3-day trial saw Hull City miss out on England, Nottingham Forest hero: View | OneFootball

Stuart Pearce is one of the biggest cult heroes of a certain generation when it comes to English football.

'Psycho', as the left-back came to be known throughout his career, was an extremely successful defender for an array of clubs, none other than Nottingham Forest, as well as being a key cog in the England national team set up for many years.

Meanwhile, at a time when the England team were able to spread mass positivity across the nation in the summers of 1990 and 1996 in particular, the feeling that surrounded Hull City was one of despair, as in the year when Terry Venables' side - including Pearce - reached the semi-final of the European Championships, the Tigers were preparing for life back in Division Three - now League Two.

The Tigers' history up to that point had been extremely chequered to say the least, but rolling the clock back to 1979, they were tantalisingly close from securing the services of the future Three Lions stalwart.

Stuart Pearce's trial period at Boothferry Park

Born in West London, Pearce had already failed a trial at Queens Park Rangers at the age of 13, before the next chance of joining a professional outfit arose four years later, in the form of the East Yorkshire outfit.

Hull had just endured their first season in what is now League One since 1966, whilst Pearce had broken through at Non-League Wealdstone FC, who he would go on to represent over 100 times.

The 62-year-old, who now often works as a pundit, has since confessed his tale of events which would see him and his teammate, John Watson, reject a move to Boothferry Park after a three-day trial despite impressing then-boss Mike Smith, as the former Wales manager was in charge between 1979 and 1982.

"I was in the first team with Wealdstone and the opportunity come from Hull for myself and John Watson to go on trial," Pearce told Wealdstone's official channels back in 2019.

"The pair of us spent three days up there at Hull; we played in a reserve game against Grimsby."

"At the end of the three days, the manager (Smith) wanted to take us up there and I was even offered a job on the Humberside council to carry on my electrician apprenticeship," he added.

"It just seemed a very long way away from home for me at the time," the full-back stated. "I just felt at the time, it wasn't for me...I turned it down. I was fortunate that a few years later, a move (to Coventry) did turn out for me."

Hull City's left-back option at the time

Although it may have taken Pearce a reasonable amount of time to adjust to a completely new environment at just a young age, perhaps there is a chance that he could've broken into the first team under Smith in a quick period.

City's main option at left-back across the 1979/80 campaign came in the form of Willerby-born Roger DeVries, who made his debut for the club nine years previous, and had made over 300 senior appearances for his local side at the start of the 1979/80 season.

He would then feature in 34 of the 46 Division 3 outings for the Tigers that campaign, but it was one which would start the nadir in the club's history - at that point anyway, finishing 20th in the third tier, before being relegated the following campaign. Meanwhile, DeVries was given a free transfer to Blackburn Rovers, which, in hindsight, gives you a sense of what if? had Pearce took the option to move over 200 miles north.

However true that may be, it's hard to begrudge the left-back for what he went onto achieve for an array of clubs as well as the national team.

Pearce would eventually leave Wealdstone for Coventry City in a £30,000 deal in 1983, before joining Nottingham Forest under Brian Clough just two years later.

It's on the banks of the River Trent where he made a name for himself, winning the EFL Cup twice and a Full Members Cup, with the majority of his Forest career spent as club captain, which included netting in the 1991 FA Cup Final, having scored 16 times in 49 appearances across all competitions that season too.

However, he's also notoriously remembered for his role in two penalty shootouts for England. Firstly, in 'Italia 90' under Sir Bobby Robson and Euro 96 under Venables on home soil.

Pearce was one of two players to miss in the Three Lions' infamous World Cup semi-final defeat in Turin to West Germany, after which he was reduced to tears, before redeeming himself in a 4-2 spot-kick success against Spain at Wembley six years later, prompting the lyrics"and 'Psycho' screaming" in Baddiel, Skinner and The Lightning Seeds' remake of 'Three Lions' prior to the 1998 World Cup.

The full-back would represent his country on no less than 78 occasions between 1987 and 1999.

Whilst there's no guarantee that his career would've panned out in such iconic fashion, it is one of many 'near misses' in the transfer market from a Hull City point of view.