Stuart Pearce is an icon at Nottingham Forest with over a decade of service, but his arrival at the club was all down to the unique brilliance of Brian Clough.
A Forest legend in his own right, ‘Psycho’ is always praising the Forest teammates who helped him achieve greatness at the club. Particularly, Pearce hailed Roy Keane’s impact at Forest as his midfield partner.
Clough loved Keane as well, but Pearce and the boss didn’t always see eye to eye, as Pearce held a grudge against Clough for how he was treated during the 1993 season.
Of course, there was still great respect between the pair, perhaps due to the incredible, yet bizarre lengths that Clough went to sign his captain.
How Brian Clough first showed interest in Stuart Pearce
Before his move to the City Ground, Pearce began his career at Coventry City, where his talents were quickly spotted by Clough and Forest.
Speaking on the Seaman Says podcast, the 63-year-old discussed the odd way he first discovered Forest’s interest in him.
He said: “Coventry had offered me a contract, but there was no freedom of contract then, so there was no rush with players. So end of March, we played up at the City Ground against Forest and I went in to challenge Steve Wiggley, who was playing right wing for them, and both of us went down injured.
“When I looked up, this fella was treating my knee that I’d never seen before in my life. Cloughy had sent a physio on for Forest!
“He ran over and said: “What’s the problem?” I said: “My knee is killing me.” I looked up and thought, ‘Who the hell are you?’ And he went: ‘How old are you, son?’ I went: ‘22’ and he said cheers and ran off!
“Then a month after that, I was walking up Highfield Road, we were playing Liverpool at home, this would have been mid to late April.
“As I was walking up Highfield Road to go to the game, this geezer’s come up alongside me and gone: ‘You Stuart Pearce?’ I went: ‘Yeah.’ He said: ‘Do you want to sign for Forest?’ I went: ‘Yeah, alright.’ He went: ‘We’ll give you a ring’ and shot off!”
A truly odd way of showing interest, but it would only get stranger when Clough himself finally spoke to Pearce.
Stuart Pearce recalls his first phone call with Brian Clough
Clough stuck to his own unique methods and it’s hard to argue that it didn’t work for him given his place in Forest history, but you’d hardly expect to hear how he ended up signing Pearce replicated today.
Pearce continued: “It was Alan Hill, the goalkeeping coach from Forest, who rang up. I answered the phone and he said: ‘It’s Alan Hill, I talked to you going up to the game.’ I went: ‘Oh yeah, okay fine fine.’ He said: ‘I’ve got Brian on the phone for you.’
“He [Clough] comes on and just goes: ‘Do you want to play for me?’ and I went: ‘Yeah, alright,’ and he just slammed the phone down!
“That was it, and then he came and signed me in the summer for £200,000.”
An unconventional method, but one that clearly worked, as Pearce would go on to shine under Clough’s leadership. He must have been doubting the great man in the process of signing that contract, though.
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