|
Post by Pugsley on Sept 11, 2023 17:51:34 GMT
0 - Relegated us. 0 - Wasted millions and mugged off supporters. Tosser. 1 - for being an absolute nutjob. 6 - Rescued us from oblivion 0 - Done nothing except spend anther fortune. Ask me again at the end of the season.
|
|
|
Post by theonlooker on Sept 11, 2023 17:52:20 GMT
0 - Relegated us. 0 - Wasted millions and mugged off supporters. Tosser. 1 - for being an absolute nutjob. 6 - Rescued us from oblivion 0 - Done nothing except spend anther fortune. Ask me again at the end of the season. 🤣
|
|
|
Post by blackpoolred on Sept 11, 2023 18:37:05 GMT
Personally thought the team was beginning to show signs - we had played some good stuff, he was sacked for losing 2 in 12 games - stuff we could only dream of now. We went on to persist longer with Jones who was a road traffic accident from the start - not saying Rowett would have been some sort of messiah - just that I would have liked to have seen what would have happened had we not pulled the trigger as quick as we did - more curiosity - but a feeling we would have at least been top half and maybe pushing for play-offs Based on what though? He’d have wanted more money to waste in January, would you have been comfortable giving him more? What ‘good stuff’ were we playing? The only games we showed anything in were against teams who came at us and thus were open enough for us to counter attack against. The problem was that he tried to play that way against everybody, whether it was Villa away or Rotherham at home. The 12 game run also included six draws, three of them against the sides who finished 19th, 20th and 23rd. I would have given him more time, unless somebody is doing a Jones and losing every game then give them a bit of time - otherwise why employ them. He would have got any money left, which was not a lot, but would have been happy to let him have it. All conjecture and we will never know what would have happened and I can understand why everybody hated him
|
|
|
Post by pavel on Sept 11, 2023 18:44:15 GMT
0 - Relegated us. 0 - Wasted millions and mugged off supporters. Tosser. 1 - for being an absolute nutjob. 6 - Rescued us from oblivion 0 - Done nothing except spend anther fortune. Ask me again at the end of the season. I was close to giving those sort of marks but felt a little kinder at the time. But can’t argue……
|
|
|
Post by clarkeda on Sept 11, 2023 18:49:18 GMT
Too early to say re AN PL 5, GR 4 NJ 1 MoN 6.5 Too early to say for AN? He’s had the most time bar PL in that list 😂
|
|
|
Post by blackpoolred on Sept 11, 2023 18:56:05 GMT
Lambert 1/10 - Totally out of his depth, possibly the most awful person(Dinosaur) imaginable to put in charge at that time - dreadful/clueless club management Rowett 6/10 - think I am the only fan in Stoke that would have liked to have seen him given more time, picked up a club rotten to the core and was going to take some rebuild even with money - half a season and one window ridiculous amount of time - clueless club management. Jones 1/10 - See Lambert comment O'Neil 3/10 - started off well and then looked like he lost interest, just another front man - got rid at the correct time - awful appointment at the time though given we were bottom of the table and he could only take the job on a part-time basis, had a drinking problem/conviction and zero experience in English football - beyond clueless club management. Neil 4/10 (so far) - needs time, certainly talks a good game, not sure he knows or has the experience of rebuilding a team. Once again lost with the windows though, I think we signed 9 attacking players in the last window and have 7 viable defenders in the entire squad, total lack of depth and quality in that position - no great headers of the ball and unable to defend a basic cross since the guy has been here and nothing done to rectify that. Don't be sending me stats on our defenders aerial duals - just look at the goals we are conceding week in week out Impressed that we did not hang on to MON and went all out for AN - has a decent record and lots of experience so I suppose we cant complain with this one and some of the football has looked the best we have seen for a while, but we have had the odd game where it has looked utterly shocking and total surrender. 6 for Rowett for spunking £60m on expensive dross that set our recovery back another 3/4 seasons. 3 for O’Neill who helped undo a lot of the damage he caused. Makes zero sense…… Given what Rowett inherited I thought he was doing an ok job, always going to take some effort to rebuild the club - in the wrong hands we could well have ended up slipping down to tier 3 - we were so bad - had we employed Jones at that time we may well have done. MON - inherited some decent players of which 4 or 5 of them hit form together: Campbell, Allen, Clucas, Powell from memory - in his first season here which helped us to survive. He never took us on from there and had no idea how to build a team, convinced we would have gone down had we not pulled the trigger on him when we did, rumours he was not going into to training, his health was poor and had no experience at this level - at best we would have stayed a bottom half team - poor manager
