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Post by robstokie on Dec 18, 2023 11:00:03 GMT
Would never stop coming to games, I'm in for life (you get less for murder these days, as my mother would say) but Dean 'Chic' Holden would be an extremely uninspiring 'yes man' style appointment, as would Vinegar Tits Mowbray - arrogant, self righteous bellend who would alienate the fan base due to his previous comments. Steve Bruce wouldnt fill me with any great excitement either - and would surely be the sign that lessons will never be learnt.
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Post by robstokie on Dec 18, 2023 10:48:19 GMT
I can see how people can compare Schumi with Nutty Nathan - had success with a provincial team after a lower league playing career and subsequent coaching, both also preaching an emphasis on attacking, front foot football with their teams.
However, I believe that Schumi built a squad on a budget made up of youngsters that came through their academy and players on loan from bigger clubs so obviously has experience in developing youngsters, whereas Nutty Nathan was able to bring in ready made players with vast experience, often in higher divisions and who could over-power most teams in their division, with a budget that would be amongst the highest in league 1, let alone league 2.
Furthermore, whilst our favourite deluded god-squadder was wedded firmly to a diamond and was found to not really have much of a plan b when it became apparent that the system was less effective against a better standard of opponent on bigger pitches, Schumi seems to be flexible with what formation he prefers - this season predominantly going for an attack minded 4-3-3, whilst occasionally changing up to a 3-4-3 or even a 3-4-2-1 if wanting to utilize a press through the central areas of the pitch. Last season it was usually 3-4-2-1 with occasional deviations to 4-3-3 or even a 4-4-2 with a double pivot (basically an evolution on the old TP cage), so Schumi does at least, on face value, have a more developed sense of how to manage a game. Also, it's worth mentioning that Schumi has half a season managing at this level, which I would argue, even this season with 2 teams running away with it, is the tightest, most competitive league in europe, if not the world - theres probably 16-18 clubs that can all beat each other in any given game, so will be knowledgeable about the standards and general style of this division - Nutty Nathan had half a season in the league below which is a 2 tier division comprised of a number of larger clubs who want to get back to at least the championship, and another number who are trying to keep out of league 2 (with a few mid-tabley clubs thrown in too).
Finally, it's also worth mentioning that Schumi delivered a league title in his first (and only) full season as manager on a budget one third the size of their main rivals Ipswich (whose manager, similar to Nutty Nathan, has been jizzed over by the media) whereas Nutty Nathan took 2 full seasons to get out of league 2 with an overpowered group, and even then failed to win the title - Accrington Stanley were champions, again on fractions of the Luton Budget.
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Post by robstokie on Dec 17, 2023 11:08:07 GMT
Reads like a 5-3-1-1/3-4-3 with Hoever on the right of a 3, then Gooch and Johnson as wingbacks and Bae at 10. Thompson to be the deepest lying midfield in a diamond.
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Post by robstokie on Dec 15, 2023 12:45:52 GMT
Will he bring the elves as part of his backroom team? Don't know about elves but will definitely bring 4 guys with tyre guns and a guy waving a lollipop stick! Not sure about the 2 guys holding the refuelling hose, they might not be able to squeeze in with FFP!
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Post by robstokie on Dec 15, 2023 12:37:38 GMT
Schumacher? That’s going to cause Massa hysteria. Which one? Michael or Ralf? Mind you, might be a bit foreign for the Coates family - they would much prefer the bollock chinned jock bloke!
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Post by robstokie on Dec 15, 2023 9:30:18 GMT
If this latest rumour is true (God only knows now) then it's at least a relief that we didn't go for Mowbray or Dean Holden (now that would be a real yes man appointment). I still subscribe to us looking towards a continental head coach figure, but we will never get that under this board. British is the fare of the day, all day, every day and I don't think they will EVER deviate from that.
Eustace is about the best we can get under them parameters - I think he will install a bit of fight and organization into the side, hopefully he will get a bit of backing to address some very obvious shortcomings within the squad too. He knows the place too, which always helps, albeit before the prem and Clayton wood days.
