Stuart Pearce, MBE (born 24 April 1962) is an English football manager and player. He is an assistant manager to David Moyes at West Ham United. Pearce was the manager of the England national under-21 team from 2007 to 2013 and also managed the Great Britain Olympic football team at the 2012 Olympics. As a player, Pearce played as a defender and appeared for Wealdstone, Coventry City, Newcastle United, West Ham United and Manchester City, but is best known for his spell at Nottingham Forest, where he regularly captained the team and became the club's most capped International, making 76 of his 78 appearances for England while with the club and captaining the national side on nine occasions.

Two years later in 1985 Pearce was brought to Nottingham Forest by manager Brian Clough. Pearce was the makeweight in a PS300,000 deal that saw Coventry centre-back Ian Butterworth move to Forest. Indeed, so unsure was Pearce of his footballing future that, after the transfer, he actually advertised his services as an electrician in Forest's match-day programme.  Pearce spent 12 years at Forest, most of it as club captain. During his playing career, he won two League Cups and the Full Members Cup, while also scoring from a free-kick in the 1991 FA Cup final, when Forest were beaten by Tottenham Hotspur. In his time at the City Ground, Pearce was one of the Forest players who had to cope with the horrors of the Hillsborough disaster during the opening minutes of their FA Cup semi-final against Liverpool. Pearce played in the rescheduled match at Old Trafford, which Liverpool won 3-1. He helped them finish third in the league that year (as they had done a year earlier), and also contributed to their victories in the League Cup and Full Members Cup. He helped them retain the League Cup a year later and in 1991 he had his first crack at the FA Cup, and despite giving Forest an early lead against Tottenham in a match most remembered for the knee injury suffered by Pearce's opponent Paul Gascoigne, Pearce ended up on the losing side as Spurs came back to win 2-1. He was on the losing side at Wembley Stadium again the following year when Forest lost 1-0 to Manchester United in the 1992 League Cup final.  Despite their relegation from the top flight in 1993, Pearce decided to stay, helping Forest to gain promotion the following season, including scoring a header to secure promotion, under new manager Frank Clark following the retirement of Brian Clough after 18 years at the helm. He helped Forest finish third in the Premier League in the season following promotion and reach the UEFA Cup quarter-finals a year later.  Pearce was appointed caretaker player-manager of Forest in December 1996, after Clark resigned with Forest bottom of the FA Premier League. His first match was at home to Arsenal. He admitted in an interview with Match of the Day that, in his first attempt at picking a starting XI, he did not realise until it was pointed out to him by his wife that he had omitted goalkeeper Mark Crossley. Forest, however, won the match 2-1, coming from behind after an Ian Wright goal with two goals from Alf-Inge Haland. Despite winning Manager of the Month award in January 1997, the club were relegated from the Premier League. He had relinquished managerial duties in March 1997 on the appointment of Dave Bassett.  Pearce opted to leave the club at the end of the 1996-97 season after 12 years at the City Ground. Answer this question using a quote from the following article:

what did he do afterward?
Pearce opted to leave the club at the end of the 1996-97 season after 12 years at the City Ground.