the end of his Leeds career and he was never seen again, but he returned in January to play every minute of United’s remaining fixtures of the campaign. He was even given the number 4 shirt the following season, in which he scored the own goal that knocked Leeds out of the FA Cup at Watford. Wootton put his head in his hands, a reaction that should be reflected in the record books: when it comes to the Championship stasis post-Grayson and pre-Bielsa, fixture lists and league tables might as well be replaced by the facepalm emoji.

That was the environment Pearce had to captain Leeds United in. Hopefully now he’s retired we can remember an honest, determined centre-back trying his best, and not the clumsy defender who played in the 6-0 humiliation at Hillsborough with the tag hanging out of his shirt. During more optimistic times, like when briefly looking like play-off contenders under Brian McDermott, we could have fun with Pearce, enjoying his unexpected take on playing left wing-back in a win against Yeovil. When I interviewed Pearce’s former Charlton teammate and Leeds fan Hady Ghandour, the thought was hilarious: “Pearcey at left wing-back?! I cannot imagine that!”

But Ghandour also mentioned how much he respected Pearce as Charlton captain:

“I always speak to Pearcey about Leeds. We get along very well. He’s a great guy, a great captain. He always helps me if I’ve got any issues and gives me advice, because he was in my position at one point so he knows what to do. During his period at Leeds, we weren’t great, but I remember random games. We lost a game at Barnsley under Neil Warnock, I was in the away end with my dad and there were about 7,000 fans just swearing at the players — I ask him about games like that! He told me he’s on the Leeds United captain’s board, that’s a big honour.”

With a vacuum of leadership above him at Leeds, Pearce’s advice went as far as having to tell Sam Byram what socks to buy to wear to training (and Ross Killock to stop licking the floor), after Cellino cut back on the training kit. These days the media team at Elland Road would make sure Cooper isn’t teasing a potential deadline day signing on Twitter just in case it collapses, but Pearce was burned by Leanardo Pavoletti in the ‘Don’t go to bed yet’ fiasco after Cellino had buggered off back to Miami and left his phone on the plane. When Leeds failed to sign Pavoletti and sold Matt Smith and Dom Poleon instead, Pearce had to pretend his ‘Oooooo this is decent…..’ tweet was about watching the American crime drama Power with his wife. Perhaps an older Pearce would have dealt with allegations Giuseppe Bellusci had racially abused Cameron Jerome better than saying, “It is better if other people in the club comment on this. I don’t really feel like I need to comment on it at all, to be honest.” Bellusci was cleared, but that didn’t clear Pearce from the torment of having to partner him in defence. Even in printed copy, I can hear the weariness in Pearce’s voice when asked in an interview on the official website whether there are any similarities between him and Giuseppe:

“I think we’re quite different to be fair.

“Sometimes I don’t know what Bellusci’s going to do but he’s come up with a couple of important goals and he does go on his runs and create things. People have to fill in for him and he’s very good on the ball. Hopefully we’ll keep on improving.”

Maybe it would have been different for Pearce if he had someone with the confidence to embrace the expectation like Cooper eventually had with Pontus Jansson, who, unlike Bellusci, generally matched his bark with some bite. Pearce might have missed Coops’ wedding, but I hope they’ll get the chance to reunite if Scott Wootton has his own special day in New Zealand. They should have a lot to bond over. Not everyone can say they captained Leeds United. Even fewer can say they survived playing with Giuseppe Bellusci.