|
|
|
Post by The Toxic Avenger on Sept 11, 2023 19:24:34 GMT
Based on what though? He’d have wanted more money to waste in January, would you have been comfortable giving him more? What ‘good stuff’ were we playing? The only games we showed anything in were against teams who came at us and thus were open enough for us to counter attack against. The problem was that he tried to play that way against everybody, whether it was Villa away or Rotherham at home. The 12 game run also included six draws, three of them against the sides who finished 19th, 20th and 23rd. I would have given him more time, unless somebody is doing a Jones and losing every game then give them a bit of time - otherwise why employ them. He would have got any money left, which was not a lot, but would have been happy to let him have it. All conjecture and we will never know what would have happened and I can understand why everybody hated him You’d have been happy to let him have it after he spent £50m on absolute shite which in many cases didn’t even fit the system he was bent on playing? What was the point of giving him time, what was going to change? Was he suddenly going to start treating the likes of Wigan at home like Wigan at home instead of 1970 Brazil in the Maracana? Was he suddenly going to find a place for some creativity having expunged almost all traces of it from the squad? Was he going to develop some man management capabilities having dug out the players publicly at every turn? Was he going to start spending money wisely after spending nearly £30m on Afobe, Ince and McClean as his front three?
|
|
|
Post by blackpoolred on Sept 11, 2023 21:02:06 GMT
I would have given him more time, unless somebody is doing a Jones and losing every game then give them a bit of time - otherwise why employ them. He would have got any money left, which was not a lot, but would have been happy to let him have it. All conjecture and we will never know what would have happened and I can understand why everybody hated him You’d have been happy to let him have it after he spent £50m on absolute shite which in many cases didn’t even fit the system he was bent on playing? What was the point of giving him time, what was going to change? Was he suddenly going to start treating the likes of Wigan at home like Wigan at home instead of 1970 Brazil in the Maracana? Was he suddenly going to find a place for some creativity having expunged almost all traces of it from the squad? Was he going to develop some man management capabilities having dug out the players publicly at every turn? Was he going to start spending money wisely after spending nearly £30m on Afobe, Ince and McClean as his front three? Totally get what you are saying and yes still would have been interested to see where he could have taken us. Given the situation he inherited we could have been in a worse position, as we saw when he left. There was an argument to say that the entire squad needed replacing when he arrived - it was a team that could not compete at any level, they had won one 1 competitive game of football in the calendar year before he arrived which included getting knocked out of cups by teams in lower divisions. I actually started a poll before a ball was kicked when Rowett was bought in - to see what the feeling was like, because I thought we might struggle and even fall through to tier 3. Every Stoke fan predicted that we would get automatic promotion - when I stated that we may struggle early on and that time would be needed - I got verbally raped by my fellow Stoke fans who I think at this time, like the owners were utterly clueless at just what a shambles the club was from top to bottom. On our relegation season the same fans/owners thought we were heading for Europe when we started the season with a centre-forward as our only viable option at right-back. Think he is a half decent manager at this level as he has proved before and after and, as stated, given the situation he arrived at he was never going to turn it around quickly - time was needed and no manager would have turned it around in one window and half a season. 75% of the players Stoke have signed since Pulis have been poor, same with the current manager, who I would also like to see given a bit of time - maybe some blame can be aimed at our recruitment team/policy?
