Pearson still has friends in the Forces. “If you think about all the (charity/tribute) stuff we managers get asked to wear during the year, the Poppy is the important one for me. When I went to the 2007 Europeans with the Under-21s, we were based at Oosterbeek near Arnhem and I went out on my bike a few times. We went over the bridge. I went to some of the war cemeteries there: very, very moving. I’ve been over to France. Friends of my wife’s family live in Albert, right in the Somme region.’’