Talk Is Cheap
Jamie Barnard on how Nigel Pearson's dignified silence has set the tone for his Leicester City side's promotion push...
A rebuff, a refusal, a rejection. Interviewing
Nigel Pearson must be no easy task. Pearson is a man of few words and no plainer
has this been than in recent weeks. Through the times in which it seemed any
old Tom, Dick and Harry was talking about his job, Pearson closed rank and
those stiff lips remained firmly fastened.
Pearson does his talking on the pitch and his team
is his mouthpiece.
Delivering the boldest of statements, his
Leicester City charges delivered a fifth consecutive league win against Bristol
City to, albeit briefly, climb to the summit of The Championship table. Whilst
people were talking Pearson’s side up, convincing wins were the substance amid
such chatter, lifting Leicester City up the table.
Rewind little under a week and within hours of
that fourth, emphatic, straight win at Huddersfield - in which The Foxes
converted two of their eighteen shots and limited their hosts to just three – a
national newspaper rolled out a match report proclaiming that, in spite of such
feats, Harry Redknapp would still be filling those boots not yet parched from
touchline rain in West Yorkshire.
A penny for Pearson’s thoughts.
Talk is cheap, but Pearson’s words are limited
edition. He is a man who refuses to speculate and not even Leicester’s millionaire
Thai owners would have riches deep enough to prize from Pearson more than a
branding of such speak as a “minor irritant”. His is a soliloquy of high value.
Such a quality is a commodity in the modern
football world. In the very same week as Pearson’s dignified silence, those of
higher standing were left speechless as care-free mutterings came back to haunt
them. Tongues were wagging.
And Ashley Cole, never found left wanting for
words, took to Twitter to criticise the FA’s latest ramblings in the long,
drawn-out John Terry racism case. Miserly Cole’s one hundred and forty
characters may have been, but the financial consequences of ‘the Twittersphere’
have never been so grand. Albeit a drop in the ocean of Cole’s wealth, the
misconduct charge he now faces will likely being with it a hefty fine.
Hash tag: costly.
But Nigel Pearson is not a man of the new age.
From the old school he graduated and to him Twitter is, as the rumour that
besmirches it, simply cheep. The fruits of his labour more scouting network
than social network one might deduce.
They say a picture paints a thousand words and the
one painted at The King Power Stadium last Saturday should carry greater sway
with the club’s owners than any careless whisper with which they may have
solicited Redknapp in rumoured meetings. ‘Don’t Go Martin’ stuff this was not,
but a vocal demonstration of support for Pearson rolled from the terraces surrounding
the pitch with the smooth flow of the table-topping football being played on it.
A message to anxious owners delivered. Received,
loud and clear.
Leicester City now walk the walk, and the mark of
the man is found in the essence of a Pearson side that has quietly strung together
a run of consecutive wins which threatens to rival the all-time club record of
seven. Impenetrable, unnerved, restrained. For that old Leicester City confidante
the nearly man, the cold shoulder has never felt cooler.
As they head into the winter months sterner tests
will no doubt lie ahead. Trips to Birmingham City, Watford and Bolton lay on
the horizon. The eulogy may yet be premature. But that early season indicator of
ten games has arrived. If the declaration it makes is anything to go by then,
come May, Leicester City and Nigel Pearson will be more than just the talk of
the town.
Credit nicksarebi via Flickr for Hodgson photo
Credit hst43077 via Flickr for Pearson photo
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