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Post by boothenesque on Jan 9, 2020 12:34:07 GMT
Yet no apologies from the board and Scholes. Clearly Hughes had a part to play getting rid of the horrible Pulis backbone in the side and letting discipline break down so the collective fell apart. Sure some players should hang their heads but there was a toxic legacy left by Hughes that has been left to persist with 3 managers. But surely there is a common factor in all that mess, that those tasked with actually running the club and paid to do so are hopelessly inadequate. I think for all his faults Pulis was at least strong enough to compensate for the shit at the top. Hughes made some great signings but once we became pretty instead of nasty, fragile, that inadequacy and incompetence could not be supported and it all started to fall in. I think in MON we have someone experience, steely, gritty, a quiet determination but it's a long haul back. Can we do it with the drag factor of Scholes and the current board that got lucky before. Yes they have some money to compliment that luck that on balance served us well but that incompetence and money is now coming back to bite us having to offload good players. Someone at the top needs to make some brave decisions, get rid of the current management team and get a proper strategy to get back to the PL.
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Post by Staffsoatcake on Jan 9, 2020 12:45:20 GMT
What a great strip that black with a green sash was, would look great with a red sash.
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Post by PotterLog on Jan 9, 2020 13:41:15 GMT
The best Stoke side I've ever seen and it was under Hughes. Some on here need to remember that and stop blaming him for our demise. You can do both you know
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Post by ParaPsych on Jan 9, 2020 13:59:46 GMT
It was the back half of that season that we started to go backwards under Hughes, having been excellent in the first half. But nothing we shouldn't have been able to easily sort out if we'd just woken up a bit. It was the 2-2 at home to Leicester when we were 2 up Vardy sent off and all 4 defenders on yellow cards and all at HT December 2016 was the date it all started to turn sour Yeah it was around then we started to become genuinely rubbish, I was more talking about when we stopped being great and became merely average again. I think given our form and when things have started to change the last few years are better summed up by the year than the season: 2014 - Very good 2015 - Excellent 2016 - Average 2017 - Rubbish 2018 - Diabolical 2019 - The words don't exist
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Post by ravey123 on Jan 9, 2020 14:06:58 GMT
not one of these players is left. How far we have fallen in such as a short period of time. That just makes me want to weep - I don't think we fully appreciated how good we were at times - just watching Affelay, Shaqiri, Arnautovic and Bojan celebrating one of the goals as a foursome just about sums up how far we have dropped.
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Post by Linx on Jan 9, 2020 14:21:57 GMT
Unfortunately all that does is depress me. We are so far away from that. Even if, by some miracle we turned around this shower of shite and got promoted next season, it would take us years to get to that level of performance and those kinds of players wearing the red and white stripes. It also reminds a few of us that Mark Hughes didn’t do that much of a bad job: Shaqiri apart, most were bought for peanuts.
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Post by medwaypotter on Jan 9, 2020 14:39:35 GMT
Did Joselu cup his ears there ? What a cunt...
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Post by gogogadget on Jan 9, 2020 15:12:26 GMT
Its gutting I agree.
However, lots of teams currently are in a situation much worse than there best years. 92 professional clubs cant all be on a upward trajectory.
For me, it's not where we are or how we got here anymore. I've done too much grieving. Moaning about it wont change the past I would however like to see or here some acknowledgement of responsibility taken for some ludicrous management and decision making.
I got to the stage in October where I couldn't be arsed anymore. But now I'm starting to feel a bit more togetherness among us fans.
I'm kind of enjoying this relegation fight now, I think I we can use the rest of the season to rebuild our affinity with the team and carry it on into next season. Maybe, just maybe for a play off push
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Post by kustokie on Jan 9, 2020 15:20:45 GMT
Unfortunately all that does is depress me. We are so far away from that. Even if, by some miracle we turned around this shower of shite and got promoted next season, it would take us years to get to that level of performance and those kinds of players wearing the red and white stripes. It also reminds a few of us that Mark Hughes didn’t do that much of a bad job: Shaqiri apart, most were bought for peanuts. Super John scored a couple of belters as well. we will be back, but gods knows when.
