Stephen Pearson’s magic trick to stay in the Premier League

Scotland and Derby County winger Stephen Pearson, who missed Wednesday’s match with Croatia due to injury, is one of several Scotland internationals at Derby, who must realize at this point that their club is going down. If last season in the Championship was a dream, punctuated by Pearson’s “60-million-pound” goal over West Brom in the promotion final, this one has been a nightmare. The Rams have recorded just two wins in 31 matches, making them one of the worst teams in the history of the league.

Stephen Pearson has found, to my mind, a perfect way of staying in the Premiership despite the utter awfulness of your team. His trick seems to be to wait until the end of the season and then transfer, not to another Prem club, but to the club at the top of the Championship. Pearson has been linked this week with Championship leaders and promotion favorites Stoke City.

I think it’s a great move for Pearson, if it works out. Unfortunately, as I harped on about earlier today, Scotland is very thin on wingers, and I would certainly prefer if one of the two we have (Pearson and Gary Teale) was able to stay in the English top flight, getting week-in-week-out exposure to the quality midfields and defenses of that league. Too many of our players are in the Championship, facing opponents that just don’t prepare them for international competition. So, good luck Stephen - I hope it works out for you and that you can stay up, even as the rest of Derby surely will not.