Latest news with #StuartPearce
Yahoo
a day ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Manchester City Urged To Move In For This Crystal Palace Defender: Should Pep Go For Him?
In a recent interview with Sports Mole, Stuart Pearce urged his former club to move in for Crystal Palace defender Marc Guehi this summer. Pearce said, 'When they won the Champions League a couple of years ago, I think they won it on being very, very tough to score against. 'That was their key that season. Everything fell into place. 'The back four was pretty consistent and played extremely well together. Kyle Walker dealt with any problems. They had that extra bit at the back. That was their strong card. 'It does worry me a little bit. If I was in their situation, Marc Guehi would be one I would go after. I'm a big fan of this kid. He's got the ability to deal with things one-on-one on the counter-attack. 'You've got to be good at that if you're a Manchester City player in the expansive way they play. But if anything's going to be their Achilles heel, it's going to be that back line again.' Guehi's Impressive Form In English Football Last Season The English defensive ace had a solid campaign at the London club after he put in a string of impressive displays for them on the defensive third of the pitch. Guehi deserves a ton of credit for helping Crystal Palace win the FA Cup last season. He netted three times and picked up a couple of assists in 44 appearances for the Eagles in the previous campaign across various competitions. LONDON, ENGLAND – MARCH 24: Marc Guehi of England during the FIFA World Cup 2026 European Qualifier between England and Latvia at Wembley Stadium on March 24, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by) The 25-year-old was a rock at the back and did well to make 61 tackles, 55 blocks and 28 interceptions in Premier League football. Guehi was even tidy when distributing possession after completing 83.5% of his attempted passes in the English first division (stats via Should Manchester City Boss Pep Guardiola Go For Guehi? Guehi is a solid tackler of the ball and can scan the danger well to earn the ball back for his team inside his half. He doesn't mind clearing the danger when required and can play his way out from the back. Guehi would add a lot of quality to Manchester City head coach Pep Guardiola's defence. He is good enough to secure a regular starting place at the Etihad Stadium next season. At 25, Guehi has his peak years ahead of him which makes him an excellent option for the Mancunian giants to pursue this summer. Hence, Guardiola should focus on listening to Pearce's advice by going for a defender of his skill set this off-season.
The Sun
2 days ago
- Sport
- The Sun
‘A hell of a lot tougher than I am' – Lucy Bronze given ultimate praise by Stuart Pearce after playing with broken leg
IT'S official: Lucy Bronze is even tougher than England's hardest full-back Stuart Pearce. So says the man himself, who was blown away by Bronze's revelation after winning the Euros that she had played the entire tournament with a fractured tibia. 4 4 4 Three Lions legend Pearce famously tried to 'run off' a broken leg for ten minutes while playing for West Ham against Watford in 1999. Yet Bronze living up to her middle name of 'Tough' and ignoring the pain to help the Lionesses get over the line left the 63-year-old in awe. The man affectionately nicknamed Psycho told SunSport: 'It's obviously proved she's a hell of a lot tougher than I am, that is for sure! 'She's got incredible determination. On occasion she went down injured and you thought that was her done and she's coming off the pitch. She went back on again. 'Subsequently it appears she's had this problem with her tibia which is a real problem. To get through that shows great guts, great courage and says a hell of a lot about her.' Chelsea defender Bronze, 33, was an integral part of England's squad, which achieved a second successive Euros title as they vanquished Spain on penalties on Sunday. Pearce, synonymous with pride in playing for the Three Lions badge, saw kindred spirits all over Sarina Wiegman's determined squad for their passion to represent their nation. And he was impressed with their resilience when withstanding heavy pressure against the Spanish, and in the dramatic comeback win over Italy in the semi-final. BEST ONLINE CASINOS - TOP SITES IN THE UK The Euros 96 star added: 'They were magnificent. Every interview that any of them gave and all their performances echoed a group that were passionate to represent their country. 'It filled me with pride to see, to be honest with you. 'The ability to stay in games is a real quality in football, when you're being outplayed and the opposition are on top, to maintain your focus and wrestle momentum back. 'We talk about the quality and the technique of players all the time, but to have the courage and the togetherness to do that, I think was their ace card over this summer.' Pearce hailed Wiegman's coaching acumen throughout the tournament, particularly her substitutions and handling of Bronze's fitness. He said that if the Dutchwoman were ever interested in managing in the men's game, her CV proves she would be more than capable of making the transition. The former Nottingham Forest boss added: 'Football management is football management. 'I don't see it as outlandish that a woman could come into the men's game at the highest level, I really don't. Not with her CV because it stands alongside anybody else's. 'Whether that's a career path that she's looked at at any given time (is unclear). What I see at the moment is somebody who really enjoys the job she's in at present. 'The FA would be stupid to let her walk out at any time soon. When you've got someone of that high quality that is delivering trophies, you've got to say credit to them. 'The recruitment was wonderful in the first place. But somewhere down the line, if she went into the men's game, I think she would be successful.' After the Lionesses' triumph, as well as the men's Under-21s' own Euros glory earlier this summer, it is now over to the men's senior team to keep the good times rolling at the World Cup in a year's time. Pearce added: 'All of a sudden as a men's senior player, you're thinking 'I've got to emulate that'. 'This is the standard that the FA and England have set now and we've got to be part of it.'