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Post by xchpotter on Jan 9, 2020 15:22:50 GMT
😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
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Post by redstriper on Jan 9, 2020 16:19:55 GMT
We had it so good. We’re all privileged to have witnessed that team there were plenty on here moaning even then. The sense of entitlement went through the roof with some of the younger posters who hadn't experienced any of the truly awful times previously.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2020 16:37:41 GMT
He is not the sole reason, true. But the fact that he's not in these highlights signifies that once we started signing players of lesser quality such as Allen we started setting our targets lower. That's when you end up paying a price for spending more on less. Lesser quality. Yeah right, he was in the team for the best players in the euros. Ambitious signing at the time. Too bad he was just a flash in the pan. He was pretty much signed on the same basis that we signed Imbula. Although G actually has ability.
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Post by zerps on Jan 9, 2020 16:59:03 GMT
We had it so good. We’re all privileged to have witnessed that team there were plenty on here moaning even then. The sense of entitlement went through the roof with some of the younger posters who hadn't experienced any of the truly awful times previously. Did you perform a consensus of posters date of birth?
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Post by redstriper on Jan 9, 2020 17:12:52 GMT
there were plenty on here moaning even then. The sense of entitlement went through the roof with some of the younger posters who hadn't experienced any of the truly awful times previously. Did you perform a consensus of posters date of birth? I take it you're disagreeing with the point i was making then zerps ? or do you remember it everyone being satisfied around that time even after we lost a game ?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2020 17:16:56 GMT
Joe is not the reason we have fallen so dramatically. The Pullis era was great, the board probably waiting to long to make a change but eventually they did. Hughes was a good appointment but ground hog day appeared some 4 or so years down the track and they to long to realise Hughes was his used by date. This time the dithering got us relegated not because Paul Lambert was a bad man or manager but because the rot could not be halted quick enough. When they decided to get rid of Lambert they should have gone for experience but they went with a young and aspiring manager who shot himself in the foot with us the supporters. Then they compound the problem with appointment of an apprentice who got us in so much mess that if MON Stearns us up the table it will be a miracle. I think MON is the man for the challenge and we don't need one additional player other than a left back. We have seen him go to 4/3/3 with holding midfielder, then more recently change the shape of the 4/3/3 to more of a 4/2/3/2 and we look like we are improving every week. We have put 4 past Barnsley , 3 past Luton, 5 past Huddlesfield and taken the risk of having Verlinden/ Campbell, Ngoy and Collins on the field at the same time. We are heading the right direction for the first time in 3 years ! The board had to retain those young players and we continue to improve. I know the thread highlights how bad the drop had been but I am optimistic that we have turned the corner. Paul Lambert had the easiest job in football keeping that side up. He randomly switched to a bollocks 442 which got the worst out of our best player, stuck a right back at left wing, and persisted with a striker who had 1 shot on target in 8 games. We were miles, miles, miles better than Swansea, Southampton, Huddersfield and WBA. Even with Lambert's unbearably shite tactics, horrendous individual mistakes and missed chances, we still nearly stayed up! We'd have had a horrible 2018/19 if we did stay up, but Lambert should've kept us there with ease. He was absolutely fucking dreadful tactically.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2020 17:18:36 GMT
We had it so good. We’re all privileged to have witnessed that team there were plenty on here moaning even then. The sense of entitlement went through the roof with some of the younger posters who hadn't experienced any of the truly awful times previously. It was older posters calling to drop Bojan, Afellay, Arnie, Shaq, that I remember Shaq especially came in for a lot of criticism!
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Post by redstriper on Jan 9, 2020 17:23:17 GMT
there were plenty on here moaning even then. The sense of entitlement went through the roof with some of the younger posters who hadn't experienced any of the truly awful times previously. It was older posters calling to drop Bojan, Afellay, Arnie, Shaq, that I remember Shaq especially came in for a lot of criticism! You remember it different to me. Affelay was my own favourite player in that era, made everything look effortless and never wasted possession, but still got criticised for not being gung ho enough. Shame he suffered with injuries.
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Post by zerps on Jan 9, 2020 17:23:39 GMT
Did you perform a consensus of posters date of birth? I take it you're disagreeing with the point i was making then zerps ? or do you remember it everyone being satisfied around that time even after we lost a game ? Just wondering how you knew how old they were? You’ll probably find it was the old fuckers moaning 😄
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2020 17:39:42 GMT
The best Stoke side I've ever seen and it was under Hughes. Some on here need to remember that and stop blaming him for our demise. No one is blaming Hughes for beginning , by signing some classy attackers ( Arnautovic , Moses , Shaqiri , Bojan ) That was always going to give us more cutting edge in the final third
And there is no particular reason , why backed up with the no nonsense footballing endeavour of Walters , Whelan , Delap , Shawcross , Huth, Wilko etc , that shouldn't produce a balanced team .
