thepom
Youth Player
Posts: 333
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Post by thepom on May 29, 2015 11:26:36 GMT
Love reading the oatcake (especially for all the (can't seem to get the right word atm - will come back to this)
These proposed signings by Stoke In my opinion are fucking brilliant ...
Loads of oatcake posters thinking if we sign we him then such and such is out ...
It's like writing a really bad novel (cuz someone's always got to replace the main characters)
But what I see is we are now in the process of creating the Stoke City of the future ..
Let me emphasise what I see ..
Moneywise we couldn't buy Chelsea's 2nd 11 ... ( But they have the team & squad to never really lose a 1st team player through injury / suspension - cuz there is a replacement)
But Stoke atm are doing the same thing - but at a slightly lower level ..
This season we were left high & dry by injuries yet still achieved our best ever season in the top flight in recent years ..
Now it seems to me ( my opinion ) that we are moving in the right direction to the level above ( Europe scenario )
By having that bit of extra coverage / quality in the 1st 11 - then having our tried n tested 'Stokies' (in case of injuries etc: )from the last couple of seasons why can't we make the next step up
Who would of thought we could finish we way we did with mainly the 2013 team - cuz all the recent signings were 'out - for various reasons'
Hughesy seems to have the gift of 'getting players back ADAM is the perfect example sitting on the sidelines for months then becomes one of the most influential players on the park - don't need to mention Bojan cuz that speaks for itself ( never thought I'd say this but Bojan getting injured has probably made Stoke stronger by knowing it's not all about one player but getting a whole lot stronger as a whole ) and at least now no one will bid for Bojan till he proves his fitness again cuz the skill will never leave.
Have so much respect for Pulis in setting this all up - and now Hughes has us heading in the right direction ( a lot quicker than I thought possible )
This is just my view and will keep thinking this - but I do feel that this season has been ' the rock ' from which now everything else will be built ...
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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2015 11:32:29 GMT
"Have so much respect for Pulis in setting this all up" There's a bin for this...hmmm....  |
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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2015 11:37:44 GMT
"Have so much respect for Pulis in setting this all up" There's a bin for this...hmmm.... He's right though? Many of our best players were signed by Tony and the fact he kept us up with the squad he did initially is quite a feat. I've never understood why on the oatcake some people fail to appreciate what he has done for us. Mentioning his name is taboo seemingly... Why not credit both managers as they've both done incredible jobs for us, while I would never want to swap Hughes for Pulis at this point in time nor would I want to swap Pulis for Hughes in our first season in the Premier League, they're both different managers with different styles and both have been fantastic for Stoke City. In their own ways. I'd agree with the OP on the whole, although it was a little tough to read  |
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Post by Pretty Little Boother on May 29, 2015 11:38:18 GMT
It's a bit scary to think of how well we might be able to compete.
