The reports of Jason Pearce’s move to Wigan Athletic were obviously true, as he has moved to the wrong side of the Pennines today for a fee of around £300,000.
Pearce joined us two-and-a-half years ago for £500,000, one of a job lot of four players that Neil Warnock signed from Portsmouth that summer because they were relatively cheap. We couldn’t afford any better at the time because Ken Bates was more concerned with spending our money on dubious property schemes, but at least we could exploit the fact that Pompey’s financial position was worse than ours.
The 27-year-old former club captain was the leading appearance maker in the squad (which perhaps isn’t saying much, given our rapid turnover of players) having played 112 times for the first team since he came to the club. Most of us thought he would prove to be an average Championship journeyman, but we grew to admire the way he fearlessly put his body on the line whenever our goal came under threat.
His defending could be dodgy at times, and one aspect of his game he needs to improve is his finishing at the other end of the field. You might think that 12 career goals isn’t bad for a defender, but it’s not that many for a player who will go up for every set piece during a game. All too often he would head well wide, even when the opposition’s marking was bad enough to give him a free header.
All the same, I will be sorry to see him go, and it’s hard to see how we’ve improved our squad by replacing him with Sol Bamba, a player three years older. Leicester fans have given mixed reviews of Bamba’s time there, so I can only think this is all down to money, and that Bamba has been persuaded to accept a contract lower than the amount Pearce was on.
Some fans have commented that it’s unwise to be selling a player to relegation rivals, but Pearce seems to be joining a club in turmoil, with their win at Elland Road on boxing day being their only victory in the last 15 games. The appointment of Malky Mackay hasn’t brought any improvement in their results and it could be that the recent controversy surrounding both their manager and their chairman has disrupted the harmony of the squad.
We are now eight points ahead of Wigan, and if our results continue to improve we’ll no longer have to consider them as ‘relegation rivals’, or worry that we sold them Jason Pearce.