The Sun
4 days ago
- Sport
- The Sun
Broken bones, bloodied noses and never-say-die spirit… and this lot win trophies too – Lionesses are pride of England
STUART PEARCE was lauded for trying to 'run off' a broken leg for ten minutes while playing for West Ham against Watford in 1999. After England's Lionesses successfully defended their Euros crown, Lucy Bronze revealed she had played throughout the tournament with a fractured shinbone. 6 It's not scientifically true that women have higher pain thresholds than men. But the full-back — whose full name is genuinely Lucy Roberta Tough Bronze — clearly isn't bound by such trivialities as medical science. Keeper Hannah Hampton - who was told she could never be a professional footballer due to an eye condition - is another Lioness who laughs in the face of the doctoring profession. Hampton suffered a nosebleed and played with a tampon up one nostril during the quarter-final victory over Sweden — drawing comparison with Terry Butcher's blood- spattered England shirt while facing the same nation in a 1989 World Cup qualifier. England played 360 minutes of knockout football at these Euros and led for less than five of them — roaring back from behind in all three fixtures. So while Joey Barton and a dwindling number of Sid The Sexists on social media continue to howl the word 'woke' at the moon, it's hilarious the Lionesses have triumphed thanks to the attributes traditionally regarded as the strengths of the English men's game. Physical bravery, stoicism, never-say-die spirit. Three comebacks, two penalty shootouts, broken bones and blooded noses. England are queens of Europe England legend Lucy Bronze reveals she played whole tournament with a broken leg Player ratings - see how the Lionesses rated against Spain England's finest in wild celebrations on the pitch Chloe Kelly steals the show after scoring winning goal in TWO Euros finals Eagle-eyed fans stunned at where England keeper hid her penalty 'cheat sheet' Joyous Princess Charlotte celebrates with dad William after watching from the stands And this lot actually win trophies, too. Unlike in the last Euros on home soil in 2022, England weren't the best team in the tournament — that was runners-up Spain. England's Lionesses depart Zurich following their Euro 2025 victory There was some pleasing sour grapery among the beaten finalists about English 'luckiness'. But when you keep on doing something over and over again, it can never be down to luck. England prevailed because they were mentally and physically tougher than any other side. They became the first English senior team to win a major tournament on foreign soil and they drew the highest TV audience of the year. Women's football is now an integral part of the national sporting landscape and that is a tribute to everyone who has helped to promote it during the move into professionalism over the past couple of decades. There have been elements of positive discrimination in this. For a while, the game was over- exposed by the FA and much of the media, in comparison to the numbers of those who paid to watch it. But anyone uncomfortable with this needs to remember that women's football was banned in this country for half a century until 1971. 6 6 Which sounds as weird as the fact beer was banned in Iceland — the nation, not the freezer shop — until 1989. But it legitimises all of the efforts to grow the women's game, which is now increasingly able to stand on its own feet. European club champions Arsenal have attracted sell-out crowds of 60,000 for matches at the Emirates. And, from this coming season, they will hold all of their Women's Super League fixtures at the club's stadium, which will boost their average gate of 29,000. Watching a women's match live is a family-friendly experience, with the anger and hatred of the men's game largely absent. The game is different, the atmosphere is different, comparisons are tiresome and needless. Nobody feels the need to distinguish between men's and women's events when tallying up the gold medals won at an Olympics. Keely Hodgkinson didn't have to suffer any sniping that she wouldn't have qualified for the men's 800m final when she won gold in Paris last summer, because women's athletics has been established over decades. Women's football is reaching a similar status. 6 And manager Sarina Wiegman has ensured we will never again see a 'big name' man like Phil Neville parachuted into the women's game to coach the Lionesses. After a promising start, Neville quit in 2021 after a run of seven defeats in 11 matches. The women's game will never be patronised in such a way in future. As part of this process, BBC TV pundits have sounded less like cheerleaders than in previous women's tournaments. And there wasn't much media soft-soaping of the Lionesses when they opened their Euros campaign with a deserved defeat by France. This is as it should be. We are talking about elite international competition, not a school sports day. Chloe Kelly — the scorer of England's final winner against Germany three years ago, as well as the clinching penalty in Sunday's shoot-out in Basel — is a hugely likeable character. 