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thepom
Youth Player
Posts: 333
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Post by thepom on May 29, 2015 11:44:37 GMT
"Have so much respect for Pulis in setting this all up" There's a bin for this...hmmm.... Please don't get into all this Pulis v Hughes bollox - it was time for him to go - and we have progressed .. (Honestly can't seem to fathom all the bollox that generates this subject) Pulis got us there and kept us there - Hughes has made major strides in taking us forward ...) That should be the end of every argument ... FFS - We are Stoke City 1863 |
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Post by boshinthekipper on May 29, 2015 11:46:54 GMT
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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2015 11:47:28 GMT
"Have so much respect for Pulis in setting this all up" There's a bin for this...hmmm.... He's right though? Many of our best players were signed by Tony and the fact he kept us up with the squad he did initially is quite a feat. I've never understood why on the oatcake some people fail to appreciate what he has done for us. Mentioning his name is taboo seemingly... Why not credit both managers as they've both done incredible jobs for us, while I would never want to swap Hughes for Pulis at this point in time nor would I want to swap Pulis for Hughes in our first season in the Premier League, they're both different managers with different styles and both have been fantastic for Stoke City. In their own ways. I'd agree with the OP on the whole, although it was a little tough to read Sorry, but this is a Mark Hughes side. |
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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2015 11:59:39 GMT
He's right though? Many of our best players were signed by Tony and the fact he kept us up with the squad he did initially is quite a feat. I've never understood why on the oatcake some people fail to appreciate what he has done for us. Mentioning his name is taboo seemingly... Why not credit both managers as they've both done incredible jobs for us, while I would never want to swap Hughes for Pulis at this point in time nor would I want to swap Pulis for Hughes in our first season in the Premier League, they're both different managers with different styles and both have been fantastic for Stoke City. In their own ways. I'd agree with the OP on the whole, although it was a little tough to read Sorry, but this is a Mark Hughes side. Tell that to Begovic, Shawcross, Cameron, N'zonzi, Whelan, Walters, Crouch and the list goes on. You can't ignore the impact that Pulis has had one our club, and as seemingly hard as it might be for you to realise this it was a positive impact. We've been blessed with two excellent managers who are very good at different things, I feel sorry for you that you can't see that because it fills me with great pride as a Stoke City fan. |
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Post by metalhead on May 29, 2015 12:21:29 GMT
"Have so much respect for Pulis in setting this all up" There's a bin for this...hmmm.... He's right though? Many of our best players were signed by Tony and the fact he kept us up with the squad he did initially is quite a feat. I've never understood why on the oatcake some people fail to appreciate what he has done for us. Mentioning his name is taboo seemingly... Why not credit both managers as they've both done incredible jobs for us, while I would never want to swap Hughes for Pulis at this point in time nor would I want to swap Pulis for Hughes in our first season in the Premier League, they're both different managers with different styles and both have been fantastic for Stoke City. In their own ways. I'd agree with the OP on the whole, although it was a little tough to read  both Tony and Hughes deserve our respect. |
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Post by lordb on May 29, 2015 12:24:27 GMT
I agree with the o/p
Hughes appears to be building a squad of players if a high enough standard to put a (more or less) the same quality out for every game.
Tricky part is (as well as funding all that) keeping everyone happy.
Thats where getting into Europe will help.
All good news as far as I can see.
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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2015 13:02:45 GMT
Good post, worthy go a bump come mid August when the teams around us are splashing the cash and we he haven't spent big.
Hughes is putting a hell of a squad together on a tight budget, if we can match the performances of this season again I'll be very happy. It's a great time to be a Stokie.
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Post by Staffsoatcake on May 29, 2015 13:26:01 GMT
Next season closer to the 60pts mark than 50. 50 or more goals scored, with a bigger plus goals for than against.  |
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Post by cheeesfreeex on May 29, 2015 14:24:17 GMT
