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Post by jesusmcmuffin on Feb 20, 2024 1:35:30 GMT
No one knows what goes on in the dressing room to be fair Some reacted to some comment at the weekend as if it was gospel when in fact it went against everything we've done the last few weeks so made no sense Someone then threw out the great cliche about the manager losing the dressing room I haven’t used fan reaction for my view. The current season has the club-confirmed Mmaee exclusion and Tricky Ricky as D of F. He's obviously an issue but he isn't the dressing room. I imagine is an unhappy/ out of favour player and many clubs and things continue to function fine with or without them .
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Post by rickyfullerbeer on Feb 20, 2024 4:51:47 GMT
There was a time early on in our Premier League stint where, as a young teenager, I thought we were the best club in the world.
Not in terms of quality obviously, but looking around at a packed out Brit basking in sunshine with the crowd cheering a player going over to take a corner, I couldn't imagine a supporter of any other club being happier than I was right there.
Too much of a good thing and now it feels like we're being severely punished for enjoying ourselves too much.
I am at a complete loss as to where the club go from here because at the moment I just can't see a healthy way out of our situation. I cannot fathom just how bad it has become!
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Post by Edward Tattsyrup on Feb 20, 2024 9:41:22 GMT
Nope - if we ever get to the point where Vale regularly pull our pants down it will tie the worst era in our history.
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Post by mamathestriker on Feb 20, 2024 9:49:14 GMT
I think perhaps it is, certainly in the modern era. If we go down this season I’d say it must be. Even if we stay up, this will be the eighth successive season when we’ve finished in the bottom half of the league we are playing in. Has it ever been this bad before? It doesn’t feel like it to me….. I've seen us lose 7-0, 8-0 at home, get thrashed by Wrexham, Bristol Rovers and see Vale constantly get the better of us. Yet, in terms of hope, I feel probably as low as ever. I think we've seen worse than this, but this is the longest we've gone without real hope or anything to cling onto.
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Post by Bagwash on Feb 20, 2024 10:01:48 GMT
There was a time early on in our Premier League stint where, as a young teenager, I thought we were the best club in the world. Not in terms of quality obviously, but looking around at a packed out Brit basking in sunshine with the crowd cheering a player going over to take a corner, I couldn't imagine a supporter of any other club being happier than I was right there. Too much of a good thing and now it feels like we're being severely punished for enjoying ourselves too much. I am at a complete loss as to where the club go from here because at the moment I just can't see a healthy way out of our situation. I cannot fathom just how bad it has become! Superb times in the Premier league and although I knew then at some stage we would be fighting relegation/get relegated I didn't think it would also happen in the Division below. A defeatist attitude I know,but I've resigned myself to us going down this season.If we survive then it will be a massive bonus.
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Post by milton58 on Feb 20, 2024 10:12:07 GMT
so the macari years were shit then .. Third division. Get used to it. might have been... but probably the best years of my life following stoke
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Post by alexanderinstone on Feb 20, 2024 10:54:11 GMT
1960's 3,000 gates (Until Stan). Little optimism around that time, but at least we had some. Now? These so-called "footballers" at our club sadden me (Burger, Jun-ho, and Junior apart). The rest should be ashamed.
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Post by nottsover60 on Feb 20, 2024 10:58:12 GMT
I think perhaps it is, certainly in the modern era. If we go down this season I’d say it must be. Even if we stay up, this will be the eighth successive season when we’ve finished in the bottom half of the league we are playing in. Has it ever been this bad before? It doesn’t feel like it to me….. What do you call the modern era? Nowhere near as bad as the 80s and early 90s
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Post by dutchstokie on Feb 20, 2024 11:01:19 GMT
I cant be arsed to read the whole thread, but if youve not witnessed Oneill Donaldson or Nicky Mohan playing then you havent suffered the worstr era in our history ! (psssst. they werent very good )
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Post by st3mark on Feb 20, 2024 11:29:54 GMT
When would you say was worse. In a prolonged period of time? 1989 to 1991 much much worse 1997 to 2000 much much worse However this spell is much much longer, and with millions spent so more damning 2000? Wembley and play offs?
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Post by FullerMagic on Feb 20, 2024 12:18:00 GMT
I'd be surprised if we'd had many runs of home form like this ever, at any level.
Even though it felt shocking as we assumed we'd be challenging, the home form wasn't absolutely apocalyptic in the first few years down.
8, 11 and 9 wins - followed by 5 wins and a draw from the first 6 home games of the 4th season down under MON, ending with the 1-0 win against West Brom, when we thought we'd turned the corner.
Since then, it's collapsed.
After getting those 5 wins from the first 6 games, we then only got 5 more from the next 17 in 21-22. Then 6 last season And 5 so far this time.
First 75 home games after relegation
33 wins 18 draws 24 losses 117 points 1.56ppg
Next 57
16 wins 13 draws 28 losses 61 points 1.07ppg
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Post by mickstupp on Feb 20, 2024 12:18:11 GMT
I think perhaps it is, certainly in the modern era. If we go down this season I’d say it must be. Even if we stay up, this will be the eighth successive season when we’ve finished in the bottom half of the league we are playing in. Has it ever been this bad before? It doesn’t feel like it to me….. What do you call the modern era? Nowhere near as bad as the 80s and early 90s Post WW2. The 80’s were a mixture of good and bad for me.
