THE STORY OF A CHARMLESS MAN (PLUS A FIVER ED ADDENDUM)
When Nigel Pearson commended his Leicester City players on their resilience in the face of constant criticism and negativity following Wednesday’s defeat at the hands of Chelsea, one young journalist asked him to provide some examples of all this non-existent carping to which he was alluding. As anyone who hasn’t had their head buried in the sand since the final whistle will almost certainly know, rather than answer the question there followed a strange and slightly sinister attempted takedown of the insolent hack, who Pearson compared to an ostrich, labelled “stupid” and went on to childishly mock before walking out in a huff. Nigel Pearson is 51.
Reaction to Big Website’s story detailing Pearson’s weird outburst has been mixed, with more than a few readers taking to the accompanying comments section to sniffily wonder why Premier League Football Manager Has Meltdown In Press Conference even constitutes “news”. Indeed, with a general election looming and all manner of far more interesting things going on in the world, our thanks go out to those people for taking their fingers off The Pulse for long enough to help rocket this tedious and in-no-way entertaining anecdote into the top 10 most-read articles across Big Website.
Other readers have taken to the comments section to write in praise of Pearson and his juvenile bully-boy tactics in the face of a perfectly legitimate line of questioning from a young man trying to do his job for the benefit of people like them, which probably tells you all you need to know about the attitudes of many people who post anonymously on the internet. Unlike them, Pearson at least had the good grace to do his bullying in person, although he may regret his actions now he’s seen how poorly they’ve been been received.
Long after the time of writing, the Leicester City manager was due to give another press conference ahead of his side’s win over Newcastle this weekend, so we can only guess that he apologised for behaving like a sadistic PE teacher and hope that Fiver Ed adds a suitable addendum to this story accordingly. Of course there’s also a very good chance Leicester’s manager will have gone off another one, embarking on some strange metaphor involving other animal kingdom myths, such as that hoary classic about turkeys being so stupid they drown if left out in the rain. “I don’t like all the aspects of what I do and am, or things I’ve done, but you’ve got to live with it,” said Pearson in a recent Big Paper interview. Live with it or bury your head in the sand.
[Fiver Ed addendum: today in headlines you didn’t expect to read … ‘Leicester manager Nigel Pearson has apologised to the journalist who he called an ostrich.’]
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“He somersaulted three or four times before running up to the Bradford supporters, shaking his fist in a ‘w@nker’ gesture at them. He was taken off the pitch by stewards and arrested” – Louise Attrill, prosecuting, on football fan Charlie Sumner, who ran on to a pitch t0pless and performed some low-rent circus tricks during an FA Cup match, which today earned him a three-year banning order.
FIVER LETTERS
“If Nigel Pearson is as flexible as he says he is, he can probably put his head up his own backside, never mind the sand, which maybe explains why he talks out of it so often. I hope Leicester stay up, if only for the off-pitch entertainment” – Kevin Denham.
“Continuing the Daniel Sturridge-shaped hole theme further still (Fiver letters passim), surely the size, and not the shape, of the hole is the important factor here? I’d argue that Daniel would struggle to ‘fall through’ a quarter-size facsimile of his lithe frame, yet could easily fit through a 10x-magnified holey representation of Ruel Fox or Andy Sinton” – David Lambert.
“Re: the Charlie Austin bin situation (yesterday’s Fiver letters). As a young Brentford fan I used to take great pleasure in suggesting that QPR stood for Quarter Pound o’Rubbish (I thought this made sense/was amusing at the time). This seems somewhat more relevant now, albeit just as unfunny” – James Thompson.
“Can I call dibs on all future shotgun-related issues [Fiver letters passim]?” – Ashley Gilbert.
• Send your letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. And if you’ve nothing better to do you can also tweet the Fiver. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’the day is: David Lambert.
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BITS AND BOBS
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And Club América have maintained Mexico’s perfect record in winning Concacaf Big Cup, having seen off Montreal Impact 5-3 on aggregate.
STILL WANT MORE?
This week’s Classic YouTube features the Keegan helicopter, goalkeeping heroics and team-mate fisticuffery.
José Mourinho and the issue of ‘boring’ and ‘immoral’ football. Sounds like one for Jonathan Wilson.
Paolo Bandini reports on the latest goings-on in Serie A.
The Premier League’s top four may be done and dusted … and not just for this season, scaremongers David Hytner.
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Oh, and if it’s your thing … you can follow Big Website on Big Social FaceSpace.
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