That fellow mid tablers like Sunderland Newcastle W Ham and Norwich etc can make signings smoothly and quicly but when we appear to be the front runners for "exciting" prospects like Ba and Diouf it drags on before falling flat Are we hopeless at negotiating or just plain unattractive You can understand the attraction of "sleeping giants" like S'land and N"castle but with no disrespect to W Ham and Norwich what have they got that we haven't SiS
SIS Sorry but I think it's to do with the oh so negative approach that TP brought to the Club. It rubbed off on the player's and even many fans we're saying the same thing mate. To my mind, it will take a long time to win (some fans) over and the player's a so regimented it was laughable. Maybe would be signings look at SCFC and think the same I don't/can't think of any other reason. of those you mentioned SIS I would class Newcastle as a sleeping giant not the other 3, NO offence to them. We at Stoke are the same type of club... just saying is all.
Nope, it's all about the Pulis era. I know Cris/Tenterden wants to forget about all that...but you cannot. £100 million down the swanee. That is THE legacy from the Pulis years and that is WHY Hughes was appointed. Sow's ears into silk purses...not on your nelly. That is the reality Cris...so do NOT have a cheap shot at SIS again. Or else try having a go at me.
Sandor, Potts, Think Nicky is on about another thread where Chris said can we forget about Pulis and move on.
I'm beginning to think we are useless at negotiating. Yes, we are also an unattractive club, but so what, as you say, Norwich and a few others are hardly flash either. Ba, injury concerns but ultimately I feel if we had dealt with him better, we could have signed him cheaper, instead of asking for him on loan instead. Lukaku, we tried to loan him from Chelsea in the same window they bought him, made ourselves look rather stupid, he ended up at West Brom. Popov, looked like we were going to sign him, then apparently couldn't get a work permit, then he signs for West Brom. It seems half the time our staff dealing with transfers don't know the rules as well as those at other clubs! Or maybe players just don't want to risk playing for Mark Hughes after his QPR failings?
Its got nothing to do with the Pulis era for me or else we wouldnt have signed muniesa who a lot of clubs were gunning for. Its just a lot of players are very greedy and we are one of the very few clubs who dont give them what they want (rumours are that Diouf wanted £75,000 a week). I for one am proud that we work this way and if this means we struggle to sign players then so be it. No player is worth bending the boundaries of the club. Onwards and upwards UTPsssssssssssssssss
Fair points Sandor and Ric I HAVE moved on from Pulis now, I hope the rest of you will too! I honestly believe that there is NO WAY the football can be that bad again. Signings, makes me wonder to be honest but we do seem to **** around with the decent player's wages etc. In truth I don't really know why but can understand Coates in not spending for the sake of...
Apart from this season we always seem unable to clinch the deal and go for secondary targets, been our hell for years. Hope your fortunes changes lads. It makes for a lovely summer. I could get used to this.
SIS & Nicky I did not think I was have a cheap shot. Apologies SIS With regard to this thread, I believe that we are struggling to interest players coming to SOT simply because of what has gone on previously. I think if TP had stayed we would not have signed anybody as yet. In my mind we have got 4 players to-date: Pennant Palacios Peters Muniesa I hope that Brek Shea does recover soon. I have not heard the extent of the injury he suffered in the USA. For me we still urgently need a right back and a class forward.
Thanks for the support Nick and thanks for the apology Cris Bit surprised but did not really take offence aIt is inevitable when we are all so passionate about our club and apprehensive about the new season that things get a bitblurred Iwas not relly perpetuating the criticsm of P ulisbut just commenting why Potts and others had regained their fervent support for away games UTPKTF SiS
I like stoke as they are like us a small team in a big pond and i think the problem that you have of players signing or taking their time in signing is the poor season you had last season to what fans and players are use too. It does not help that many pundits have stoke as relegation candidates that to me is stupid. stoke are an established premiership club that has more experience than anyone other than the top 6 they can call on to get it right this season. Ok sparkey would not have been many fans choice of manager but he is now and the fans should get behind him 100% for the time being until he has had a chance, So at this time it will be hard to get the players you want due to the situation....I think you will be ok and wont be relegated and end the season in mid table ish....good luck for the season....
I think we struggle to attract players because like Chris says, who wants to come to Stoke on Trent? Use Stokies love it but to an outsider what does it have to offer over the lure of the bright lights of say London, Manchester or Liverpool. Crouchies missus never wanted to come but agreed so long as they lived in Cheshire!
I think it's purely down to our wage structure and agents fees. As a smallish ground we do struggle to comete on wages.
But, if that's the case re small crowds in comparison to the (bigger clubs) surly Mr Coates would consider filling those corners in? Cough.... cough!! We fill the stadium all but every home game so I don't get this idea that Mr Coates had a few year ago. WHY he's not gone ahead puzzles me. If ya not in it, you can't win it. e.g. bigger crowds even if it was only another 4/5 thousand. Thoughts?
Potts, I honestly think that if we hadnt had such a bad unsettled season then the corners would have been filled in (we got planning permission), however there was a lot of doubt over the manager and season tickets were way down so I can see why he didnt fill the corners in TBH, but if we stay up this season and play a better brand of football then I will be annoyed if the stadium isnt expanded. UTPsssssssssssss
