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Bristol City confirm permanent appointment of manager

Bristol City are set to confirm the permanent appointment of manager Nigel Pearson who has agreed a three-year contract to stay on.

The former Leicester City boss, who took charge in February, and is reportedly hugely excited by the project, in what will be a big boost for the club who prepare for a huge summer of changes.

The 57-year-old was named as Dean Holden’s successor, but he has endured a tough time in charge, picking up just one win in their last 11 games.

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Despite that, many fans are standing by Pearson and are willing to let him bring his own players in to boost their promotion hopes for the 2021/22 campaign.

Pearson said: “I’m delighted to become the permanent manager of Bristol City. This is such a fantastic opportunity at a sound football club that has so much more potential.

“The Lansdowns have a long-term vision, not just for Bristol City but for sport in the area, and I’m very grateful for the chance to be at the forefront of that.

“I want to be part of a team that gets to the Premier League. It’s going to be a tough journey and we’ll need the right people on board to achieve it but I am excited about the possibilities ahead.”

City Chairman Jon Lansdown said: “It’s important that we have that certainty in terms of the manager and appointing Nigel is a great chance for us to take a real step forward. He brings leadership but in an inclusive way which can galvanise others.

“We have a shared vision and everything is in place facility-wise to start pushing forward. Now it’s about having the right people, with the right leadership, doing the right things and there is nothing standing in the way.”

Pearson has a wealth of experience with more than 500 games as a manager, including two spells with Leicester City – leading them to the 2013/14 Championship title – as well as Watford in the Premier League.

It’s not just players they need to bring in, as CEO Mark Ashton has decided to join Ipswich Town in the summer, whilst Head of Performance Andrew Rolls left yesterday.

To make the job slightly easier for Pearson in the next few months, 13 senior players are out of contract soon, so he will already be looking at who he wants to keep, offload and which areas need strengthening.

The Robins are set to face Millwall and Brentford to end the campaign with the club sitting 18th in the Championship table.

Pearson said his players appeared “shellshocked” after Nahki Wells and Ádám Nagy’s first-half goals were cancelled out by Luton’s 3-2 comeback recently.

When asked what happened to his team at Ashton Gate, Pearson told Robins TV: “What normally happens with this group at the moment – we lacked the authority on the pitch, character and charisma to do things out there that enable us to stay in front.

“I’ve seen all three goals back and they’re terrible goals to concede. Having worked so hard to get in front and play some decent football, we submitted too early and didn’t show the character traits you need to endure tough times in games.”

He said: “Our players looked totally shellshocked but the problems run slightly deeper than the players not dealing with the situation today. We have organisational challenges in regard to how we shape the club moving forward and today smacked of lacking shared accountability.”

Pearson explained he is concerned what impact the negative run will have on those younger players but he hailed them for their efforts.

“That’s an extremely annoying state of affairs for us on a day where Tommy Conway was an exceptional youngster going in there. You can always rely on Han-Noah Massengo to run himself into the floor and Alex Scott got his debut as well; I don’t want this to be a damaging experience for them but we have to stick with them at the moment. I’m worried what this will do to the youngsters who are relying constantly to perform for us. It shows where we are, what’s exactly required in terms of refreshing this group.

“There are concerns what this will do to them but what I will say is I will do everything to protect those players because they don’t get an awful lot of help on the field. We have a group of players who do not communicate on the pitch and that’s incredible really.

“It frustrates me, I understand it but I find it difficult to accept we don’t fight harder collectively, to do something about setbacks,” Pearson continued.

“We hope they don’t occur and that in itself brings on pressure. We outplayed them in the first half, they couldn’t deal with us, they were a bit miffed with the disallowed goal but apart from conceding three terrible goals they didn’t have to do a lot to earn the opportunity to score those goals and that’s the worrying thing.

“It feels at this moment like everybody here can’t wait for the end of the season and that’s poor. In one sense we need to get to the end to start doing what needs to be done. In the short term we need to fulfil the fixtures. I will keep banging the same drum by saying we need to respond, and we can’t respond just for 45 minutes and then fold because we struggle to create an identity.

“It’s painful to experience and I’m sure it’s painful for people to watch after we promise so much and then not deliver. The reality is we take the problem head on, try to solve it but there’s no point hiding from the reality of where we are is miles away from where we aspire to be.

“We have far too many players unavailable because they are injured, we rely on young players where it is a big ask for them to perform at this level while under pressure. I applaud how they’ve embraced the challenge and it’s good to expose them and creating technically gifted players around the first team.

“In an ideal world you choose the moments to include them, but we have a lot of players who are suffering on the field and the group’s mentality is not strong enough to deal with that problem. It’s something I’m keen to at least put things in place to help that moving forward but we have to finish the season first.”

Fans reacted with Bristol City set to confirm the permanent appointment of manager Nigel Pearson…

@AWGLesnar: Give him a few years and he will have Bristol City being a top team again. UP THE BRISTOL CITY.

@JackJeffrey33: Hope he does well for you boys 👍

@lcfc_noah: Come on get Bristol up to the prem

@NathFerguson: Thank god, now it’s time to sort the mess the club is in

@RobStewart_: Securing the services of Nigel Pearson is a statement of intent from Bristol City owner Steve Lansdown who is clearly setting his sights on bringing Premier League football to the West Country for the first time

@r0bpars0ns: Let Nigel Pearson get rid of the shite and draft in his own players over the summer.

@mccarthyhouse: Love this. Let the project begin.

@jackjoyner0: get in there, everything starts now

@Herders76: Great news. Sorting the monumental mess, starts now.

@johnchunkymons: Please let this be true would be an amazing birthday present @BristolCity @GeeMacGee @stephenlansdow1

@ticketyboo67: P45s being prepared for some of the deadwood with any luck

@cswhitlock1976: Great news now for a good back room set up and stability

@Jay_Evans1997: Hugely excited? Honestly i have to question Nige’s judgment if he’s excited over this.

@bcfcluka: Work begins now.

@SJH_94: Happy with this. Results aside, he hasn’t had a transfer window and he hasn’t been able to bring in his own staff so we still have the coaches that got us into this mess in the first place. Rebuild from the inside out has started so he can now stamp his authority on the club.

@jbcfc__: Yes. Let’s get to work now and get the club back on it’s feet

@UncleNigelP: happy but why on earth is he hugely excited at the project of the club

@AnirudhHarish5: I love you Nige. Now you need to clear out the mess and bring in his players. SL you’ve done this much so far now back Nige

@thedonbs3: Great news now hopefully some stability

@raggymoore: He’s clearly nuts.

@C_Farmerr: Things you absolutely love to see

@peterrex2105: Hope this isn’t an image that precedes unfortunate events

@BrettLiddiatt: Premier league ERE. WE. GO

@Pottsey2017: @NigelGPearson glad to have you with @BristolCity for the next 3 years time to get rid of the dead wood #ctid #otib

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