Bickering about the former manager seems a little futile, I hope that as Wilson Palacios empties his locker, some of the vitriol and resentment against TP will dissipate. Time is a great healer. There are loads of things to be positive about, and one of the most encouraging things is that I've seen our team/squad's brilliance in patches. There is still potential for improvement. It doesn't feel like we've peaked yet, or any sense that we'll be 'found out'. There's proper quality in attack, if we can start adding half a dozen goals a season from defence {including corners etc}, on song, we'll be uncontainable. It would make all the difference when we're struggling to break teams down. Like Leicester at the Brit, 16 or so corners and dominating possession, no product. And obviously there's room for improvement from the dead ball. I'll greet every new acquisition with expectations, but I'll contain the excitement and remain squeeky arsed until the window shuts for fear of losing a jewel or two. I like the overall direction of the Club, the way we are structuring deals etc. It gives me a swell of pride that we're thrifty in the face of all the moolah swilling around the Prem. Every Club has to contend with injuries, they have to be factored in, but this year felt particularly harsh. It's been impressive how the management team hasn't whined about it, nor indeed used it as an excuse. Perhaps the Gods of Football will give us an easier ride next season. As the quality in depth of the squad is improving I'd like to see us resting Ryan, Pieters, N'Zonzi, Bojan etc in the early rounds of the Cups. Give the benchers some competitive games to keep them sharp and competing for a place. It'll be interesting to see how the summer goes with finishing on such a high. We perhaps need to suffer a few friendly thrashings to stop any complacency sneaking in. Don't really want to wish me life away, but I conner wait for August. |
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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2015 16:27:19 GMT
Be careful what you wish for. Where is Alan Curbishley these day  |
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Post by foxysgloves on May 29, 2015 16:45:38 GMT
"Have so much respect for Pulis in setting this all up" There's a bin for this...hmmm.... He's right though? Many of our best players were signed by Tony and the fact he kept us up with the squad he did initially is quite a feat. I've never understood why on the oatcake some people fail to appreciate what he has done for us. Mentioning his name is taboo seemingly... Why not credit both managers as they've both done incredible jobs for us, while I would never want to swap Hughes for Pulis at this point in time nor would I want to swap Pulis for Hughes in our first season in the Premier League, they're both different managers with different styles and both have been fantastic for Stoke City. In their own ways. I'd agree with the OP on the whole, although it was a little tough to read  Good post that. |
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Post by jarvinski on May 29, 2015 17:09:50 GMT
Tony Pulis was a fantastic manager for the dogs home, MH is now taking us to Crufts, both have been amazing for SCFC
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Post by bmstoke on May 29, 2015 17:15:11 GMT
I'm also getting quite optimistic, it' worries the fuck out of me where Stoke are concerned.
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Post by Kjones9 on May 29, 2015 17:55:14 GMT
Just a tip.
Read bayerns post history, that'll bring you back down to earth.
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Post by robstokie on May 29, 2015 18:38:21 GMT
Love reading the oatcake (especially for all the (can't seem to get the right word atm - will come back to this)
These proposed signings by Stoke In my opinion are fucking brilliant ...
Loads of oatcake posters thinking if we sign we him then such and such is out ...
It's like writing a really bad novel (cuz someone's always got to replace the main characters)
But what I see is we are now in the process of creating the Stoke City of the future ..
Let me emphasise what I see ..
Moneywise we couldn't buy Chelsea's 2nd 11 ... ( But they have the team & squad to never really lose a 1st team player through injury / suspension - cuz there is a replacement)
But Stoke atm are doing the same thing - but at a slightly lower level ..
This season we were left high & dry by injuries yet still achieved our best ever season in the top flight in recent years ..
Now it seems to me ( my opinion ) that we are moving in the right direction to the level above ( Europe scenario )
By having that bit of extra coverage / quality in the 1st 11 - then having our tried n tested 'Stokies' (in case of injuries etc: )from the last couple of seasons why can't we make the next step up
Who would of thought we could finish we way we did with mainly the 2013 team - cuz all the recent signings were 'out - for various reasons'
Hughesy seems to have the gift of 'getting players back ADAM is the perfect example sitting on the sidelines for months then becomes one of the most influential players on the park - don't need to mention Bojan cuz that speaks for itself ( never thought I'd say this but Bojan getting injured has probably made Stoke stronger by knowing it's not all about one player but getting a whole lot stronger as a whole ) and at least now no one will bid for Bojan till he proves his fitness again cuz the skill will never leave.
Have so much respect for Pulis in setting this all up - and now Hughes has us heading in the right direction ( a lot quicker than I thought possible )
This is just my view and will keep thinking this - but I do feel that this season has been ' the rock ' from which now everything else will be built ...