It's funny, as Eustace was my first choice before all this fanciful talk of Nuno and Jokanovic. So I will back him to do well
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Post by robstokie on Dec 14, 2023 15:43:44 GMT
I am trying to reflect objectively on Paul Lambert's tenure after the passage of time. We were told he got the job at least in part based on a dossier (a Powerpoint presentation) he prepared for the interview with an in depth analysis of all our players. You could probably run one off on ChatGPT now but it was seen as a big deal at the time. He won 2 games. His first game at home to Huddersfield and his last game at Swansea when both teams were already relegated ahead of the kick off. The problem was all the games in between! We had lots of winnable matches but somehow contrived to win none of them, but even then we were only relegated by 4 points. It's easy to see where 4 extra points may have come from. Charlie Adam's penalty where we stepped forward to bury Brighton at the death only to see it saved and Charlie move like he was walking through treacle to convert the rebound only to be clattered from behind my Lewis Dunk, now an England player of course. I remember a late Andy Carroll header at West Ham robbing us of another 2 points. We really should not have got relegated, but somehow we were. I always ask myself the question would Mark Hughes have found the extra 4 points had be not been removed in January after the cup extit at lowly, as they were then, Coventry? Probably, but we will never know. You could also look at Butland chucking one in vs Leicester and Charlie being sent off against Everton as key moments too, but the fact is that Lambert was not good enough - his game management on a number of occasions in the run in was far too negative, sacrificing flair whilst we were in a winning position and sitting off teams, allowing them to gain momentum and grind us down. His plan A of relying on Shaq, giving him a free role and relying on others to cover for him too allowed the opposition to double up on Shaq and then outnumber and force us back behind the ball. Also didn't allow us to offer other options in the final third making us look very one dimensional and easy to deal with. Whilst I still stand by us Sacking Sparky as we were in a massive downward spiral (which still hasn't been stopped as of today), hiring such an uninspiring, negative replacement, which the whole world and his dog could see wasn't going to save us was the wrong call. What should have happened was Sparky should have been canned after Bournemouth at home at the very latest (though I personally subscribe to the view he should have gone the end of the previous season where you could see the rot setting in, particularly last 3 months) and we should have gone balls out for Moyes. If we had done that, I genuinely believe we could still be a mid table premier league side, maybe even striving to sneak into the Europa on occasion via 7th or a cup win.
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Post by robstokie on Dec 14, 2023 15:21:00 GMT
I think Carsley is probably as good as appointment as we could make given FFP restrictions. His contacts at clubs with younger players would be immense and be of enormous benefit to us as a club.. Furthermore, given his experience developing younger players, he might just be the right man to bring Lowe, Tezgel, Simkin, Sol and maybe Matt Baker and Okagbue through to the first team. Don't know about him as a manager, but maybe a good shout as a no.2 to a Nuno/Jokanovic type appointment.
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Post by robstokie on Dec 13, 2023 19:08:20 GMT
Mate it's exciting like thinking Kylie and Dani Minogue are popping round later to give me a doublegobble. And about as possible. Does the inevitable knowing it will be Mowbray or Holden after all the hype about Nuno feel like expecting the Minogues, but you end up with Dolores (26 stone, doesnt wash of an evening and has a mini UN of sprogs from different menfolk) from Tunstall and her Nan (who once gobbled off Some guy in Liverpool for a bag of bacon fries) coming through the door instead?
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Post by robstokie on Dec 13, 2023 15:03:09 GMT
Nuno, Jokanovic and Eustace in that order. Think with the group we have, a foreign manager with experience both home and abroad can help them adapt to life in this division whilst understanding what is needed to be able to compete week in week out. Both Nuno and Jokanovic have experience of getting sides out of this division, and Nuno also established Wolves back in the prem too.
Knowing us though - it'll be 'mogga' Mowbray or Dean Holden. Our board seems hesitant to trust anything outside what they see week in week out - that being English football. Just hope times are changing with our recruitment policy in the summer becoming more cosmopolitan. Guess we will wait and see!
