Pearce avoids doom and gloom after stormy week

After a week that saw Shaun Wright-Phillips sign for Chelsea and Joey Barton sent home from the club’s pre-season trip to Thailand in disgrace, Manchester City manager Stuart Pearce dismissed the difficulties of the last seven days.

For a man in his first stint as a Premier League manager, Pearce has had a week that would have turned the hair of lesser men a whiter shade of grey.

But the former England defender was virtually unfazed by recent events, which have seen City dominate the headlines.

“To be honest I don’t see it as being a tough week,” said Pearce. “I was disappointed with Joey but that’s something we’ve put to bed now and I will speak to the chairman and the rest of the board and decide how we take that situation forward.”

Barton was sent home on Friday evening after an altercation in the hotel bar in the early hours of Friday morning with a 15-year-old Everton fan that saw the midfielder also lash out at team mate Richard Dunne.

The Liverpool-born 22-year-old faces disciplinary action and is almost certain to lose at least two weeks wages after the club handed him a suspended fine following an incident at a Christmas party in December that saw him jab a lit cigar into the eye of City reserve team player Jamie Tandy.

The bar room fracas returned City to the spotlight after the sale of Wright-Phillips on Monday, the right-sided midfielder joining Chelsea in a deal that netted the debt-ridden club £21m (€30.3m). But Pearce remains upbeat.

“Teams transfer players all the time,” he said. “I just think the Shaun situation will free me up money to go and get two or three players that will make my squad even stronger in a month’s time. So in some ways it’s a way forward for me. I don’t see it as total doom and gloom.”

Pearce left Thailand in a positive frame of mind and believes the last week’s ups and downs will bring the squad closer together as they go into the new Premier League season.

“We have been fantastically well looked after here,” he said. “Apart from the incident during the week our football club have given a great account of themselves. I would like to thank the Thai people for their hospitality and I have got a lot of positives out of what we have done.

“It’s drawn our squad tighter together that little bit of adversity during the week. The players have got to know each other a bit better and for me it’s been a good week.”