|
|
|
Post by The Toxic Avenger on Sept 11, 2023 21:08:43 GMT
You’d have been happy to let him have it after he spent £50m on absolute shite which in many cases didn’t even fit the system he was bent on playing? What was the point of giving him time, what was going to change? Was he suddenly going to start treating the likes of Wigan at home like Wigan at home instead of 1970 Brazil in the Maracana? Was he suddenly going to find a place for some creativity having expunged almost all traces of it from the squad? Was he going to develop some man management capabilities having dug out the players publicly at every turn? Was he going to start spending money wisely after spending nearly £30m on Afobe, Ince and McClean as his front three? Totally get what you are saying and yes still would have been interested to see where he could have taken us. Given the situation he inherited we could have been in a worse position, as we saw when he left. There was an argument to say that the entire squad needed replacing when he arrived - it was a team that could not compete at any level, they had won one 1 competitive game of football in the calendar year before he arrived which included getting knocked out of cups by teams in lower divisions. I actually started a poll before a ball was kicked when Rowett was bought in - to see what the feeling was like, because I thought we might struggle and even fall through to tier 3. Every Stoke fan predicted that we would get automatic promotion - when I stated that we may struggle early on and that time would be needed - I got verbally raped by my fellow Stoke fans who I think at this time, like the owners were utterly clueless at just what a shambles the club was from top to bottom. On our relegation season the same fans/owners thought we were heading for Europe when we started the season with a centre-forward as our only viable option at right-back. Think he is a half decent manager at this level as he has proved before and after and, as stated, given the situation he arrived at he was never going to turn it around quickly - time was needed and no manager would have turned it around in one window and half a season. 75% of the players Stoke have signed since Pulis have been poor, same with the current manager, who I would also like to see given a bit of time - maybe some blame can be aimed at our recruitment team/policy? Again, he had £50m to spend. Spend that sensibly and we should have been in the play off mix at least. He inherited some problems but he added a shitload more. He isn’t someone you give a budget and expectations to, he’s someone you task with a shoestring and stability and hope he surprises you. He got everything wrong with us and close to nothing right.
|
|
|
Post by roylandstoke on Sept 11, 2023 21:09:03 GMT
You’d have been happy to let him have it after he spent £50m on absolute shite which in many cases didn’t even fit the system he was bent on playing? What was the point of giving him time, what was going to change? Was he suddenly going to start treating the likes of Wigan at home like Wigan at home instead of 1970 Brazil in the Maracana? Was he suddenly going to find a place for some creativity having expunged almost all traces of it from the squad? Was he going to develop some man management capabilities having dug out the players publicly at every turn? Was he going to start spending money wisely after spending nearly £30m on Afobe, Ince and McClean as his front three? Totally get what you are saying and yes still would have been interested to see where he could have taken us. Given the situation he inherited we could have been in a worse position, as we saw when he left. There was an argument to say that the entire squad needed replacing when he arrived - it was a team that could not compete at any level, they had won one 1 competitive game of football in the calendar year before he arrived which included getting knocked out of cups by teams in lower divisions. I actually started a poll before a ball was kicked when Rowett was bought in - to see what the feeling was like, because I thought we might struggle and even fall through to tier 3. Every Stoke fan predicted that we would get automatic promotion - when I stated that we may struggle early on and that time would be needed - I got verbally raped by my fellow Stoke fans who I think at this time, like the owners were utterly clueless at just what a shambles the club was from top to bottom. On our relegation season the same fans/owners thought we were heading for Europe when we started the season with a centre-forward as our only viable option at right-back. Think he is a half decent manager at this level as he has proved before and after and, as stated, given the situation he arrived at he was never going to turn it around quickly - time was needed and no manager would have turned it around in one window and half a season. 75% of the players Stoke have signed since Pulis have been poor, same with the current manager, who I would also like to see given a bit of time - maybe some blame can be aimed at our recruitment team/policy? 75% of the players we’ve signed since Imbula have been poor. Hughes did OK before that. 100% of the players Rowett bought were shite, and grossly overpriced.
|
|
|
Post by The Toxic Avenger on Sept 11, 2023 21:12:46 GMT
You’d have been happy to let him have it after he spent £50m on absolute shite which in many cases didn’t even fit the system he was bent on playing? What was the point of giving him time, what was going to change? Was he suddenly going to start treating the likes of Wigan at home like Wigan at home instead of 1970 Brazil in the Maracana? Was he suddenly going to find a place for some creativity having expunged almost all traces of it from the squad? Was he going to develop some man management capabilities having dug out the players publicly at every turn? Was he going to start spending money wisely after spending nearly £30m on Afobe, Ince and McClean as his front three? Totally get what you are saying and yes still would have been interested to see where he could have taken us. Given the situation he inherited we could have been in a worse position, as we saw when he left. There was an argument to say that the entire squad needed replacing when he arrived - it was a team that could not compete at any level, they had won one 1 competitive game of football in the calendar year before he arrived which included getting knocked out of cups by teams in lower divisions. I actually started a poll before a ball was kicked when Rowett was bought in - to see what the feeling was like, because I thought we might struggle and even fall through to tier 3. Every Stoke fan predicted that we would get automatic promotion - when I stated that we may struggle early on and that time would be needed - I got verbally raped by my fellow Stoke fans who I think at this time, like the owners were utterly clueless at just what a shambles the club was from top to bottom. On our relegation season the same fans/owners thought we were heading for Europe when we started the season with a centre-forward as our only viable option at right-back. Think he is a half decent manager at this level as he has proved before and after and, as stated, given the situation he arrived at he was never going to turn it around quickly - time was needed and no manager would have turned it around in one window and half a season. 75% of the players Stoke have signed since Pulis have been poor, same with the current manager, who I would also like to see given a bit of time - maybe some blame can be aimed at our recruitment team/policy? They were his signings though? Only Etebo wasn’t?