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Post by robstokie on Dec 13, 2023 13:09:26 GMT
I am on the JDT train big time, I think it could happen 🤞👍 Fingers crossed! My heart sank a bit last night when I saw that picture of Eustace - not because he hasn't got some merit, but because I thought they were going to steam into their usual cookie jar without taking stock properly. At least it looks like they're going to have a good think about things. I'd be massively enthused by JDT. Could be worse, we could have seen Dean Holden up in the directors box with John Coates!! Oh, Wait....
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Post by robstokie on Dec 13, 2023 9:37:54 GMT
Nathan jones as director of football Only if Lambert is on Balls, Bibs and cones duty of course!
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Post by robstokie on Dec 12, 2023 17:38:29 GMT
Mowbray for me - already alienated the fans with his comments about us circa. 2007-2009, comes across as a pretentious tosspot and would seem to be us keep hiring Sunderland cast-offs.
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Post by robstokie on Dec 10, 2023 17:19:48 GMT
Awful manager. Cheers for nothing you spud!
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Post by robstokie on Dec 10, 2023 17:17:45 GMT
Fuck me, it's a relief. Finally!! To be honest, I was never impressed when we bought him in, and he's done very little to persuade me otherwise. Not sure if that was the dour personality or the arrogance, but he's taken us backwards with mind numbing shit football without results to back it up. Cheers for nothing Alex, let's pray now that the board make the right call in who to replace him.
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Post by robstokie on Dec 10, 2023 16:17:14 GMT
Please, please, please let it be true!! 🙏🙏 nixon is spot on with these things normally He's generally pretty hot on it, but until we get the official statement with the pic of the stadium, then that will be the end of this horrible experiment.
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Post by robstokie on Dec 10, 2023 16:12:53 GMT
Please, please, please let it be true!! 🙏🙏
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Post by robstokie on Dec 10, 2023 11:29:22 GMT
Not so much sensing it as feeling it creep up closer and closer the longer we keep this complete and utter fucking fraud in charge! Lets also remember we only just ended up staying up last season too - a couple of fluky results in March and Reading getting a points deduction saved us. Losing games consecutively to teams in and around us to injury time winners, our home form over the last year and a half and having a bunch of over hyped cowards who collectively have no leaders or even balls between them who collectively crumble the first time something conspires against them, assembled by the aforementioned fraud and his statto mate, means we positively reek of it.
The worrying thing is that this bunch would struggle in league 1 - they won't fancy putting in the hard yards on a cold Tuesday night in Carlisle in February, plus we will still be lumbered with a load of them on big money for that level and the likes of Burton, Shrewsbury and of Course the Soap Dodgers will be more than up for giving us a bloody nose.
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Post by robstokie on Dec 10, 2023 9:39:05 GMT
FullerMagic talking about the Mamba is a sad sight on a Sunday morning. The quintessential messageboard transfer guru resorting to the kind of raucous behaviour his mate Trouserdog engages in (he loves the occasional manager 'rodding' like the best of us) is a sign of how bad things have become. Come on Coates get it done, FM isn't for turning here. He needs his focus on where Jared's compass is pointing to, and not that filth that Lord Dennis of Etruria indulges in every 18 months or so! I'm thinking they could incorporate it into the pre-match light show on Tuesday. The first hint that something is happening is that a massive black dildo keeps flickering onto the screen during the inspirational/depressing Stoke glory years montage- everyone thinks it's some kind of prank like the BBC porn noise phone incident, but it's not. Because when when the countdown reaches zero and the 6 people there shout, "Gooaaarn!", Neil is released from the dressing room like a rabbit from a trap, wearing only a grey pair of underpants. The lightshow starts, and there's loads of strobes going off as Denise, to the sound of 'Welcome to the Jungle', paraglides off the Boothen End roof like an eagle. Not just an ordinary eagle though. An eagle with a massive strap-on cock. Neil is taken by surprise, and Denise swoops in at a terrifying speed and hits the brown bullseye, unlubed. The crowd cheer as she rises back into the air, carrying a sobbing Neil like a rodent on the end of her enormous plastic penis. They go over the stand roof and their silhouette passes the moon, a bit like in ET, before Denise deposits Neil down the chimney of the incinerator. That's Brilliant - certainly cheered me up, I'm in fits of laughter.
