Andrew Mountford’s potted guide to Stoke City on their debut at the Soccer 7s
On the final day of the 2014-15 Premier League season Stoke City demolished Liverpool 6-1 and ruined Steven Gerrards leaving party. For the casual fan it may have been a surprise result, but for Stoke fans it was a result that had been on the cards and long overdue.
The result gave Stoke a new club record 54 points, record number of home wins, away wins and a positive goal difference – their first in ‘The Prem’ – and a top ten finish, not a bad season.
When Stoke were promoted to The Premiership in 2008 they were widely tipped to go back down straight away, to be relegated with the fewest points ever and to be the whipping boys of the league. Bookmakers paid out on Stoke being relegated after their first game back in the top division was a 3:1 defeat at Bolton. But someone hadn’t read the script, a stubborn and tenacious bloke called Tony Pulis who had guided Stoke to promotion from the Championship supported by local businessman and lifelong Stoke supporter, Peter Coates. Pulis hadn’t been relegated no matter who he’d managed and he’s also gotten teams promoted from every division. He put together a fairly threadbare squad of the experienced (Delap), talented (Shawcross), mercurial (Fuller) and hard workers (Faye) who, instilled with confidence and backed by the vociferous and loyal Stoke fans were inspired to fight to the bitter end in every game and maintained their Premiership status pretty much against the odds.
Pulis added players like Beatie & Etherington to this mix but it is fair to say Stoke were infamous for being solid and uncompromising. Arsene Wenger (a Stoke fans favourite) called them a rugby team, most other clubs fans derided the long ball tactics and Rory Delap’s long throws (which left one goal keeper in tears) which teams struggled to cope with but wasn’t a lot of fun – unless you were Stoke.
Though Stoke made it to their first FC Cup final using two flying wingers there was little to show sustainable development. Playing in the Europa league revealed the threadbare nature of the squad. The one dimensional football left fans wondering if ‘survival’ and ‘the magic 40 points’ were all they could expect to look forward to. ‘Entertainment? – go to the circus.’ as Richie Barker an ex Stoke manager once said.
But Stoke had been found out and in his last season in charge some fans started to turn on the legend that is Tony Pulis. The football was dull, struggling to get points was dire, listening to opposition being talked up and the negative managing of expectations was taking the fun out of the game. Its OK being an anti hero, but all the time?
It should be noted too that the Coates family had financially backed Pulis to the tune of over eighty million quid – way more than other teams and certain some signings were expensive flops. At the same time The Club had invested in a state of the art training facility at Clayton Woods costing multi millions which is used by the senior side and The Academy. Why wasn’t the senior squad seeing any young, even local talent coming through? Unfortunately once again the preference of TP was for older, experienced and reliable players who could fit into his system. Something had to give.
Sacking Tony Pulis was the hardest thing Peter Coates had to do, he was a close personal friend and had managed Stokes most successful spell for 30 years. Tony had a very loyal set of supporters who recognised that he had taken Stoke from near relegation to the third tier to The Prem and they felt he deserved loyalty. Others though were tired of the style of football, the playing of clearly tired or unfit favourites and simply the lack of excitement, so whoever took the Stoke job needed to unite these groups of fans, not get relegated, develop the younger players, play exciting football and do better than TP did – or almighty hell and much wailing and gnashing of teeth would occur.
Enter Mark Hughes – tarnished after the QPR debacle it can be said that this was not the most universally admired appointment ever with some fans campaigning to get him kicked out before he’d gotten to the ground; even parking a van with ‘HUGHES OUT’ on it in the club car park.
One has to admire the guts of a manager who takes a job with so many questions hanging over it. There was discussion in the press if Stoke players would actually be able to play football on the ground and string passes together.
The last two seasons have pretty much answered all of these questions. Though some mangers state ‘We know what to expect at Stoke…’ quite clearly many haven’t noticed that things have changed. Stoke now play football that is attractive to watch (mostly), plays to their strengths of organisation and pace. Based on a strong defence with excellent goalkeepers and centre backs. But rather than hoofs up forward the ball is played out, down the channels and finally to forwards that can use feet and head to score goals. This season fans are actually wondering how much better things could have been if Bojan Kirkic & Odemwingie hadn’t been injured for most of the season.
So revolution on the pitch and in the senior squad looks to be on track. What about The Academy and who can we expect to see in Hong Kong.
Well first the squad will be of the ten allowed so Daniel Bachmann, Johnville Renee-Pringle, Bobby Mosely, Eddy Lecygne, Liam Edwards, Ryan O’Reilly, Yusuf Coban, Ollie Shenton, Tom Shepherd & Joel Taylor. Several of the young squad have already played internationally at junior level.
Boss Glynn Hodges ‘Talking to stokecityfc.com, said, “We’re going to be competitive”. Since Mark Hughes took the reigns in May 2013, there has been a shift in emphasis on youth with more players given an opportunity with both club and country. The senior professional development coach, who joined the club from QPR in July 2013 having worked with Mark Hughes for ten years or more added “Ollie Shenton trains regularly with the first team, Yusuf is a strong player, while Bachmann is an Austria U-21 international who will be meeting up with the national team after he comes back from Hong Kong. We’re sprinkled with a lot of talent”.
Of particular note is Ollie Shenton, very much ‘one of our own’, a local born lad who made his first team debut as a sub against Manchester City earlier this year. Just a few days after his mother sadly lost a long battle with cancer. Ollie is not only working hard at Stoke, he and his brother are doing considerable cancer charity work too.
So the the Hong Kong Soccer 7’s will give local Stoke fans a chance to see if Uncle Peter Coates next wish will be granted – are The Academy players to take the step up and play in the senior squad and repay some of the investment?