|
|
|
Post by baconburger on Sept 11, 2023 21:34:07 GMT
On what planet did Rowett deserve more time after that spending spree, why should he have received another penny? Personally thought the team was beginning to show signs - we had played some good stuff, he was sacked for losing 2 in 12 games - stuff we could only dream of now. We went on to persist longer with Jones who was a road traffic accident from the start - not saying Rowett would have been some sort of messiah - just that I would have liked to have seen what would have happened had we not pulled the trigger as quick as we did - more curiosity - but a feeling we would have at least been top half and maybe pushing for play-offs Losing 2 in 12 with hardly any wins and the football being awful whether we won lost or drew. Good stuff if you like sticking pins in your eyes.
|
|
|
Post by prestwichpotter on Sept 11, 2023 22:16:43 GMT
6 for Rowett for spunking £60m on expensive dross that set our recovery back another 3/4 seasons. 3 for O’Neill who helped undo a lot of the damage he caused. Makes zero sense…… Given what Rowett inherited I thought he was doing an ok job, always going to take some effort to rebuild the club - in the wrong hands we could well have ended up slipping down to tier 3 - we were so bad - had we employed Jones at that time we may well have done. MON - inherited some decent players of which 4 or 5 of them hit form together: Campbell, Allen, Clucas, Powell from memory - in his first season here which helped us to survive. He never took us on from there and had no idea how to build a team, convinced we would have gone down had we not pulled the trigger on him when we did, rumours he was not going into to training, his health was poor and had no experience at this level - at best we would have stayed a bottom half team - poor manager He delayed a hip operation longer than he should have, was clearly struggling and needed it doing in the end. The not going into training bit (other than when he was recovering from his operation) is absolute bollocks I can tell you that categorically. Rowett inherited a £60m warchest and could have shaped the squad into any way he chose. He chose a load of expensive has beens who have done fuck all since they left us which speaks volumes….
|
|
|
Post by Squeekster on Sept 11, 2023 22:18:05 GMT
MON similar to Hughes in a way in that their management periods coukd be split into 2 halves Cant let the bad endings overcloud the good early work Agree, which is why both should have been given their cards earlier. They got it so right in terms of the timing of the Pulis sacking but failed to replicate that later. I agree with most of this although Hughes had millions to spend and MON had jack shit, Hughes gave us some excellent football but in my opinion got rid of the Pulis back bone and never replaced them and that was his down fall, MON sorted out a lot of shit on and off the pitch and steadied the club, also think he had his hands tied FFP wise and yes we signed players that weren't the caliber we wanted but probably what we could afford. The 3 prior I'm bothering as they were wank, AN for me the jury is still out, recruited some very good players this summer and time will tell but he needs to get a formation that suits otherwise it's gonna be same old same old, last season was very similar to MON win some lose some.
|
|
|
Post by The Toxic Avenger on Sept 11, 2023 22:23:18 GMT
Agree, which is why both should have been given their cards earlier. They got it so right in terms of the timing of the Pulis sacking but failed to replicate that later. I agree with most of this although Hughes had millions to spend and MON had jack shit, Hughes gave us some excellent football but in my opinion got rid of the Pulis back bone and never replaced them and that was his down fall, MON sorted out a lot of shit on and off the pitch and steadied the club, also think he had his hands tied FFP wise and yes we signed players that weren't the caliber we wanted but probably what we could afford. The 3 prior I'm bothering as they were wank, AN for the jury is still out, recruited some very good players this summer and time will tell but he needs to get a formation that suits otherwise it's gonna be same old same old, last season was very similar to MON win some lose some. The backbone did need replacing though, there was no point keeping them. Hughes absolutely did do a shit job replacing them though and it did hasten his demise here, though he’d be a lot better thought of on here if the owners had moved him on 12-18 months earlier. MON did well to make a competitive budget for himself by the standards of the league but he squandered it. Brown was a good signing. Wilmot will prove to be for a manager with a better idea how to use him. But he didn’t have much of a clue in terms of midfield and his strikers signings got progressively worse too. That last window was a total shitshow with Gayle in particular the crowning turd in the waterpipe.
