'Stuart Pearce's guidance of Manchester City to a possible Uefa Cup place has won him the manager's job on a full-time basis. An announcement will be made this week and Pearce will then set about trying to persuade his former Nottingham Forest colleague Nigel Clough, currently in charge of Burton Albion, to join him as assistant manager.
City have decided to bring forward the decision rather than wait until the summer, as initially planned, and the club have scrapped a short list incorporating Iain Dowie, Martin O'Neill and Paul Jewell. The club believe it is a fitting reward for Pearce, who has won four and drawn three of his eight games since replacing Kevin Keegan, and that the appointment will unite City in their push for seventh place and the last European spot.
Pearce's appointment will seriously undermine a report in the News of the World yesterday suggesting that the former Coventry chairman Bryan Richardson had teamed up with the former formula one team owner Eddie Jordan in a £100m takeover of City that would see Pearce moved on and Gordon Strachan installed as manager. Jordan, who is understood to be a Manchester United shareholder, flatly denied the story last night.'