The debate is ... when it came down to the nitty gritty of finding the next generation of walters , Whelan , delap , shawcross , huth , wilko etc , did Hughes make a right royal mess of it ( ably supported by Scholes and carto )
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Post by albundy on Jan 9, 2020 18:46:52 GMT
Joe is not the reason we have fallen so dramatically. The Pullis era was great, the board probably waiting to long to make a change but eventually they did. Hughes was a good appointment but ground hog day appeared some 4 or so years down the track and they to long to realise Hughes was his used by date. This time the dithering got us relegated not because Paul Lambert was a bad man or manager but because the rot could not be halted quick enough. When they decided to get rid of Lambert they should have gone for experience but they went with a young and aspiring manager who shot himself in the foot with us the supporters. Then they compound the problem with appointment of an apprentice who got us in so much mess that if MON Stearns us up the table it will be a miracle. I think MON is the man for the challenge and we don't need one additional player other than a left back. We have seen him go to 4/3/3 with holding midfielder, then more recently change the shape of the 4/3/3 to more of a 4/2/3/2 and we look like we are improving every week. We have put 4 past Barnsley , 3 past Luton, 5 past Huddlesfield and taken the risk of having Verlinden/ Campbell, Ngoy and Collins on the field at the same time. We are heading the right direction for the first time in 3 years ! The board had to retain those young players and we continue to improve. I know the thread highlights how bad the drop had been but I am optimistic that we have turned the corner. So all it took to improve was to play 11 outfield players
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Post by foxysgloves on Jan 9, 2020 19:13:18 GMT
And then we signed Joe fucking Allen And you single him out ahead of Wimmer, Berahino, Imbula etc because? If Joe Allen was our biggest problem and failure we’d still be in the Premier League. Which by my calculations makes your post absolute bollocks.
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Post by wakefieldstokie on Jan 9, 2020 19:46:32 GMT
We were alright. But Shaq/Arnie/Bojan aren’t a patch on Vokes/Gregory/Ince
😭😭😭😭😭😭🤯
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Post by harrysburrow on Jan 9, 2020 19:46:43 GMT
That 4 way hug after the Arnie v Man City goal? Big names, great side - we're so shit now aren't we.
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Post by wakefieldstokie on Jan 9, 2020 19:47:50 GMT
Seeing than just rams home what a catastrophic fall we have seen.
However we still have the same boardroom team in place so that’s good😤
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Post by AlbertTatlock on Jan 9, 2020 19:54:29 GMT
Don't think Hughes and his staff were the problem ( Bowen doing well as manager at Reading), I was told categorically that Hughes had lost all responsibility for recruitment it was down to the two muppets upstairs. So although one has now gone, we still have the other and can't see any positive outcome until he has gone and the management team watch and buy who they want. Don't believe everything you're told, whoever told you that is wrong. Gouranga.
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Post by apb1 on Jan 9, 2020 20:01:43 GMT
That 4 way hug after the Arnie v Man City goal? Big names, great side - we're so shit now aren't we. Should have won three or four that day. They were nowhere near us.
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Post by Davef on Jan 9, 2020 20:02:24 GMT
Don't think Hughes and his staff were the problem ( Bowen doing well as manager at Reading), I was told categorically that Hughes had lost all responsibility for recruitment it was down to the two muppets upstairs. So although one has now gone, we still have the other and can't see any positive outcome until he has gone and the management team watch and buy who they want. Don't believe everything you're told, whoever told you that is wrong. Gouranga. The more people come out with this kind of piffle, the more they obviously believe it. For all their faults, does anybody truly believe that those upstairs were responsible for signing Saido Berahino? It's laughable.
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Post by colnepotter on Jan 9, 2020 20:19:48 GMT
Don't believe everything you're told, whoever told you that is wrong. Gouranga. The more people come out with this kind of piffle, the more they obviously believe it. For all their faults, does anybody truly believe that those upstairs were responsible for signing Saido Berahino? It's laughable.
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Post by colnepotter on Jan 9, 2020 20:20:07 GMT
The more people come out with this kind of piffle, the more they obviously believe it. For all their faults, does anybody truly believe that those upstairs were responsible for signing Saido Berahino? It's laughable.
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Post by colnepotter on Jan 9, 2020 20:21:39 GMT
Yes incredibly some people do believe such nonsense.....you could not make it up
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