Pearce - hopes City can go places. (Getty)
PEARCE: CITY STILL A DES RES
By Simon Stone, PA Sport
Stuart Pearce insists Manchester City is still the place to be despite a run of five straight Barclays Premiership defeats. After looking like contending for European places on two fronts barely a month ago, City head to West Ham on Saturday looking to stop their season cascading into freefall. Yet the barren streak has done nothing to dissuade Pearce from the belief the Blues are still going places, which is why he remains confident about retaining most of his star names this summer. "If I was a player, I would not want to leave this club," he said. "One or two may question it because we have had a couple of bad results but there is barely a team in the country who has not suffered like that at one stage of the season. "We are in our bad patch now but as soon as we put a little run together, we will get the feelgood factor again and everyone can start looking forward." Pearce is still confident contract negotiations with Andy Cole, Nicky Weaver and Richard Dunne will reach a positive conclusion relatively quickly and he has not yet given up hope of persuading Joey Barton to stay despite apparent interest from Arsenal. The vibes Pearce is receiving from skipper Sylvain Distin also lead him to believe the Frenchman will eventually commit his long-term future to the City cause. City turned down one £5million bid from Newcastle for Distin last year and are bound to receive plenty of enquiries should word spread the Frenchman was available. However, despite reports Distin is desperate for European football - something his current club will not provide him with next season at least - the feeling Pearce gets suggests the 28-year-old is happy enough to commit his future to the Eastlands outfit. "I have never had a problem with Sylvain and I have never even had a suggestion he wants to leave this club from either him or his representatives," said Pearce. "He hasn't mentioned European football to me but I would be disgusted if he had said he wasn't bothered about playing it. I want to be involved in European football, we all should. And we all should want to be playing in it at this football club."
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