Pearce prepared for long haul at City

NEW Manchester City boss Stuart Pearce took up the reins at Eastlands yesterday and said: “Judge me on eight years - not eight games.”

The former England skipper will lead City into their UEFA Cup qualifier with Middlesbrough on Sunday knowing he will remain in the job for the next two years.

Blues chairman John Wardle took the academic step of confirming Pearce as the permanent successor to Kevin Keegan at an official sponsors’ lunch yesterday, just before a memorial was unveiled to the most successful manager in the club’s history, Joe Mercer.

Although, in these cash-driven days Pearce is unlikely to bring City the same success as Mercer enjoyed in the late 1960s and early ‘70s, he has already transformed a club which appeared to be heading nowhere in Keegan’s last weeks.

With four wins and three draws from his opening eight games, Pearce has already become the first City boss to claim a Premiership manager of the month award and knows victory over Boro will almost certainly earn their first qualification into Europe for almost three decades.

But much as Pearce is getting the credit for the Blues’ best run of results since 1994, he is adamant he is in the job for the long term and is not interested in short-term success.

“I want to be successful as a football manager, make no mistake about that,” said the former England captain.

“I’m not here for two or three months, I am here for the long term.

“As a player I did not want to be judged on a couple of games but on 10 or 20 years. I am the same as a manager.

“It is in 10 years’ time that I want people to look back and see what kind of a job I have done.”

Wardle admitted it was not just City’s on-field performances that had got him the job but also the way 43-year-old has conducted himself behind the scenes.

Celtic boss Martin O’Neill and highly-rated Crystal Palace chief Iain Dowie had both been earmarked as early contenders to succeed Keegan, who brought City back into the Premiership and established them as a top-flight club again during his three-and-a-half years in charge.

However any other contenders have been cast aside by Pearce, whose appointment has the unanimous backing of the City players and their long-suffering supporters.

Wardle explained: “I am delighted he has got the job.

“Stuart told me that from day one he would run the club as if he was in the job forever. That is exactly what he has done and that is part of the reason why we have had no hesitation in confirming him for the rest of the season and beyond.”