|
|
|
Post by Squeekster on Sept 11, 2023 22:44:09 GMT
I agree with most of this although Hughes had millions to spend and MON had jack shit, Hughes gave us some excellent football but in my opinion got rid of the Pulis back bone and never replaced them and that was his down fall, MON sorted out a lot of shit on and off the pitch and steadied the club, also think he had his hands tied FFP wise and yes we signed players that weren't the caliber we wanted but probably what we could afford. The 3 prior I'm bothering as they were wank, AN for the jury is still out, recruited some very good players this summer and time will tell but he needs to get a formation that suits otherwise it's gonna be same old same old, last season was very similar to MON win some lose some. The backbone did need replacing though, there was no point keeping them. Hughes absolutely did do a shit job replacing them though and it did hasten his demise here, though he’d be a lot better thought of on here if the owners had moved him on 12-18 months earlier. MON did well to make a competitive budget for himself by the standards of the league but he squandered it. Brown was a good signing. Wilmot will prove to be for a manager with a better idea how to use him. But he didn’t have much of a clue in terms of midfield and his strikers signings got progressively worse too. That last window was a total shitshow with Gayle in particular the crowning turd in the waterpipe. I just simply can't forgive Hughes for letting Huth go, no reason at all to let him go and he goes on to the win the league and we had Wolfschield who wasn't a bad defender just slow as fuck, and as for Gayle, I was quite excited by his signing but alas as happens with most managers a player signs and fails, again like I say not too much too disagree about but I think Wilmot is as good player and we need to build from the back, going forward midfield and attack look decent with plenty of options but it's no use if we score 2 and conceed 3.
|
|
i1da
Academy Starlet
Posts: 168
|
Post by i1da on Sept 11, 2023 22:47:53 GMT
How would you rate the last five Stoke City managers out of 10? Lambert 3/10 - ultimately went down with a whimper but in hindsight probably would have been better off keeping him than ending up with... Rowett 2/10 - spent loads, delivered very little. Just about recovered from that. Could well have led to another relegation given the shit that he signed. Jones 1/10 - I mean, just awful. Surprised he lasted so long. O'Neil 6/10 - stabilised us from the horror show we were under Jones, and no doubt improved us, but just couldn't push us on any further. Solid if not spectacular. Neil 6/10 (so far) - played some of the best football we've seen since we got relegated but oddly ended up in the worst position. Green shoots emerging this season but remains to be seen if it's all hot air. What possible positive thing could come from this exercise? 3 pages of Stoke fans posting almost identical posts all agreeing how shit we have been. Even someone with an IQ of negative 180 knows that the first 3 years after relegation were an absolute nightmare - therefore the managers involved did a very poor job for us. MON started the process of steadying the boat and we are now in a position to move forward. Whether we do or not will be AN's legacy. Cheer Up, right now it's much more fun looking out of the front windscreen rather than the rearview mirror!
|
|
|
Post by kjpt140v on Sept 11, 2023 23:02:46 GMT
PL 5, GR 4 NJ 7 MoN 6.5 Alex 5.5 so far
|
|
|
Post by kjpt140v on Sept 11, 2023 23:04:26 GMT
Lambert (5/10) - Managed to improve a team that was leaking goals, providing us with a chance of avoiding relegation. If we take the Swansea game out of the equation when there was nothing at stake, Lambert's 14 games in charge was, by a fair distance, the worst 14-game run we had that season. The fewest games LMH won in any random block of 14 games that season was 3. Lambert won 1. If we're charitable and include the Swansea dead rubber as well, it was.... still one of the worst. Still the fewest games won, still the fewest goals scored (by a distance). Les equalled or bettered PL's points total in six of his nine 15-game runs, and was only one point behind in the others. Also Hughes' longest spell without a win that season was four games - PL promptly managed 13. And let's remember this was LMH's basket-case season when his head had gone and he should have been sacked months before he was. Paul Lambert took a dreadful, hopeless team and made it worse by almost every objective measure - from relegation probables to certainties for the drop under his wretched reign. How anyone extracts "a chance of avoiding relegation" from the downward spiral he took us on I'll never know. Absolutely one of the worst managers we've ever had. 5/10 my bloody eye And if we add the game against Swansea? Hughes should have been given longer.
