WHEN Stuart Pearce signed for Nottingham Forest there was no big interview in the match day programme, no vast picture spread heralding his arrival from Coventry City.
But the defender did get a mention – in the form of a classified ad.
Despite having just signed for Forest, Pearce was not ready to pack away his tool box. In fact, he needed to carry on working as an electrician to make ends meet.Have a look at our Stuart Pearce gallery here.
And Brian Clough allowed him permission to advertise his services in the programme. For the first three years of his career as a professional, Pearce admits he was a full-time footballer and part-time sparky.
But he would not have it any other way. Because, when the bigger stuff came later on; when he was winning trophies at Wembley and captaining his country, he still had a sense of grounding and a determination to earn every single penny he was paid. It was a work ethic that saw him carry on playing beyond his 40th birthday.
Having spent the last six years as coach of the England under-21s, Pearce knows first hand how much the game has changed. Now the kind of young players he has had under his charge can find themselves earning tens of thousands of pounds before they have even kicked a ball for the first team.
Rather than finding part-time work to make ends meet, their spare time is taken up in car showrooms picking up Range Rovers or Mercedes as their first cars.
And Pearce fears that having too much, too young, is having a detrimental effect on the next generation.
"That isn't folklore. I was at Coventry for two years since prior to coming to Forest and I would work as an electrician then. I just swapped my jobs around," said Pearce. "I went from being a part-time footballer and full-time electrician to doing things the other way around.
"When I came to Forest I asked Cloughie if it would be OK for me to put my business card in the programme.
"I wired up a couple of the players' houses, I did small jobs all over Nottingham.
"In those days there wasn't the opulence in football that there is now days. There were a lot of players who had a lot of work on the sidelines. Micky Adams, who is manager of Port Vale now, got himself a truck and did garden clearances.
"There were others as well, who had to earn money. I took a cut in wages to go from being a part-time player and a full-time electrician to signing for a top-flight club."
While he admits the financial rewards of being a player now are eye watering, Pearce would not change anything.
"It helped me. I am an electrician by trade. I finished my training six weeks before I turned professional (as a player)," said Pearce. "I am very thankful that I took that route. Prior to being an electrician, I worked in a warehouse for a year, lifting boxes. You do get a real grasp of what life is all about, when you have done that.
"Football has changed drastically. The scouting system in place now is that good that very few individuals slip through the net.
"There won't be many like myself, now. A future England captain had to work his profession for five years before he had the opportunity to play football professionally...?
"In some ways, for me, it was a superb grounding. It was the one thing that kept driving me on, right the way through.
"I didn't finish playing until I was 40 and I directly link that with the fact that I missed five years at the start of my career.
"I said to myself that the pro game owed me five years and I worked to make sure I got that at the other end.
"I did not want to give it up, because I had that in my mind all the time. It probably got me to the age of 40. Even at that age I was physically fit and I could have carried on."
Pearce does have concerns about the attitude of modern youngsters, who find it easy to believe they have made it once they have signed long-term contracts on vast amounts of money before they have even established themselves.
"I think the pro game has changed. I have worked with players between the age of 17 and 22 in the job I have just done for six years," he said.
"I have seen it first hand. I have seen a lot of players fall into a black hole.
"The opulence of it all... they are given too much too soon. It is a fantastic time to be a professional footballer, make no mistake. But I always enjoyed – and as human beings, most of us feel the same – earning my money, to get paid for my hard work, for what I achieved.
"Now it has been turned on its head. Now you get paid up front, on the proviso that you might deliver at some point in the future.
"I am afraid we lose a lot of kids; the kids who do not have the real drive in them, to soldier on and push themselves.
"We lose them. I can name you a multitude of players who have not gone on to achieve their full potential because, maybe, we have taken that hunger out of their bellies.
"I would equate that directly with boxers, with fighters who come out of slums with a real hunger and drive. They get a couple of million quid in their pockets and that hunger diminishes.
"It is the same for players. They can lose that drive when they think they have made it, when they have that money."
You suspect that, wherever Pearce ends up next in management, the players he takes charge off will all have the right attitude. Or sparks will fly.
