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Stuart Pearce looks capable of making the sparks fly in more ways than one
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Stuart Pearce looks capable of making the sparks fly in more ways than one
Stuart Pearce looks capable of making the sparks fly in more ways than one. Here is is pictured with his landlady Stella Rogers, mending her toaster. On the field this 21- year-old from Shepherds Bush is already emerging as the discovery of the season after his remark-able jump from non-League football to the First Division. Off the field he is a qualified electrician who during a three-year apprenticeship made a few unusual discoveries of his own. Like a dead rat at the back of a cooker. " We had been called in because the cooker was not working and for a time could not fathom out what was wrong. Then when we moved the cooker we found a dead rat at the back of it. The rat had bitten through one of the electric cables killing itself and putting the cooker out of action, " recalls Pearce. But for the dramatic intervention of Coventry City manager Bobby Gould young Pearce could still be making finds such as that. Gould plucked him from the obscurity of non-League soccer at Wealdstone and his job with Brent council to offer him full-time employment as a professional footballer for the Sky Blues. And in his first three matches for City left-back Pearce has shown the sort of ability and quality which had had everyone asking how he could have been hidden for as long in non-League football. Pearce supplies the answer. " I always fancied being a full-time professional but I wanted to make sure I qualified for another trade first. " Now I m even more pleased that I didn t go straight into football at 16 because I think I ve learned more about life. " When I left school I took a job in a warehouse as a casual labourer where I spent most of my time humping packages and boxes about. But it was a job where you had to clock in and if you were late your pay was docked. That teaches you a thing or two about disciplining yourself. " During this time my sister Pamela suggested to me that I should go on a day-release course to the technical college. " I took her advice and studied to become an electrician. My brother Ray was an electrician with Brent council and I think that was what prompted me to do the same. " After a year I left my job in the warehouse and took an apprenticeship with the council working with my brother. " I eventually qualified as an electrician but took an extra course which brought me up to technician grade. Now I feel I have something to fall back on if things should go wrong from a footballing point of view. " My ambition however is to make a success of it as a footballer and hopefully earn enough money from the game to start a business of my own when I finish as a player." It is that sort of sound, commonsense reasoning which stamps Pearce as the sort of young man who knows what he is doing and where he is going. In a soccer sense many experts are already predicting he will be going all the way to the top. Wealdstone manager Allan Batsford is as certain of it that he negotiated an extra 25, 000 on the transfer fee with the Sky Blues if Pearce plays for England. And Batsford is confident that City will have to pay that additional 25, 000 in the not too distant future. Pearce is reluctant to talk of such things however and says: " I didn t class myself as one of the best players in non-League football by a long way. " I could name a good many who could come and do a job in League football if they were given the opportunity. They don t get the chance because a lot of managers think it looks too much of a gamble to sign them. " There is also the financial side of things to consider as well. Top clubs in non-League can often pay their best players around 100 a week and most of them have good jobs outside football as well. " Put the two wages together and it puts a lot of non-League players out of the reach of Third and Fourth Division clubs. I certainly could not have turned professional in the lower divisions. " So I m one of the lucky ones because I ve been given a marvellous opportunity. I was happy being a part-tame player and I also enjoyed my job as an electrician but I m loving it here at Coventry. They are a smashing club and theres a real family atmosphere about the place. I think it will also help my football because although I enjoy being at home I can now concentrate on my new career without any distractions.
" What I have found strange is to have so much time on my hands. I have been used to a 9 to 5 existence but as a footballer you get a lot of time off particularly in the afternoons. I m sure you can get lazy like that but I like to keep busy and what I intend to do sooner or later is buy a bit of old property in the area and completely renovate it " I prefer to be busy and do something creative in my spare time rather than just laze around." For the moment Pearce is lodging in Coventry with Stella Rogers, who can rest easy in the knowledge that if a fuse blows she has a man around the house more than capable of putting things right. And Gould smilingly suggests that part of Pearces contract wit
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