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Stuart Pearce has condemned the “witch-hunt” that forced Alan Curbishley out of West Ham United only three matches into the Barclays Premier League season. As the England Under-21 coach surveyed the disruption at his previous three clubs, he expressed concern at kneejerk boardroom management.

Pearce's team will qualify for the play-offs for next summer's European Under-21 Championship finals in Sweden even if they are beaten by Portugal at Wembley Stadium tomorrow. But even as he contends with the ever-diminishing pool of young talent in the Premier League, the former England captain believes that there is no lack of top-quality British managers.

However, Pearce, who finished his playing career at Newcastle United, West Ham and Manchester City, argues that Curbishley and Kevin Keegan, whose tenure at St James' Park is hanging by a thread, have been harshly treated.

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“We have a lot of top-quality [British] managers,” the former City manager said. “The thing that disappoints me the most is how someone's stock can go from 'through the roof' to zero, all within a game. I don't live my life in that manner and I find it quite disappointing that football does.”

Pearce believes that Curbishley was given insufficient credit at Upton Park, where he guided the club to safety from relegation and, last season, to tenth place despite a welter of injury problems. “He did a good job there,” Pearce said. “But sometimes when there is a groundswell of opinion against you, it becomes like a witch-hunt. Curbs is a very good manager who's proven himself over a number of years in the Premiership.

“One thing you can understand is there's only a certain amount of teams who can finish in the top half of the league and a certain amount who will finish in the bottom half of the league. That will be the case over a season. The expectation of more than half of the teams is to finish in the top half of the league, so it's difficult. The so-called top four are all expected to finish in the top four. But if they're not finishing number one, it's a disappointing season.”

Pearce worked under Keegan at City and succeeded him in 2005 before Sven-Göran Eriksson took charge two years later and fears that, if he is forced out of Newcastle, football will have seen the last of a “fantastic and very genuine man”.

Foreign ownership may curtail the number of English players available to Pearce but, with the Under-21s unbeaten in open play in 24 games and almost three years, he believes the best will prevail.

“If you ask whether it'd be helpful to me that more English players play on a given Saturday, then yes, it would be,” Pearce said. “If more investment comes in, clubs can afford to pick the best players in the world ... and that will diminish the pool of players I can pick from.

“When I was at City, we had to blood one or two of the youngsters, but, make no mistake, they were good enough. There were some there - Micah Richards, Michael Johnson and Joe Hart - who I think will fight tooth and nail to keep their place in the team and might even have the ability to do so.”