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Post by robstokie on Dec 10, 2023 0:16:37 GMT
Think Rotherham have one of the relegation slots stitched up - they just haven't got the quality/resources to sustain at this level for more than a season or so - even we put 10 past them over 2 games so they must be woeful!
At this moment in time, based on form, it's then between us, Brum and Huddersfield - QPR have hit form (new manager bounce?) plus do seem to have enough names/quality (Bego, Colback, Chair) to maybe pull out of it. Weds have found a little bit of form (again, new manager bounce?) but they are a poor poor side who are still 8 points behind us, so their poor start might well still be fatal. Millwall look God awful too, as do Watford, Swansea and Plymouth, but due to the absolute rancidness of the bottom 6, they should survive reasonably comfortably.
The scary thing is that apart from a couple of sides (Leicester, Ipswich and Leeds), this is an utterly, utterly shite division. I think it tells you everything that Burnley and Sheffield United (who walked to promotion last season) are whipping boys up in the prem.
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Post by robstokie on Dec 10, 2023 0:02:41 GMT
I remember around 1994 watching us at Southend playing out a 0-0 draw and having literally no attempts on goal . I've seen us playing for a 0 -2 defeat damage limitation at home to Man Utd under Pulis . Neither of those are any where near the utter embarrassing cowardly set up this so called manager subjected us to today. I genuinely loathe the man,I really do. Same here - seeing his face makes me glaze over and have to restrain myself from unleashing a torrent of verbal diarrhea! Today was utter cowardice from the slap-head snake oil salesman, going 5 at the back at home to such an awful side is inexcusable and undefendable, inviting them to attack us, and, inevitably with our shaky defenders, offer them the chance to win the game. It's awful game management, simultaneously removing any threat we had coming forward (admittedly not much to begin with) and changing to a shape that firstly doesn't suit what we have in the building and allows the opposition to pin us in by doubling up on us in wide areas, dragging a midfielder across and a striker back into midfield which allows their defenders time on the ball to push into midfield thus pushing us back towards our own goal. It's awful game management yet again - the third game in a row we have lost in injury time by standing off and trying to hold on for a point. And then wheels out the same tired excuses game after game after game - it's unacceptable and any other club would have flogged him last season after one of the many many limp, insipid home surrenders that we seem to be on the end of every other week. He has to go Monday at the very latest. We stick with the potato any longer then the damage may well be irreversible. At least if we don't dither this time, the new manager will have a few weeks to assess and identify what we need in January, and have extra time to get us drilled both with the ball and behind it and get us fitter.
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Post by robstokie on Dec 9, 2023 22:01:29 GMT
Anyone with half an idea what they are talking about - ideally one who's not a dour, stale old relic from yesteryear! Seriously, I would like to see us bring in someone exciting, who is proactive and likes to play on the front foot instead of this dawdling,reactive shambles that we have had for year after year now. Unfortunately, I reckon we will be fishing in the pool of Steve Bruce, Dean Smith and Nigel Pearson - maybe Alan Pardew or Chris Houghton if we are particularly lucky!!
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Post by robstokie on Dec 9, 2023 21:56:36 GMT
Couldn't watch today but when I saw how he had set us up the outcome was just so obvious and predictable. If he's not gone before Swansea the board need certifying. Depressingly He won’t be. This is deemed acceptable by stoke city these days We never learn do we? It's just the same old shit season in and season out, we will no doubt dither until halfway through January at least, wasting another transfer window and not giving the new manager the chance to assess what's in the building and have the opportunity to at least attempt to strengthen in a few of the many areas we are deficient in.
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Post by robstokie on Dec 6, 2023 9:38:32 GMT
It just seems to have 0-1 written all over it. I reckon Sheff Weds will start bright and grab a shit early goal off a set piece - it will go in off someones arse or deflect off one of our players or something. The remaining 85 minutes or so will be us having 65%+ possession but create very little in the final third, it will all be in front of their back 4 but with zero penetration. Subs will be made around the 75 minute mark, when we might create our first real chance, but then be continually be picked off on the break, but they will lack the quality to finish us off.
