I sanctioned Chelsea transfer out of fear that saying ‘no’ would see Man City go bust

Stuart Pearce’s appointment as Manchester City boss was met with an ultimatum that could have had grave implications for the club's future.

The former England skipper hung up his boots in 2002 as a Manchester City player and remained at the club in a coaching capacity under the guidance of Kevin Keegan.

Pearce was handed his opportunity in the hot seat three-years later after impressing as caretaker manager but his 24-month spell came with its off-field dilemmas.

There was a time not too long ago when Manchester City’s financial situation was in disarray and Pearce was front-and-centre in the decision-making process that could have sparked a cataclysmic situation for the future of the club.

Suddenly finding himself stuck between losing arguably his best player Shaun Wright-Phillips and the demise of a historic football club, Pearce made the only choice he could in the circumstance.

“When I was Manchester City manager I managed nine matches at the end of a season,” Pearce told talKSPORT. “I was acutely aware of the financial situation of the football club as in, it was bust, to be quite honest.

“Two weeks before the season started the chief executive called me in on the Friday and said look we’ve had an offer of £21million. It will be paid in cash on Monday morning from Chelsea and if you don’t sell him we’ll go bust as a football club.”

Pearce sanctioned the deal that took the winger to Jose Mourinho’s newly-crowned Premier League champions and despite the precarious position the club found themselves in, the former City boss says transparency was the key to getting the club out of the red.

“I knew before we had that conversation that if put in this situation, the club comes before me or the chief executive or anybody,” he added.

“The important thing for me was to get the message out there of the expectation. Tell the supporters ‘look, this is where we’re at at the moment, we have no money as a football club’.

“We’ve had to sell [Nicolas] Anelka six months ago, we’re selling Shaun Wright-Phillips now but the club has to remain standing and has to remain a Premier League club."

City were taken over by Thai businessman and politician Thaksin Shinawatra in 2007 but his time in charge was cut short when his assets were frozen and sold the club to Abu Dhabi United Group in 2008 for £200million.