|
|
|
Post by PenkPonther on Sept 12, 2023 0:41:56 GMT
LAMBERT 3.5/10 Clearly not our first choice; Lambert had all the charisma and diction skills of a freshly-risen zombie! Failed in task number 1; "keep us up", and was hurried out the Manager's door; after an admittedly indecently short tenure of just 4 months.
ROWETT 3.5/10 Usually a half-decent manager, and he was also given less than a year. But he clearly wasted a fortune on Clucas, Etebo, Woods, Ince, McClean, Afobe etc. I can kind of understand the logic that they should have had too much quality for this league, but they didn't, & had f*ck-all resale value, which is the main reason we're in the hole that we've been in ever since.
JONES 1/10 The lovespawn of David Brent & some batsh*t-crazy Welsh Jehovah's witness. I didn't actually dislike the man... but he was an out-of-his-depth gibbering f*ckwit. His £9million-odd marquee signing of 29-year-old Plodder Vokes may arguably be the club's stupidest ever buy.
O'NEILL 7/10 A bit dour, but rescued us from certain oblivion, then shrewdly spent the few pennies he was given on players with a potential to be worth more in future, e.g. Brown & Wilmot. If he'd been able to tread water for long enough to receive the Souttar money, it would have been intersting to see what he might have done with it. Would not be 100% averse to him returning to the club in future: he certainly did no worse than Pulis in his first spell here.
NEIL 5.5/10 Jury still out. And it looks like Neil might be playing fantasy football at times; recently signing umpteen forwards and a paucity of defenders. But by golly it's exciting times to be a fan again! And some of his signings have potential to be real stars... IF they can adapt to English football.
Up the Potters!
|
|
|
Post by The Toxic Avenger on Sept 12, 2023 5:24:18 GMT
The backbone did need replacing though, there was no point keeping them. Hughes absolutely did do a shit job replacing them though and it did hasten his demise here, though he’d be a lot better thought of on here if the owners had moved him on 12-18 months earlier. MON did well to make a competitive budget for himself by the standards of the league but he squandered it. Brown was a good signing. Wilmot will prove to be for a manager with a better idea how to use him. But he didn’t have much of a clue in terms of midfield and his strikers signings got progressively worse too. That last window was a total shitshow with Gayle in particular the crowning turd in the waterpipe. I just simply can't forgive Hughes for letting Huth go, no reason at all to let him go and he goes on to the win the league and we had Wolfschield who wasn't a bad defender just slow as fuck, and as for Gayle, I was quite excited by his signing but alas as happens with most managers a player signs and fails, again like I say not too much too disagree about but I think Wilmot is as good player and we need to build from the back, going forward midfield and attack look decent with plenty of options but it's no use if we score 2 and conceed 3. Huth was struggling with the change in style before he got injured and we did absolutely fine without him. Gayle was never going to work, he wasn’t the kind of striker we needed even before it became clear he was a busted flush. More muddled thinking and a big chunk of our summer budget frittered away on an irrelevance while other areas were neglected.