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Post by independent on Feb 20, 2024 12:53:41 GMT
What a shit topic. I'm thinking of posting an application form here for the "Masochists Society of the UK" so you can all sign up. What a shower of wimps. To think that anyone might fear the crap teams that we have to face after playing the mighty Coventry who are in the top 6 is just amazing.
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Post by march4 on Feb 20, 2024 13:08:05 GMT
The Mills era had one genuinely awful season at the end of it, but the four seasons before that were up and down. There were some really good runs of form in them and enjoyable games. What we are seeing now has been mainly all crap. After that horrible relegation in 84/85, Mick finished 10th, 8th, 11th and 14th. 14th is our highest league finish in 8 years. We were lucky we didn’t fade into oblivion. Mills did a good job steadying the ship.
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Post by gogogadget on Feb 20, 2024 13:18:39 GMT
I'd be surprised if we'd had many runs of home form like this ever, at any level. Even though it felt shocking as we assumed we'd be challenging, the home form wasn't absolutely apocalyptic in the first few years down. 8, 11 and 9 wins - followed by 5 wins and a draw from the first 6 home games of the 4th season down under MON, ending with the 1-0 win against West Brom, when we thought we'd turned the corner. Since then, it's collapsed. After getting those 5 wins from the first 6 games, we then only got 5 more from the next 17 in 21-22. Then 6 last season And 5 so far this time. First 75 home games after relegation 33 wins 18 draws 24 losses 117 points 1.56ppg Next 57 16 wins 13 draws 28 losses 61 points 1.07ppg No wonder I’ve lost interest Holy shit
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Post by PotterLog on Feb 20, 2024 13:20:03 GMT
I think perhaps it is, certainly in the modern era. If we go down this season I’d say it must be. Even if we stay up, this will be the eighth successive season when we’ve finished in the bottom half of the league we are playing in. Has it ever been this bad before? It doesn’t feel like it to me….. What do you call the modern era? Nowhere near as bad as the 80s and early 90s What do you call “nowhere near”?
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Post by senojbor on Feb 20, 2024 13:26:35 GMT
I think perhaps it is, certainly in the modern era. If we go down this season I’d say it must be. Even if we stay up, this will be the eighth successive season when we’ve finished in the bottom half of the league we are playing in. Has it ever been this bad before? It doesn’t feel like it to me….. I've seen us lose 7-0, 8-0 at home, get thrashed by Wrexham, Bristol Rovers and see Vale constantly get the better of us. Yet, in terms of hope, I feel probably as low as ever. I think we've seen worse than this, but this is the longest we've gone without real hope or anything to cling onto. Wrexham? We lost 3-1 once. Every other game we've won every single one (16) Vale record is annoying though
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Post by senojbor on Feb 20, 2024 13:28:04 GMT
We've been rubbish on a number of occasions but this run is the most frustrating and depressing!
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Post by estrangedsonoffaye on Feb 20, 2024 13:28:34 GMT
I feel more disconnected from the club than at any point before and that includes spells in the third tier. We just seem absolutely incapable of turning things around, our home form is historically bad, worse in some respects than even 84/85 (think we've scored fewer home goals than at this stage in the same season).
I think heightening the immense frustration is that there is absolutely no existential off pitch reason for us to not succeed, no roof has blown off, the owners aren't exactly hard up, we've spent immense sums of money trying to build a squad and the end result is a dysfunctional football club that doesn't know what it wants to be.
For many Stoke fans, this is flat out the grimmest era they will have seen. Others will have obviously seen things materially worse but I think what really defines this era is boredom. Nothing changes, we just go from season to season, crisis to crisis staying in exactly the same position and hearing the same platitudes again and again. It's incredibly draining on people's enthusiasm which I think is why we're seeing an almost apathetic reaction to events, as opposed to the protests and fury of 97/98 for instance.
Is it the "worst era ever"? Probably not. Is it an absolutely horrendous time to be a Stoke fan, and a major low ebb in our history? Absolutely. These have been some of our lowest finishes since the war playing mostly mind-numbing football.
In the 90s we had 4 players score over 20 goals in a season, real cult hero types. We've not had someone do that now in 24 years. There's almost no one to rally behind.
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Post by mickstupp on Feb 20, 2024 13:36:23 GMT
After that horrible relegation in 84/85, Mick finished 10th, 8th, 11th and 14th. 14th is our highest league finish in 8 years. We were lucky we didn’t fade into oblivion. Mills did a good job steadying the ship. He did well to begin with certainly. Mills had a golden opportunity to take the club back up in 86/87 and he blew it.
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Post by mamathestriker on Feb 20, 2024 13:43:42 GMT
I've seen us lose 7-0, 8-0 at home, get thrashed by Wrexham, Bristol Rovers and see Vale constantly get the better of us. Yet, in terms of hope, I feel probably as low as ever. I think we've seen worse than this, but this is the longest we've gone without real hope or anything to cling onto. Wrexham? We lost 3-1 once. Every other game we've won every single one (16) Vale record is annoying though Yeh that's the game I was thinking of. It was still a low in anyone's book!
