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Post by tazi on Dec 18, 2014 16:12:25 GMT
Great post and I think you've got it all off your chest! You've picked up on every perceived negative of his management! Life ain't perfect. There is no Utopia. Elite sports management is complex. In terms of results and performance, I think there are only Southampton and Swansea who may have done better.
Is your problem with Pulis or the imbalanced Premiership? It's a tough league to survive, and for sure he reverted back to type and made us hard to beat, particularly when things weren't going well. But that has helped to build the foundations for where we are now. All part of the journey, and like I said before, there are a lot of clubs desperately trying to do the same, and failing. That journey also gave us all some terrific memories, as you acknowledged.
I thought that Kitson, Palacios, Tuncay and Kightly would be fantastic signings for us. Didn't work out. I think that Crouch has been excellent for us. Didn't Crystal Palace pay £12m for Dwight Gale? £11m Shane Long? £8m Cornelius? The money is insane and it's a huge gamble. But our absolute Crown Jewels of Ryan and Bego were bought for about £4m, and you can add Whelan, Huth, Higgy, Beattie, Etherington, Lawrence, Wilson, Walters, N'Zonzi etc as other superb signings.
The group dynamic must have contributed to Beattie and Lawrence leaving. Fergie famously split up McGrath, Whiteside and Robson, deciding he could only keep one. He let World Class players like Ince, Keane, Stam and Beckham go for the sake of team harmony. As it is, you could argue both Beattie and Lawrence were finished and didn't really do anything after Stoke City.
The Premier League is such a different proposition to the Championship, as Leicester, Burnley and QPR are discovering. There is no point comparing the success of Premier League strikers to Championship strikers. Richard Creswell, prolific in the lower leagues, no goals in the Prem. It is nearly impossible to build a successful Premier League strike partnership on our budget. I think he hoped to recreate the Crouch/Van der Vaart partnership with Adam. We needed (and still need?) more guile to break down defensive teams at home. I'm also convinced he was never able to replace Etherington, Pennant and Fuller on our budget. I believe he tried (and generally succeeded) to improve us all the time, and I think your lazy accusation is very harsh.
The academy was probably a luxury/long term, future project at that time for us. Mourinho has questioned the Chelsea academy last week because it just doesn't produce good enough players. Similarly, our South American scouting adventure looks to have been a bit of a failure.
You are right. Maybe it could have been better if he had achieved perfection, been a World Class coach and never made a mistake or had less wage and status restraints. But we are Stoke City.
For me anyway, it wasn't too bad, especially compared to the previous 20 years or so. Like Foxy says, it seems harsh to dismiss all those brilliant memories by dwelling on the negatives.
I respect your view and have enjoyed the debate. We'll have to agree to disagree and see things differently. I'll let it go too, enjoy my memories and look forward to a bright future for Stoke City.
Top man. Id love to reply properly but it'll cost me a tenner and my nipper needs a new shirt for christmas. As I've said before, I'll put it in for ya.
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Post by foxysgloves on Dec 18, 2014 16:54:14 GMT
I'm just struggling to get my head around how arguably our finest spell in the last forty years could cause somebody such pain. The last couple of seasons, in large part, fair enough. But the seasons before?? I don't get it. You don't have to get it, it's his personal opinion, leave the poor fucker alone, it's almost becoming stalking material. H Leave him alone??!!! Grow up.
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Post by tazi on Dec 18, 2014 16:55:55 GMT
You don't have to get it, it's his personal opinion, leave the poor fucker alone, it's almost becoming stalking material. H Leave him alone??!!! Grow up. I don't know if that's the real RAF or the hacker.
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Post by pyrus on Dec 18, 2014 18:08:54 GMT
All of which is very interesting, but is he going to Brighton, or what?
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Post by foxysgloves on Dec 18, 2014 22:34:38 GMT
Leave him alone??!!! Grow up. I don't know if that's the real RAF or the hacker. He's a bit of an arse whoever he is.
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Post by RAF on Dec 18, 2014 22:39:30 GMT
Ok it's fair enough that they deleted my insulting post, but they deleted my apology as well. So I'll say it again, sorry Foxy, I've had mans Ebola all week and I'm on a short fuse.
H xxxxxxxxx
P.S I'm more than a 'bit' of an arse
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Post by foxysgloves on Dec 18, 2014 22:45:24 GMT
Ok it's fair enough that they deleted my insulting post, but they deleted my apology as well. So I'll say it again, sorry Foxy, I've had mans Ebola all week and I'm on a short fuse. H xxxxxxxxx P.S I'm more than a 'bit' of an arse To be fair I was a bit of an arrogant arse to that other poster. Although he was talking shite. Anyway it's Christmas so I accept your apology. X
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Post by 2004 on Dec 18, 2014 22:48:16 GMT
How how this reached 6 pages
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Post by RAF on Dec 18, 2014 22:49:01 GMT
Ok it's fair enough that they deleted my insulting post, but they deleted my apology as well. So I'll say it again, sorry Foxy, I've had mans Ebola all week and I'm on a short fuse. H xxxxxxxxx P.S I'm more than a 'bit' of an arse To be fair I was a bit of an arrogant arse to that other poster. Although he was talking shite. Anyway it's Christmas so I accept your apology. X Thanks H
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Post by tazi on Dec 19, 2014 1:12:16 GMT
I love you too RAF.
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Post by tazi on Dec 19, 2014 1:13:11 GMT
How how this reached 6 pages It's more to wipe ya arse with.
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Post by Pretty Little Boother on Dec 19, 2014 10:53:27 GMT
The fuck am I reading?
Why am I seeing apologies?
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Post by foxysgloves on Dec 19, 2014 11:36:06 GMT
Christmas truce.
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Post by jstoke7 on Dec 19, 2014 11:42:50 GMT
Ok it's fair enough that they deleted my insulting post, but they deleted my apology as well. So I'll say it again, sorry Foxy, I've had mans Ebola all week and I'm on a short fuse. H xxxxxxxxx P.S I'm more than a 'bit' of an arse To be fair I was a bit of an arrogant arse to that other poster. Although he was talking shite. Anyway it's Christmas so I accept your apology. X Ah so expressing an opinion is talking shite, brilliant.
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Post by tazi on Dec 19, 2014 11:42:54 GMT
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Post by Sergeant Muttley on Dec 19, 2014 15:38:08 GMT
I thought we were doing well with this thread but as usual it ends up anchored.Then again you can call someone a cnut nowadays on here so all is good
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Post by burberrybassist on Dec 19, 2014 16:03:07 GMT
Was on 5 Live this dinner time. Said he had received a few offers, but none that have blown him away. Also said if the right offer came in he would move to a new club tomorrow.
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Post by foxysgloves on Dec 19, 2014 17:31:27 GMT
To be fair I was a bit of an arrogant arse to that other poster. Although he was talking shite. Anyway it's Christmas so I accept your apology. X Ah so expressing an opinion is talking shite, brilliant. No. Expressing a shit opinion is shite.
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