|
|
|
Post by Pugsley on Sept 12, 2023 8:04:54 GMT
Totally get what you are saying and yes still would have been interested to see where he could have taken us. Given the situation he inherited we could have been in a worse position, as we saw when he left. There was an argument to say that the entire squad needed replacing when he arrived - it was a team that could not compete at any level, they had won one 1 competitive game of football in the calendar year before he arrived which included getting knocked out of cups by teams in lower divisions. I actually started a poll before a ball was kicked when Rowett was bought in - to see what the feeling was like, because I thought we might struggle and even fall through to tier 3. Every Stoke fan predicted that we would get automatic promotion - when I stated that we may struggle early on and that time would be needed - I got verbally raped by my fellow Stoke fans who I think at this time, like the owners were utterly clueless at just what a shambles the club was from top to bottom. On our relegation season the same fans/owners thought we were heading for Europe when we started the season with a centre-forward as our only viable option at right-back. Think he is a half decent manager at this level as he has proved before and after and, as stated, given the situation he arrived at he was never going to turn it around quickly - time was needed and no manager would have turned it around in one window and half a season. 75% of the players Stoke have signed since Pulis have been poor, same with the current manager, who I would also like to see given a bit of time - maybe some blame can be aimed at our recruitment team/policy? Again, he had £50m to spend. Spend that sensibly and we should have been in the play off mix at least. He inherited some problems but he added a shitload more. He isn’t someone you give a budget and expectations to, he’s someone you task with a shoestring and stability and hope he surprises you. He got everything wrong with us and close to nothing right. Play off mix? We should have walked the league.
|
|
|
Post by The Toxic Avenger on Sept 12, 2023 10:05:44 GMT
Again, he had £50m to spend. Spend that sensibly and we should have been in the play off mix at least. He inherited some problems but he added a shitload more. He isn’t someone you give a budget and expectations to, he’s someone you task with a shoestring and stability and hope he surprises you. He got everything wrong with us and close to nothing right. Play off mix? We should have walked the league. There are people who genuinely believe he stopped us getting relegated. They're the usual fans of eye-bleedingly attritional garbage in the main.
|
|
|
Post by Vadiation_Ribe on Sept 12, 2023 10:31:00 GMT
Again, he had £50m to spend. Spend that sensibly and we should have been in the play off mix at least. He inherited some problems but he added a shitload more. He isn’t someone you give a budget and expectations to, he’s someone you task with a shoestring and stability and hope he surprises you. He got everything wrong with us and close to nothing right. Play off mix? We should have walked the league. I think one of the problems was everyone inside the club seemed to expect us to walk the league. It's rarely that easy in the Championship.
|
|
|
Post by The Toxic Avenger on Sept 12, 2023 10:32:02 GMT
Play off mix? We should have walked the league. I think one of the problems was everyone inside the club seemed to expect us to walk the league. It's rarely that easy in the Championship. It should be a damned sight easier with the largest single window budget in the club's history at your disposal...
|
|
|
Post by Vadiation_Ribe on Sept 12, 2023 10:42:24 GMT
I think one of the problems was everyone inside the club seemed to expect us to walk the league. It's rarely that easy in the Championship. It should be a damned sight easier with the largest single window budget in the club's history at your disposal... I completely agree.
|
|
|
Post by superpej on Sept 12, 2023 10:54:31 GMT
There's lots of repetition now in this thread now so lets switch the focus.
It's pretty clear that whatever the nuances of the performances of Lambert, Rowett, Jones and O'Neil they were all appointed by the Board and the CEO at the time.
Whether they were the best available at the time we will never know but apart from O'Neil - their choices turned out to be poor if not disastrous.
Running through them - Lambert was never first choice - they wanted Rowett at the time but he didn't fancy it. Arguably Hughes was kept on too long giving Lambert little to work on. Questionable whether he could have done better but he at least began to address the dressing room issues which dragged on.
Rowett - the board were already committed to some one whose CV never showed he had the capabilities for the job or the expectations he was given as the result showed - I think he soon recognised the game was up and orchestrated he own departure.
Jones - totally inept appointment of a man of massive self delusion - better take the advice of a friend that run a psychological assessment for a senior appointment. I don't think so. Surprising perhaps Southampton made the same mistake.
O'Neil another huge gamble which broadly paid off. A fatherly to calm the dressing room and someone with the business know how to manage the financial circumstances he inherited - other than that on the pitch and in transfers beyond the success in his first months his performance was at best mediocre.
Neil - after years of decline the board went for a total although still manager- led reset. Whether this is for the ultimate good of the club or another gamble remains to be seen. Neil has got his rebuild which itself is a considerable risk given the number of unproven championship imports involved. He is now very much in he firing line but there are still unanswered questions in terms of his tactical and selection capabilities.