6 6 But there is nothing nicey-nicey about her on the pitch. Criticised by Spanish media for the cockiness of her celebrations, here is the kind of supremely confident player any team needs in the intense environment of tournament football. She marked England's latest success by sniping at critics on social media. And all of her team-mates will have similar stories. Some of them started out at a time when the idea of girls playing football was seen as unusual. Such ideas are fading into distant history. Kelly, Hampton, Bronze and Co are rarely referred to as 'trailblazers' and 'pioneers' any more, because the trailblazing and pioneering has been done. Now they are simply regarded as habitual winners and champions. NEW DRAMA THIS sort of thing isn't supposed to happen to Newcastle United anymore. The club's Saudi takeover should have ended the days of a star like Alexander Isak demanding a move. Should we be pleased Profit and Sustainability Rules have hampered the Geordie Arabia revolution? That depends if you're more bothered about the competitiveness of a title race or the widespread human-rights abuses of those bankrolling the club. STICKY WICKET ENGLAND'S bowlers managed just two wickets in the last 142 overs of the drawn Fourth Test against India. The series has been compelling at times but the combination of flat batting tracks and a schedule with little breathing space, means both teams will be dead on their feet heading into Thursday's decider at The Oval. As in every other sport, there is little thought for player welfare when there are TV schedules to be packed. SPURRED OFF TOTTENHAM'S Europa League success, and subsequent Champions League qualification, was supposed to make them a des res for players in this summer's transfer market. Yet their failure to land two leading targets, Morgan Gibbs-White and Bryan Mbeumo, shows there are no longer any easy pickings when attempting to raid Premier League rivals. Especially when you finished last season in 17th place. AUSSIE WHINES SO SWEET AUSTRALIAN rugby union may be down at heel, with the British & Irish Lions' tour Down Under far lower in profile than most such trips. And yet the series win by boss Andy Farrell and his crew, secured by a mighty comeback in Melbourne, remained a reason to be cheerful. Because there is nothing so magical in sport than the sound of whingeing, defeated Aussies. SMALL WONDER I SPENT my Friday night in Ballybofey, Co Donegal which, with a population of around 5,000, is reckoned to be the smallest town in Britain and Ireland to host league football. Ballybofey's Finn Harps drew 2-2 with Roy Keane's ex-club, Cobh Ramblers, in an entertaining and refreshingly honest match. Also, you could pop to the local at half-time for a pint of the black stuff without anyone checking your ticket on the way back in.
Daily Mirror
4 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mirror
'I've played football with broken leg - my heart scare on plane didn't worry me'
Stuart Pearce infamously broke his leg but played on in 1999 (Image: Jamie McDonald /Allsport) Severe chest pains and a searing heart rate at 30,000 feet is enough to traumatise anybody. Yet, for Stuart Pearce, the former England captain affectionately known as 'Psycho', there was no out-of-body experience nor life-changing lesson to be learned. 'Terminator' may have been a more suitable nickname for Pearce, who has a history of treating debilitating pain as a mild inconvenience. In March, before hopping on a flight from Las Vegas to London, the ex-Manchester City and Nottingham Forest defender felt increasing pain within his chest. Not to make a fuss, he planned to sleep it off during his journey back across the pond. The pain did not ease and before he knew it, the plane was diverting to Newfoundland, Canada, where he would spend five days in hospital. A virus had caused his heart rate to soar to 155 beats per minute, a hugely dangerous and life-threatening speed. In hospital, his heart was stopped and then restarted to bring its speed back to normal levels. But despite the most terrifying of all health scares taking place at the worst possible moment, Pearce told Mirror Football that his old school mentality helped him through. He said: "I am very matter-of-fact, to be honest with you. "Even at the time, because my family have got no medical history of heart problems, I almost went through with a, 'Right, I'm in your hands. Get on with it. What do you need me to do?' mentality. "I'm very matter-of-fact as a person. I've always been like that. It has served me well to be fair. I do not overthink things. That's been the case. Pearce opened up about his heart scare in March (Image: Richard Pelham - The FA/The FA via Getty Image) "I've probably tried to use it, when I can, to help other people, if you like, to make sure they get themselves checked out regularly. I've got the League Managers' Association (LMA), which I am a member of. They go through a lot of medical checks. "I had a heart check last summer as well. Regularly, I get checked up as well anyway. I know I am on top of these things. I'd like to turn round and say, because it would be a better story, that I have had a life-changing experience, but I am not wired that way." Barely a fortnight after his huge health scare, Pearce was back to work, commentating on England's narrow 2-0 victory over Albania. He has never been one to wallow in his own pain. Even a broken leg was not enough to stop him from finishing a half of football. Stuart Pearce was back commentating barely two weeks after his scare (Image: 2025 Crystal Pix/MB Media) In September 1999, playing for West Ham against Watford at the start of the Premier League campaign, Pearce went in for a characteristically hard challenge against Micah Hyde. The bruising and powerful nature of the challenge gave the 78-cap ex-England international a limp for the rest of the match. In Pearce's mind, it was no drama. 