With regards to having a team who can compete for the Europa League, I would still say we are a few players off getting there at the moment. If we were to have a go we would probably need a better right-back, another wide man (possibly in the ethers mould), another striker who can bring us elements of both Diouf and Crouch and maybe a slightly upgraded version of Glenn, Meaning our first choice team would look something like this: Butland/Bego Ryan Muni New RB Pieters Whelan/New CDM N'Zonzi Arnie Bojan Moses Diouf/ new striker subs Haugaard/Butland Wolly GCam Whelan/Sidwell Adam/Ireland New winger Dioufy/Crouch The exciting thing about it at the moment though is that we have a real chance of strengthening in the following areas this summer, and, if we can hit the ground running, never say never... |
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thepom
Youth Player
Posts: 333
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Post by thepom on May 30, 2015 10:54:35 GMT
Nice squad with the players we already got - but wait for the new signings before - cuz this coming season is the one ( will gladly reopen this thread come august ) or leave it till xmas when everyone can't believe how well we have done ...
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Post by Stokie Mcpot on May 30, 2015 11:40:25 GMT
It's funny, when it looked like Benitez was coming here (never actually going to happen of course) my friend and I were ecstatic about the prospect of another European tour. Now with Hughes that prospect really does seem a reality. To quote a fine man, it's "marvellous"
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Post by Pugsley on May 30, 2015 12:57:25 GMT
Current set up has nothing to do with the ex manager at all. We have a manager and a coaching team who have brought football back to the Potteries, who want to win football matches and want success playing modern expansive football.
The old regime lived for 40 points while patronising us with food analogies and showing general contempt for the paying supporter.
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Post by jarhead on May 30, 2015 22:04:20 GMT
Current set up has nothing to do with the ex manager at all. We have a manager and a coaching team who have brought football back to the Potteries, who want to win football matches and want success playing modern expansive football. The old regime lived for 40 points while patronising us with food analogies and showing general contempt for the paying supporter. Spot on |
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Post by mrcoke on May 30, 2015 23:17:35 GMT
Current set up has nothing to do with the ex manager at all. We have a manager and a coaching team who have brought football back to the Potteries, who want to win football matches and want success playing modern expansive football. The old regime lived for 40 points while patronising us with food analogies and showing general contempt for the paying supporter. In 1975 Stoke just missed out on winning the old 1st Division and Derby were champions, managed by Dave Mackay who died recently. Dave Mackay was asked how much of the credit for his winning the league could be attributed to the players/team left by Brian Clough. His reply was he (Dave Mackay) was due 100% of the credit for winning, because if they had got relegated, he would have received 100% of the blame!  |
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Post by Ryan_Shawjosh on May 30, 2015 23:26:22 GMT
There's no doubt that when you consider the broader picture, Pulis is a very good manager for a team looking to survive relegation. Ignoring the fact he was already at the club, he was exactly what we needed in a manager to keep us up and he did it extremely well for a couple of years. Unfortunately though, as much as I appreciate what he achieved with the club, he struggled to push on because, in my personal opinion, a large amount of his success is down to the mental side of the game in instilling this "everyone is against us and we must prove them wrong" attitude which feeds down to the players to bring out higher work ethics and the ones that weren't influenced by his ways were removed (the famous DNA). I'm sure he will have done the same at Palace and, to a certain degree, currently at WBA. Once we had stayed up the second time around, there were quite clearly weaker teams than ourselves within the division and the media had moved on from even seeing us as relegation candidates. The underdog mentality he tries to bring to the clubs he manages no longer fell in line with the inevitably increased expectations of the supporters and it gets to the point where they don't want to consistantly hear how the number one target of each season is to reach the magic 40 point target to stay in the division, or how the teams they face each week, more often than not, have more premier league experience than themselves. Once that mental side of the game has reached it's potential, and is no longer enough for continued improvement, other teams with more ambitious ways of approaching a season continue to improve and the club starts to struggle. We saw this towards the end of Pulis' time at Stoke where it was starting to become apparent that he was reaching his limit with us.
This is where Hughes has done very well and the supporters quickly started to believe that the club could improve and challenge for top half finishes and, hopefully in the future, european football again. Another thing Hughes has brought to the club is the experience of managing at all levels clubs in the league, from working with limited resources, to working with a wealth of money, but having to manage more extreme player egos, to maybe managing his own ego and making critical mistakes which it seems he has learned important lessons from. His contacts in the game also make him extremely beneficial to a club of Stoke's size (Barcelona being an obvious example).
