Former Manchester City manager Stuart Pearce will leave his role as England U-21 coach after his contract expires at the end of June.
FA Chairman David Bernstein paid tribute to the departing Pearce following a disappointing European Championships in Israel this summer.
“Nobody can doubt his commitment to the job throughout his time as Under-21 coach.
“He has done extremely well in qualifying for finals tournaments, but after the disappointment of the past two tournaments, we believe it is time to change coach.
“On behalf of everyone at the FA I’d like to wish Stuart well for the future.”
Pearce had been part-time manager of the U-21 side since February 2007, taking up the position full time after leaving City in May 2007 and had steered the England youngsters through six seasons of competition.
His U-21 side notably lost the European Championships 4-0 to Germany in 2009. The Germans included future stars of their full national team Manuel Neuer, Mats Hummels, Sami Khedira, Mesut Ozil and Jerome Boateng who was to later sign for City.
City’s Nedum Onuoha was to be later joined at the City of Manchester Stadium by Adam Johnson and James Milner from Pearce’s U-21 team while Arsenal’s Theo Walcott made the step up to the full national team but was to controversially miss out on the World Cup squad the following year.
They may have been 90 minutes away from a trophy under Pearce but in truth England have only won three out of 15 games at major competitions under Pearce after a succession of positive qualifications for finals.
Pearce placed responsibility for England’s embarrassing exit from this year’s European Championships firmly on the shoulders of the squad who contrived to lose all three group games from an ‘easy group’ consisting of Italy, Norway and Israel with only a penalty consolation for Michael Dawson to show for it.
He said: “The players haven’t delivered. I’m really disappointed with the team.”
His cause was hardly helped by England manager Roy Hodgson promoting several of Pearce’s star players to play in a pair of friendlies against the Republic of Ireland and Brazil on the eve of the tournament in Israel.
Pearce was without Jack Rodwell, Kyle Walker, Phil Jones, Jack Wilshere, Danny Welbeck and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain who were with the senior squad while Luke Shaw, Callum McManaman, and Raheem Sterling missed out through injury.
Andros Townsend had also withdrawn from the squad voluntarily before receiving a suspension by the FA for breaching betting regulations.