If it was me, I would go
Bonham
McNally Rose Junior Thompson
Pearson Burger Bae
Leris Wesley Campbell
Knowing spud though, you can guarantee that his favourites Hoever, Stevens and Johnson will be starting. Also expect Gayle to make an appearance from the bench.
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Post by robstokie on Dec 3, 2023 19:27:43 GMT
I don't think that anyone can deny that the Coates family is in the right place - and that should count for something. They also look after the fans - free coach travel to away games for over 10 years and have never whacked season ticket prices up for us despite a lot of clubs doing so, especially when they were an established premier league club for a decade.
However, the problem is that they refuse to adapt to the modern game - we are light years behind pretty much every club of similar size in terms of scouting/recruitment and infrastructure behind the scenes, they pledge blind allegiance to certain individuals (for example Cartwright back in the day) who are kept in their role for far too long despite failure, and they dither on sacking off managers, waiting till its far too late and the damage has already been done (we would have probably stayed up if we sacked off Hughes earlier, and, but for a miracle under MON, we would be in league 1 again now as they gave Nutty Nath far too long too), compounding the problem by hiring uninspiring replacements as if they never had a plan b to begin with. Furthermore, the responsibility they allow said managers to have is so far reaching that every replacement seems to spark some sort of clearing of the decks, whether that be of the playing squad or behind the scenes, leading us to lack stability within the club. Also, token gestures/platitudes such as "Lessons have been learned" followed by more of the same gets on people's nerves too.
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Post by robstokie on Dec 2, 2023 19:47:29 GMT
He talks a load of bollocks doesn't he? Another negative reactive performance, poor substitutions and same old excuses from back to front, didn't even the fans who made the journey. Hope he's gone to clear his desk.
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Post by robstokie on Dec 2, 2023 18:34:14 GMT
Think Eustace is about the best of the crop out there - he knows the club, served us with distinction and will at least get us organized behind the ball, compact and hard to beat.
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Post by robstokie on Dec 1, 2023 17:14:49 GMT
that was my immediate takeaway, at 19 bags of potential, but do we need a left footed Hoever or someone who is a solid young and athletic defender first and foremost A one-legged Allen would be a better defender than Hoever. Stevens needs dropping when he serves his suspension and replaced by Junior or Gooch. Stevens is awful - no pace, negative on and off the ball, gets caught out of position time after time, can't beat a man to save his life and legs are going. Made no sense that we got rid of Tymon, who yes, had flaws in his game, but was much more proactive and had some quality and work rate about him. Same goes for the other full back role too, where our young player Jr (who has looked class Everytime he's been given a chance, solid defensively, has quality on the ball and has a great engine on him) is behind a loan player (Dyson) who is defensively suspect and has no real loyalty to us, and a journeyman type who has looked bang average at best, particularly when shoe horned in at full back (Gooch).
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Post by robstokie on Dec 1, 2023 16:49:17 GMT
I think it shows that we have a massive lack of ambition compared to most clubs in this division - it's not even necessarily the amount of points we've picked up but the standard of football has regressed too. Unfortunately, those upstairs think that mediocrity is perfectly acceptable and won't react to a downward spiral until it's too late, and the damage is not only done on a surface level, but is embedded in the foundations too.
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Post by robstokie on Dec 1, 2023 16:42:04 GMT
Letting him go in January he's only been on the pitch for 3 minutes for Cardiff this season, another player that looked the business before he came to Stoke but has regressed and will probably end up in league 1 playing for the Vile if he's lucky. Gouranga. Whatever happened to him? He looked a tidy player at Brentford - he ran the game against us a few years back! However, looked lightweight, lazy, wasteful and killed all momentum in possession with us, not to mention the fact that he cowered out of many a 50/50 challenge. Think he will end up somewhere like Bradford or maybe Wrexham - big money for another has been mercenary.
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