An Audience with Stuart Pearce at The Approach, Nottingham

The chants of "Psycho! Psycho! Psycho!" ring out as England’s No3 returns home to a city that clearly loves him, despite all the water that’s passed under Trent Bridge since he departed the club first as a player, and then twice as manager.

In the company of former Nottingham-based commentator Darren Fletcher, Stuart Pearce MBE was slickly led through a series of questions in the first half of the show.

It turns out he's a critic of the current regime - although of course, he does have an axe to grind.

He is immensely proud of what he achieved as manager of Nottingham Forest, while admitting he may have fallen short of what was required to turn the tide.

As for today’s troubles at the City Ground, he confides: “When you pick up the phone and ask about a loan player, they say ‘sorry – but you didn’t pay the wages of the last one’.”

And he believes the club has no foundations to build, something that will continue to hold it back as a force in football. 

Yet he still sees a role for himself there in future, which is exactly what the fans at The Approach were yearning to hear.

“I could still make a lot of people’s lives at this football club a lot better,” he said.

Clearly he’s found it a learning experience as he’s still in the frame for managerial jobs, giving us a coy lowdown on his chances for the vacant Fulham post.

We heard the well-rehearsed – and now legendary tale – of how Pearce used to advertise his electrical business in the Forest programme in the early days through to his penalty being saved in Turin in that ill-fated World Cup saga of Italia 90, where the player freely admits he left the pitch in tears after the now-infamous semi-final.

But it was the less-often told stories the packed out crowd were there to hear.

It was great to see him smiling and laughing as he recounted his tangles with Derby’s Ted McMinn, who left the pitch with bite marks across his chest… about Liverpool being good at shaking your hand – but only when they won… why the squad shouted “one-hundred-and-eighty” when Mark Crossley ran past naked… tales of Gazza’s exploits on England duty – and the real reason Bryan Robson missed the bulk of the 1990 World Cup.