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Post by Deleted on Jun 23, 2012 19:40:57 GMT
Its a real strange situation we find ourselves in. I agree with Mark in that the discontent was growing last season, certainly around me. Certain reasons like poor football, poor team selections etc etc. Yet we stayed up, fairly comfortably, however the cracks were there with such poor form, but on the flip side we als werent that far off from a top ten finish, possibly 50 points and being a real good season. So why, was it because of Europe, Pulis, players out of form, i guess it was a mixture of all. I also see where DaveJohnno is coming from, my enthusiasm is abit drained, ive lost a touch of interest. Im sure itll come back by August tho. It shouldnt be like tho, if we stay up next season thats half a decade back with the big boys. We should be now looking to a bit better football, youth coming through and overseas players complimenting the British based ones. A clear plan should be starting to bear fruit that will stabilise and lay the foundations for years to come. We are blessed with the riches of the premier league but are still saddled with an overage squad, and continue to be linked with players that are quite frankly offer no long term future to Stoke City, ie Owen. This is where my frustration is creeping in, Tony Pulis has to change or eventually he will fall on his sword and sadly so will we. Next season is an acid test for me, we are on a thin line, get it right and we will move on, wrong and we are getting close to being found out. Remember we are not Man Utd but we are no longer new kids on the block. Strange how fans are looking at this after a season of Europe, and an FA cup final not so long ago. The joys of Stoke City eh?
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Post by stockportstokie on Jun 23, 2012 19:57:13 GMT
Its a real strange situation we find ourselves in. I agree with Mark in that the discontent was growing last season, certainly around me. Certain reasons like poor football, poor team selections etc etc. Yet we stayed up, fairly comfortably, however the cracks were there with such poor form, but on the flip side we als werent that far off from a top ten finish, possibly 50 points and being a real good season. So why, was it because of Europe, Pulis, players out of form, i guess it was a mixture of all. I also see where DaveJohnno is coming from, my enthusiasm is abit drained, ive lost a touch of interest. Im sure itll come back by August tho. It shouldnt be like tho, if we stay up next season thats half a decade back with the big boys. We should be now looking to a bit better football, youth coming through and overseas players complimenting the British based ones. A clear plan should be starting to bear fruit that will stabilise and lay the foundations for years to come. We are blessed with the riches of the premier league but are still saddled with an overage squad, and continue to be linked with players that are quite frankly offer no long term future to Stoke City, ie Owen. This is where my frustration is creeping in, Tony Pulis has to change or eventually he will fall on his sword and sadly so will we. Next season is an acid test for me, we are on a thin line, get it right and we will move on, wrong and we are getting close to being found out. Remember we are not Man Utd but we are no longer new kids on the block. Strange how fans are looking at this after a season of Europe, and an FA cup final not so long ago. The joys of Stoke City eh? This is spot on.
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Post by sheikhmomo on Jun 24, 2012 8:25:10 GMT
There was a huge increase in frustration at the back end of last season but I didn't detect any rise in actual 'Pulis Out' sentiment. That little grubby mob is most definitely still a lunatic fringe.
Most people are reasonable (and grateful) enough to accept he deserves to carry on with the job and has not come anywhere near deserving the sack.
The Charlton comparison has rightly become a cliche to be ridiculed but there was a club that no longer knew what success was and I think we are dangerously close to that point now. The most important question of course is what 'the family' deem success and if that's 40 points and the pot of gold that brings then they will have no reason to move away from Pulis.
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jonnyd
Youth Player
Posts: 377
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Post by jonnyd on Jun 24, 2012 8:42:05 GMT
hypothetical question, in reality its not going to happen. That is we will not be bottom 3 at any point in the season and even if we were at Dec, Pullis would not go..
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Post by stokieoldgit on Jun 24, 2012 14:14:12 GMT
We faded badly at the end of last season just as Fulham and Birmingham did following their Europa campaigns. I notice Newcastle's manager is warning their fans about this possibility following their qualification for the Europa. So their is a good explanation for what happened last season and every reason to believe this will not be the case next season. So we should be looking forward to a positive Premier League campaign this year, without the Europa distractions and the fatigue highlighted by the recent a scientific study. Some of our key players were clearly suffering last year (Etherington being the prime example) from this kind of fatigue and playing with lots of niggling injuries etc. Our 150th year could be even better and more successful than the last five.
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Post by Davef on Jun 24, 2012 14:39:38 GMT
We faded badly at the end of last season just as Fulham and Birmingham did following their Europa campaigns. Fulham picked up 37 points from the 26 games they played after their elimination from the Europa League. During the same period we picked up 24 points. We actually performed better than Fulham when we were both playing in Europe. Birmingham were 13th in the Championship when they were knocked out of the Europa League and finished 4th.
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Post by JoeinOz on Jun 24, 2012 14:51:06 GMT
Having to waste energy chasing lost causes didn't help. If we passed the ball forward to feet perhaps they wouldn't have been so knackered.
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Post by yogibear78 on Jun 24, 2012 15:31:55 GMT
Having to waste energy chasing lost causes didn't help. If we passed the ball forward to feet perhaps they wouldn't have been so knackered. Absolutely and this the reason Poolis' football will always be moderatley successful instead of highly successful, people hoping to improve year on year without evolving the play are living in dreamland. Keep gifting the ball to top level opposistion and eventually they will hurt you, whereas if you keep the ball they can't score. It's basic football that we don't & can't practice, that is pretty damned embarrasing for a Premier league club. Poolis could spend hundreds of millions but if he keeps to his philsophy it's money down the shitter. We play percentage er.. football and the law of averages suggests that for every 2 boots up field at least one will come back at you, you can't do that against top opposistion and expect to get results.
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