FOOTBALL Association officials and their City counterparts have thrashed out a compromise that will allow Stuart Pearce to take charge of the England Under-21 team.

On Sunday, Pearce publicly stated he had accepted the job of succeeding Peter Taylor, only for his club to immediately point out no agreement had been reached.

However, a solution has now been found which takes into account Cityés fears over Pearce being side-tracked at a key stage of the campaign.

It means Pearce, assisted by Nigel Pearson, will take command for next Tuesdayés friendly with Spain at Pride Park and also this summerés European Championships, but sit out the proposed friendly in March.

Although City were anxious not to stand in Pearceés way, they felt they had to take a stand, even though their manager claimed the job would only require him to spend five days away from the Bluesé Carrington training ground.

The negative reaction of many City fans to the FAés pursuit of their manager reinforced the clubés position.

Honour

éIt is a fantastic honour for me,é said Pearce.

éI was planning to attend the June tournament for scouting purposes and now I will have an opportunity of getting more out of the competition by working with the best youngsters in this country and pitting my wits against coaches from different nations.é

The FA and City board have been working behind the scenes on a compromise deal that will severely limit the number of days Pearce will be on international duty during the Premiership season before taking over for the Under-21s European Championship in Holland during the summer.

Steve McClaren, who beat Pearce among others to take over the England senior job from Sven- Goran Eriksson, played a key role in identifying Pearce as the ideal successor to Peter Taylor as Under-21s boss.

McClaren said: "It is a very important appointment. It's our reserve team. Stuart Pearce epitomises our game."

He added: "Peter Taylor did a great job getting the Under-21s qualified.

"The Under-21s is a job that has got to be full-time, bringing players through from the grass roots to the very top. We need more England coaches. We identified a list of people who are young and English. We are not just looking at bringing through players, but coaches and managers, because they are the future. We must make sure there is continuity."

Head-hunters

Pearce's enthusiastic and patriotic approach obviously caught the eye of McClaren and the FA head-hunters who were given permission to talk to Pearce.

Brian Barwick, the FA chief executive, refused to go into details about the club versus country wrangle but stressed: "We have enjoyed polite and amicable conversations with Manchester City."

City fans remain outraged, believing Pearce should concentrate on his "day job", and the massive boost in TV money for Premiership survival has made the Eastlands board particularly wary of anything that could lead to the manager taking his eye off the ball and thus leaving the club open to claims from fans that the board did not do their utmost to maintain top-flight status.

Pearce's decision to jump the gun and announce his acceptance of the job that will start on Tuesday for the Under-21s friendly against Spain at Derby, upset the Blues board, who two hours later emphasised on Sunday that their manager had NOT been given the go-ahead for a dual role.

Is Pearce the right man for the England Under 21 job? Have your say.