The point I'm trying to make, in a long-winded way, is that, as limited as Pulis was/is, he was perfect for us up to a point due to his mentality. However, it was exactly that mentality that started to frustrate an increasing proportion of the fans. I wouldn't consider that section of fans as having short memories and, similarly, I wouldn't consider the rest of the fans as being unambitious. At the end of the day, Coates and Co have made crucial decisions, each one of them seemingly paying off since he returned to the club. We wouldn't be where we are now without Pulis and his "negative" mentality in the first couple of seasons but we also wouldn't be where we are now if we didn't move on and get Hughes in.
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Post by robinplumpton on May 30, 2015 23:48:52 GMT
Its an interesting conundrum, Pulis is given great credit for keeping teams up, but he also got us to the Premier League in the first place. Now lets look at that. In terms of transfers/loan signings, we certainly speculated to accumulate (Shola Ameobi any body?). He then spent shedloads to keep us in the Premier League. Contrast this with Mark Hughes who...apparently spent loads at Man City ( but not on his players) and did a similar thing allegedly at QPR. Sparky has done a great job for us, I hope he is given the same leeway as TP to buy(his) players, I cant help but be excited by Sparkys track record based on parsimony at Stoke, what frightens me is that if he is given money he will find more Bojans and I will believe and hope, now thats frightening and exciting,but the pessimist on my shoulder says his big money signings become Djibrill Cisse or Jose Bosingwa. Whatever my inclination not to believe, I believe in Sparky. Gooooooarnstoke
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Post by Ryan_Shawjosh on May 31, 2015 0:07:07 GMT
Its an interesting conundrum, Pulis is given great credit for keeping teams up, but he also got us to the Premier League in the first place. Now lets look at that. In terms of transfers/loan signings, we certainly speculated to accumulate (Shola Ameobi any body?). He then spent shedloads to keep us in the Premier League. Contrast this with Mark Hughes who...apparently spent loads at Man City ( but not on his players) and did a similar thing allegedly at QPR. Sparky has done a great job for us, I hope he is given the same leeway as TP to buy(his) players, I cant help but be excited by Sparkys track record based on parsimony at Stoke, what frightens me is that if he is given money he will find more Bojans and I will believe and hope, now thats frightening and exciting,but the pessimist on my shoulder says his big money signings become Djibrill Cisse or Jose Bosingwa. Whatever my inclination not to believe, I believe in Sparky. Gooooooarnstoke Some of his signings at City were his signings (e.g. Santa Cruz, I'm guessing Wayne Bridge and players like that). They weren't great signings at all. At QPR, Zamora, Andy Johnson etc. The signings he has made so far at Stoke though (give or take a Sidwell) have been nothing short of remarkable and long may it continue. I'm confident going forward, even if he's given more money which I hope he will be. We're fortunate in that I think Coates will give him the leeway but I'm not entire convinced he'll need it as much. |
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Post by robinplumpton on May 31, 2015 0:12:40 GMT
I trust and hope you are right. The QPR/Man City signings seemed to t turn out as a mixed bag...for every Vincent Kompany there was....the QPR team. For our team, his judgement seemingly been perfect on a shoestring..Arnie, Bojan..with the Pulis money it could be soooooooooooooooooooo good
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Post by riccyfuller93 on May 31, 2015 0:14:35 GMT
I'm so scared it will be the season where everyone is disappointed "But we did so well last season!" then again, there's a part of me like that every season and we always start dodgy then just get better and better.
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Post by robinplumpton on May 31, 2015 0:18:04 GMT
I'm so scared it will be the season where everyone is disappointed "But we did so well last season!" then again, there's a part of me like that every season and we always start dodgy then just get better and better. nail hit head on |
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