bonaire wrote:
In my opinion another knee jerk Pearson error based on the play off heavy defeat at Huddersfield yet he took the club to Wembley and we did actually get to the play offs with Gentle.
I'm not wholly sure that was the reason. My understanding is that Pearson had already made the decision earlier in the season, possibly as early as June, certainly no later than July. Indeed rumours to this effect began circulating through the media in the week leading up to the Warrington semi-final (last week July?).
As these rumours had their origin in the Daily Star!! everyone dismissed them as blown-up gossip dressed up as a scoop! Turns out they were a good deal closer to the mark than any of us surmised.
Before Wembley that year, a family member of mine, who is a personal friend of Pearson, told me that he would be on his way come season close. I reckon this explains Gentles somewhat muted reaction, especially in the first half, during the Huddersfield game as the one-way traffic flowed incessantly and the points tally mounted at an alarming rate! He knew it was all irrelevant in regard to his future at the club as he already knew he was flying home before the month was out.
Why Pearson had made this decision half-way through his contract, only he knows, and he's never fully explained the reasoning behind it. Maybe he simply didn't like the way Gentle made a brew after training, who knows!!
What on earth Pearson would have done if we had beaten Wigan at Wembley (in the pouring rain) and maybe backed that up by reaching OT (a long shot admittedly) heaven only knows, it would have taken a bit of story telling to explain the decision in that outcome. In a way, the Huddersfield defeat gave Pearson an out to justify a decision he had already made his mind up about.
Almost certainly, a degree of player-power was responsible for Gentles demise, but the myth that it all centred around that one game, a myth which took hold almost immediately following the defeat, doesn't tally with what I heard at the time.
We'll never know in what direction he would have taken us had he been given the time to build on the work he put in during 2012/13 but I'm afraid that is how it goes in modern-day sport, everything these days is about the here and now, win and you are safe (for another week at least), lose and you are on rocky ground. It's the way the world turns!