Lets be optimistic but if this particular new regime fails I can see the Coates family trying to sell the club.
|
|
|
Post by cousindupree on Sept 12, 2023 12:24:54 GMT
0 - Relegated us. 0 - Wasted millions and mugged off supporters. Tosser. 1 - for being an absolute nutjob. 6 - Rescued us from oblivion 0 - Done nothing except spend anther fortune. Ask me again at the end of the season. Lambert... the board on full throttle incompetence here. Poor timing of the sacking of Hughes which should have been done earlier not as a knee jerk reaction to a cup defeat. Then to scrape the barrel at such a crucial time with the appointment of Lambert was shockingly poor. People gave Lambert credit for tightening us up defensively. But to think you can draw yourself to safety in a relegation scrap is pretty dumb. 13% yes 13% win ratio is kamaraesque. Zero Rowett....An obvious pick for Coates with his almost naive due diligence. Turned out he was a snidey arsehole, dissed a fan's hero and the fans alike. How can anyone give him anything but zero for spunking a fortune on shite and condemned the club to be imprisoned by FFP until now.Zero Jones.... a lesson for all here don't act on advice given by a drunk in a bar as Johnboy did. A man struggling with self esteem always trying to justify himself does not have the character for a high pressured job and so it proved at Southampton. Very nearly got us relegated and credit to Johnboy for seeing how wrong he got this appointment. zero for shelling out 9m on sam Vokes O'Neil....Hallelujah the board got this one right. A sensible calm head to steer us away from relegation and manage us through tricky times with FFP and Covid. and the board got rid at the right time. 6 Neil....I am sure the board love him and he won't be going anywhere anytime soon unless the very unlikely scenario of relegation looms.He loves to talk tactics which is why many amateur tacticians on here love him. But so far his supposed tactical nouse has delivered very little. But I do get excited by the new arrivals and I will be forever grateful that he has dragged the board away from their archaic recruitment strategy of the manager's contacts and whims together with the out of contracts list, onto a proper modern scanning of all markets and using proper due diligence with a professional team in place. 4 The investment in a top recruitment team should have been done when we were awash with money in the premier league. Instead we relied on Hughes's contacts which eventually dried up and Carto's rolodex. What a missed opportunity from a board which had become very complacent and lacked any forward thinking.
|
|
|
Post by prestwichpotter on Sept 12, 2023 12:59:17 GMT
Lambert - 2 Was such a bad appointment, but ironically if we'd kept him on after relegation with a brief to get rid of some of the big names and reinvest in up and coming players with a smattering of our own youngsters I think we'd be in a far healthier position than now.
Rowett - 1 My dislike for Rowett cannot be underestimated, lazy arsed recruitment with a huge budget set us back years. Relegation was a massive kick in the bollocks, but nothing compared to the appointment of that man which was an unmitigated disaster.
Jones - 1.5 I actually don't feel much anger towards Jones, he worked tirelessly to the point where he looked ill so success wasn't for the lack of trying. But talking up a high tempo diamond formation with flying fullbacks and a dynamic defensive midfielder and then signing Stephen Ward and Jordan Cousins and reverting to a negative 3-5-2 system was beyond stupid.
O'Neill - 6.5 I have a lot of time for the man, and I don't think it can be underestimated just what a mess we were in when he joined. Recruitment in terms of individual players was pretty good in parts, but they never gelled as a coherent unit (and bad luck with injuries has to be factored in for me). Got stale in the end but history will judge him kindly.
Neil - TBC He says all the right things, he certainly seems very chirpy about the business we've done so needs to deliver this season. Patience is the key, but it's not something that's always afforded to managers so needs to find his strongest XI quickly and cross his fingers that injuries are kind to us. As a minimum we need to see real progress on the pitch in terms of results and more entertaining football with some of the players he's been allowed to bring in.
|
|
|
Post by Gunslinger on Sept 12, 2023 18:23:28 GMT
Lambert 2/10: Inherited a bunch of players who didn't care and with no fighting spirit (with a couple of exceptions). Was unable to turn things around. Tactically limited.
Rowett 2/10: Spent an incredible amount of money on barely average players. Smug and arrogant with no end product to justify his attitude.
Jones 1/10: Passionate but completely mad and totally unhinged.
O'Neil 6/10: I was impressed how he stabilised the team and steered us clear from relegation in his first season. Restricted after Rowetts spending spree but I felt that the team was capable of performing better than it did.
Neil 6/10 (so far): Slightly disappointing last season bus has assembled a group of exiting players for this season. But is he able to create a well functioning team from them?
|
|