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Post by Ron on Feb 20, 2024 13:53:38 GMT
For a prolonged period of non excitement- without a doubt since I have been going.
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Post by Eggybread on Feb 20, 2024 13:57:16 GMT
Absolutely not,if people think differently they are either very young, have short memories or dont read history.
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Post by wearepremierleague on Feb 20, 2024 14:05:01 GMT
The biggest shame is after a disaster of 5-6 years since we came down we finally had a chance at a full reset this summer and we’ve ended up in possibly the worst position, on and off the pitch since we came down. A new bomb squad formed of players that have only just signed contracts. A few good players but a whole lot of shite and it’s realistically going to take us another several years to have yet another clear out and start over, again, and that’s if we stay up. A manager who on the face of it looked good but has ultimately shit himself already ala O’Neil and will probably be lucky to find himself in a job this time next year.
When does it end? What needs to happen. How can we get it so wrong time and time again?
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Post by FullerMagic on Feb 20, 2024 14:23:46 GMT
Absolutely not,if people think differently they are either very young, have short memories or dont read history. I wouldn't dismiss it that easily. It depends what you're calling an era, and if you're just judging it by league position or how much it's making you want to jump off a cliff and is sapping your soul If we're saying it's at least 3 seasons +, it must be right up there for all the reasons given above. No part of the Mills era was anywhere near this dull and underwhelming. Obviously the Alan Ball relegation was probably the low point of the club's history - but as soon as 2 seasons after that, all the fun of Macari was flowering. The other obvious contender is the Brian Little/Gudjon era in the third tier, but that was an 8th and three play-off finishes, so it was always interesting and we won games. There's just nothing going on now. Not far off only winning 1-in-every-4 home games over a 2-and-a-half-year stretch almost defies belief. And it's compounded, as estrangedsonoffaye says, by the fact there's no earthly reason for it beyond mismanagement.
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Post by milton58 on Feb 20, 2024 14:25:29 GMT
The biggest shame is after a disaster of 5-6 years since we came down we finally had a chance at a full reset this summer and we’ve ended up in possibly the worst position, on and off the pitch since we came down. A new bomb squad formed of players that have only just signed contracts. A few good players but a whole lot of shite and it’s realistically going to take us another several years to have yet another clear out and start over, again, and that’s if we stay up. A manager who on the face of it looked good but has ultimately shit himself already ala O’Neil and will probably be lucky to find himself in a job this time next year. When does it end? What needs to happen. How can we get it so wrong time and time again? John coates end of
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Post by Eggybread on Feb 20, 2024 14:59:27 GMT
Absolutely not,if people think differently they are either very young, have short memories or dont read history. I wouldn't dismiss it that easily. It depends what you're calling an era, and if you're just judging it by league position or how much it's making you want to jump off a cliff and is sapping your soul If we're saying it's at least 3 seasons +, it must be right up there for all the reasons given above. No part of the Mills era was anywhere near this dull and underwhelming. Obviously the Alan Ball relegation was probably the low point of the club's history - but as soon as 2 seasons after that, all the fun of Macari was flowering. The other obvious contender is the Brian Little/Gudjon era in the third tier, but that was an 8th and three play-off finishes, so it was always interesting and we won games. There's just nothing going on now. Not far off only winning 1-in-every-4 home games over a 2-and-a-half-year stretch almost defies belief. And it's compounded, as estrangedsonoffaye says, by the fact there's no earthly reason for it beyond mismanagement. I see an era as a little longer but that doesnt really matter,I take on board your points,apart from the nothing going on bit.We are in a dog fight and we need all hands on deck supporters,management and players to get out of this or we will go down.The issue will be harder to solve for "the management"if we dont show our full support. A couple of rounds of Martin out wouldnt go amiss on Saturday though.
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Post by baconburger on Feb 20, 2024 15:42:57 GMT
I can't remember any period as bad. Our wretched home form and inability to score feels like it's on a whole new level. We've been to the third tier twice in my supporting life and we've not had a pot to piss in but I just can't remember an extended period so devoid of highlights. Any anticipation of our games is more an anticipation of pain than pleasure. It just saps your energy and enthusiasm completely dry.
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Post by Pricey on Feb 20, 2024 16:57:14 GMT
I can't remember any period as bad. Our wretched home form and inability to score feels like it's on a whole new level. We've been to the third tier twice in my supporting life and we've not had a pot to piss in but I just can't remember an extended period so devoid of highlights. Any anticipation of our games is more an anticipation of pain than pleasure. It just saps your energy and enthusiasm completely dry. Almost to the point recently where the best we can hope for at home is a 0-0 draw. We had a bit of a go for 20 minutes on Saturday but with no cutting edge it always felt destined to fizzle out. We're barely testing away goalkeepers at all and that is every single bloody home game!
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Post by Gary Hackett on Feb 20, 2024 17:19:52 GMT
Based on time appearing to go much more quickly as you get older it still seems like the the 97 to 2000 period lasted much longer than the current stint of shitness.
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