Stephen Clemence may never have played a competitive match under Leicester City manager Nigel Pearson, but the former skipper says he has seen firsthand what Pearson has done for the club.

Pearson took over at the Walkers Stadium, following City's relegation to League One in 2008, and transformed the club leading them to the League One title, before finishing fifth in their first season back in the Championship.

Clemence, who retired from professional football in April this year, believes Pearson brought stability to the Foxes when they needed it most.

"When Nigel Pearson came in he just seemed to organise the club from top to bottom. He has a presence about him, and a sense of leadership as well."

Pearson has brought a number of quality players to the Walkers Stadium including Jack Hobbs, Chris Weale and Michael Morrison, and Clemence has been impressed with the way he has used the transfer market.

"He's made some good acquisitions. There were players at the club who had probably been there too long and weren't really willing to stay and fight in League One and they needed to move on.

The lads he has brought in want to achieve something in their career and obviously did that in abundance in League One, and were very unfortunate not to do it in the Championship this year."

Former Spurs and Birmingham midfielder Clemence never got the chance to show Pearson what he could do on the pitch, but the 32-year old says he was grateful for the way that the manager stuck by him.

"Nigel was fantastic with me; he always said to me that I had to do what was right for me. It was always a stop-start process with my fitness, and after training for two days I'd then have ten days where I couldn't train.

But around the place he'd always have time for a chat, and ask my opinions on other things around the club.

He kept me as club captain and I saw that as a great honour from my point of view. I'd never really trained under him, but he obviously thought enough of me to keep me in that role."