'Just run it off,' he said to himself. He came out of the challenge assuming he had broken his shin pad. He had actually broken his leg. "I went in for a challenge and I thought my shin pad had cracked, because I had heard a cracking noise," he said. "But it was my bone, rather than my shin pad. Stuart Pearce's toughness was iconic during his playing career (Image: Phil Cole/ALLSPORT) "I fractured my tibia just before half-time. I came to the side of the pitch. I hadn't realised. I knew it was painful, but you don't realise that, near enough, the bone has gone right through. "I tried to ice it at half-time, not knowing, thinking it was just a bang on my shin bone. When I tried to run in the tunnel to loosen it up a little bit, I knew full well something was not quite right at that stage when the adrenaline stopped pumping. "We all have a slightly different pain threshold, and when you are involved in football, sometimes, bizarrely, you can get away with doing things you couldn't in everyday life. I put mine down to a little bit of ignorance and not knowing that my shin bone was broken." Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. Sky Sports discounted Premier League and EFL package Sky has slashed the price of its Essential TV and Sky Sports bundle ahead of the 2025/26 season, saving members £192 and offering more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more. Sky will show at least 215 live Premier League games next season, an increase of up to 100 more.
Times
19-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
The academy players with more YouTube fans than game's biggest stars
They are famous footballers with millions of fans, watched live by thousands every week. Some earn big money — well above the national average — and attract sponsorship deals from prestigious international brands. It is not only their skills that are in demand. Holidays, haircuts, homework — it all makes waves, with every detail made public. After all, the aim is not to shut down, but to open up. These are not Premier League stars, but academy footballers, telling the world about their climb to the top. For a long time, the game's youngsters kept their heads down as they made their way up the ranks. Stuart Pearce had to play in secret for his mates' team as a boy, by adopting a fake name and hiding away as a goalkeeper. Inside training grounds, scrubbing the pros' boots with brushes was about as close as the kids came to stardom. At Manchester United, under Sir Alex Ferguson in the 1990s, the youth coaches in charge of the Class of '92 had a well-rehearsed riposte for any teenager believed to be getting above their station: 'When you've played 50 league games for the first team,' they said. 'That's when you can consider yourself a player.' Fifty league games? How about 50,000 subscribers on YouTube, where a swell of academy players are broadcasting their talent, lifestyle and character on camera. Search 'academy footballer' online and swathes of clips can be tapped and scrolled, with titles such as 'Day in the life of an academy footballer' (217,000 views), 'How an academy footballer trains for pre-season' (281,000) and '10 Things an Academy Footballer Can't Live Without' (64,000). Some accounts are focused on football — matches, sessions, career decisions — but not all. Many also offer invented games and challenges, or lift the lid entirely on their everyday lives, with trips to the barbers or a run-down of what's for breakfast. Many of these emerging players are hugely popular, while a select few boast followings to rival even the biggest names in the game. Lorenzo Greer, 16, has just been offered a two-year scholarship at Birmingham City, and his 'Tekkerz kid' YouTube channel, which he started aged six, now has 1.7 million subscribers — more than double Jude Bellingham's 896,000 — with his 651 videos attracting more than 492 million views. Tashall Sandhu, YouTube name 'Tash Baller', has 220,000 subscribers, with videos of him playing for Wolverhampton Wanderers Under-13 and celebrating 100,000 subscribers aged nine. Faran Ahmad, who plays for Leicester City Under-12, uploads near-daily home videos with a total of 7.6 million views. One of Ahmad's most watched videos — 'Come Shop With Me (academy player)' — is of him on a visit to Sports Direct. There are many, many more. The devotion of kids to a virtual world, at such a young age, will be enough to make many wince. That some accounts were created by parents, with mum or dad behind the camera, will set alarm bells ringing about expectation, exposure and pressure. For those who don't turn professional — and only one in 200 academy players in England do — there is a danger the feeling of failure will be painfully public. Hugo Scheckter, who has worked in player care at West Ham United and Southampton and whose company, The Player Care Group, has helped more than ten Premier League clubs, believes big social media profiles are 'not needed and not appropriate' for footballers younger than about 15. 