Stuart Pearce – Blast from the past | OneFootball

Stuart Pearce was a veteran and an established former England international left-back when he joined Kenny Dalglish’s Newcastle United on a free transfer from Nottingham Forest in the summer of 1997.

Stuart had began his career at non-league Wealdstone and served his apprenticeship as an electrician.

It was Bobby Gould who introduced him to full-time league football at Coventry City.

Stuart Pearce moved to Brian Clough’s Forest in 1985 and spent the best part of the next 12 years as captain at the City Ground.

In this time he captained Forest to two League Cups, a Full Members Cup and scored in the 1991 FA Cup Final defeat to Tottenham Hotspur.

Throughout his career Pearce gained a reputation for being uncompromising, as hard as nails, but he was also a fine professional and a clever reader of the game.

Pearce was also somewhat of a penalty specialist but suffered the heartbreak of missing a spot-kick against Germany in the 1990 World Cup semi-final in Turin.

He arrived at Newcastle United alongside fellow golden oldies John Barnes and Ian Rush in 1997 and Toon fans could have been forgiven for thinking that Dalglish was setting up a Dads Army.

However, aged 35, Stuart Pearce still had all the old hunger and there was still plenty of fight in the old dog yet.

During a poor 1997/98 league season, Dalglish’s side flirted with relegation, but managed to stumble all the way to the 1998 FA Cup Final.

Issue 101 – August 1997

This would be Stuart’s last chance of glory in the FA Cup but Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal were just too good and went on to clinch a glorious double.

Dalglish was gone after another awful start in the 1998/99 season and Stuart Pearce along with many others never saw eye to eye with his replacement Ruud Gullit.

Experienced players such as Stuart Pearce, Rob Lee and John Barnes were eventually discarded and sent to train with the reserves.

Stuart Pearce wasn’t going to take the arrogant and aloof Gullit behaviour and it was hardly a surprise when he left St James’ Park to join West Ham United in 1999.

He had made 37 Premier League appearances for us and his only ever Newcastle United goal was a 25 yard effort against Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League.

Stuart is now a regular pundit on sports channels and radio talk-ins and always speaks fondly of Newcastle United.

Gullit seemed intent on destroying everything Kevin Keegan had built between 1992 and 1997.