'The difficulty comes where it's parents or agents pushing them into it,' Scheckter says. 'They build up the kids as superstars and the kids don't want to let their parents down. It can be ten years of their life where they're footballer, footballer, footballer, when actually they're just child, child, child. Maybe for the elite ones who make it, that might be useful. For the other 99 per cent, it's pretty harmful.' Clubs are still finding their way too, unsure about how to handle this growing band of players with more videos than appearances. At one of the top Premier League clubs, staff created a cluster of fake accounts, which were designed to follow and interact with the players in order 'to understand them better'. But they cancelled the operation after deciding the 'show pony' impression created by their players' dealings on social media wasn't a fair reflection of their real personalities. At another club, there have been disagreements over the best approach. One senior figure recalled a meeting when he had to say to colleagues: 'Do we want footballers or influencers?' Another executive admitted their club were still grappling how to respond: 'We understand it's happening, but is pushing back the right thing to do? It's like a parent, it scares the life out of you some of things they do, but do you ban it? Do you cover your eyes and wish it wasn't happening?' The question is whether that fear is well-founded, given the actual experiences of some of the players. Greer, the 16-year-old Birmingham apprentice with more subscribers than Bellingham, talks confidently on the phone for half an hour. He is so relaxed, you wonder what all the fuss is about. 'It's just fun isn't it?' he says. 'I don't see it as a job, it's something I love to do and it helps me connect with other kids. They can relate to me because I'm still a kid as well.' He hasn't masked his low moments either. 'The pressure sometimes of having to be perfect… because 90 per cent of the kids I was playing against watched my videos so they wanted to show they were better than me or hurt me on the pitch,' he says. 'I've had bad patches. But I spoke to my dad, spoke to my coaches and my confidence came back. We often spoke about it on YouTube. I'd speak to my dad about it on camera. We shared it with the viewers. The viewers are like our family and they were supportive.' Greer says his dad, Nathan, launched his YouTube account when he was six, with a video about a new pair of boots, and the two of them have a joint channel called '90+2', where they talk about football together. 'When me and my wife started the channel, it had nothing to do with getting popular or making money, I didn't even know you could monetise a video on YouTube,' Nathan says. 'Daniel Radcliffe was Harry Potter and nobody says to his parents, 'What are you doing?' For some reason when it's social media and football, it's like, 'Is this fair on the kids?' In my case, it's perfectly fair. It's a good balance. It works for us.' In 2019, Greer was flown out to Turin for a Nike campaign with Cristiano Ronaldo. 'He's had crazy opportunities most boys could only dream of and I'm very proud of him,' Nathan says. 'For this next generation of kids, it's becoming normal. Everyone is a YouTuber now, everyone is famous now and less people will judge people for it.' Young players also believe influence online gives them a safety net, inside or outside of the game. They talk about the confidence gained from performing regularly on camera and the skills learnt in creating and editing videos. Financially, the more successful academy YouTubers can earn over £40,000 a year for their content, with one agent insisting their teenager had saved enough to buy a house. Even within football, players released by clubs see their channels as ready-made brochures for their skills and personality, an interactive CV for potential recruiters. Ben Brookes, who was released by West Ham at 13 and has just joined York City, said his YouTube channel, 'Road to Full Time Ball', now with 10.2k subscribers, helped resurrect his career. 'I just thought I'm going to start recording myself,' Brookes told the Beyond Football Podcast. 'As well as helping others on our journey, it also allows us to self-promote. If a manager wants you, it's more about your footballing ability, but if you're a leader, if you're confident, they love stuff like that.' Many clubs are already encouraging players to branch out. At Brighton & Hove Albion, where they give workshops on social media to players and parents from under-nines and up, Shona Richards from the player care department says trainees have also taken up language, piano and plumbing classes, while Scheckter explains how one footballer he worked with developed an enthusiasm for drawing by joining an oil painting club. 'A lot of them have amazing stories and can be real inspirations,' Richards says. 'We want them to be proud of that, while understanding the risks and getting the balance right.' For those mature enough, some clubs believe YouTube can be another string to their bow, a very modern way for academy players to expand their portfolio while enjoying an escape from the seriousness of football. In a game often criticised for failing to provide a safe landing ground for discarded youngsters, some kids are taking their own steps, by swapping the boot-cleaning brushes for a ball, tripod and camera.
