Ric you are obviously entitled to your opinion and Iaccept that "watching" from afar I have not got my f "finger on the pulse" like you regulars but after suporting ( and playing for ) our beloved Stoke for approaching 60 years I think I know a bit about the game albeit that it is now business orientated rather than an out and out sport If you are ok to see us "in" the relegation zone as long as Hughes has a chance to improve us then fine but whilst I accept we are only a few ponits off mid table safety I can not seeing us picking up many points in the coming weeks and traditionally those who are adrift by January rarely escape the drop IMO Hughes has had enough time to work out his best 11 but a la Pulis he does not pick it Yes he inherited Pulis's dross but if you analyse how many of those ( WALTERS WHELAN ) he uses regularly that can not be an excuse Over all with the squad of experienced players we have we are not "punching our weight" You can not blame Hughes for our woeful strikers but Crouchy and Jones are capable of better as they have shown so what is wrong IMO Hughes is dour and not inspirational and to recover from the "Pulis years" we needed a manager with drive and ambition for the club IMO he is not that man Ihope that I am wrong but by January it could be too late SiS
we all asked for Pulis out, we got what we asked for and people are still not happy. maybe people should be careful what they wish for. Does anyone honestly think that any manager could do much better with the players we have?, they are poor players and the only good ones are the ones that Hughes bought. To say ill give him til January is nowhere near long enough. Hughes wasnt my first choice but atleast give the bloke this season. Martinez, Di matteo no-one could do anything with the players we have, we are in the league where we deserve to be with the squad we have. People on this board always post straight away when there is something negative to say but hardly ever post when we play well etc, this is why this board is becoming depressing and the reason why ill probably stop posting. You are all good people but IMO you need to get behind the manager and club because like I said above we all asked for Pulis to go.
Hang in there Ricc I will get back with a suitable comment to counter the negativity! I do remember what happened to other clubs that changed there managers at will!
Ricc I agree with most of this also. My main concern though is that Hughes could very well actually take us down and then do one without a care in the world. Whilst he is still picking the likes of Whelan and Walters over better players we are not evolving at all. I've just been doing some sums and we are on exactly the same points we were this time last season so some could argue what's changed? The only difference is that come November 30th we were on 19 points. That's ten more than we currently have. I've looked at our fixture list and no way are we going to pick up 10 points this month. November 2013 Swansea V Stoke Sun 10 Nov 16:10 Premier League Stoke V Sunderland Sat 23 Nov 15:00 Premier League Everton V Stoke Sat 30 Nov 15:00 We just about survived last season. We are all Stokies at heart and want the best for our club and I agree we must remain united and get behind the team. Hughes had millions at his disposal at both QPR and Man City and achieved nothing at either club and that's the bit that is worrying me!
How they stood Table on 31 Oct 2012 Table on 30 Nov 2012 P GD Pts CLUB P GD PTS 1 Chelsea 9 12 22 Man Utd 14 15 33 2 Man Utd 9 11 21 Man City 14 17 32 3 Man City 9 9 21 Chelsea 14 11 26 4 Tottenham 9 4 17 West Brom 14 6 26 5 Everton 9 6 16 Tottenham 14 2 23 6 Arsenal 9 8 15 Everton 14 6 22 7 Fulham 9 5 14 Arsenal 14 10 21 8 West Brom 9 2 14 Swansea 14 4 20 9 West Ham 9 2 14 Stoke 14 1 19 10 Newcastle 9 -2 13 West Ham 14 0 19 11 Swansea 9 1 11 Fulham 14 2 17 12 Liverpool 9 -2 10 Liverpool 14 0 16 13 Stoke 9 -1 9 Norwich 14 -9 16 14 Sunderland 8 -2 9 Newcastle 14 -7 14 15 Wigan 9 -6 8 Wigan 14 -10 14 16 Norwich 9 -11 7 Sunderland 13 -4 13 17 Aston Villa 9 -7 6 Aston Villa 14 -11 13 18 Reading 8 -6 4 Southampton 14 -10 12 19 Southampton 9 -12 4 Reading 13 -7 9 20 QPR 9 -11 3 QPR 14 -16 5
the most worrying thing for me is that i watched the game against Southampton and compared the players and honestly they destroyed us player for player, our players just arent good enough, yes we will have our good days but if you look at the other teams around the bottom in all honesty we are where we deserve to be. Im not sure that Hughes will have much money to spend come January as there are lots of players still with long contracts and high wages. IMO players that are good enough: Bego, Huth, Pieters, Cameron, Nzonzi, arnie and thats about it (and im talking about the ENTIRE squad). Yes ive left Shawcross out of this list as I think he is having a terrible season and seems to be getting worse each season. He aint nowhere near good enough to play for england not by a country mile. Im not going to have a got at Hughes for the **** that Pulis has left us in. The point im trying to make is you can be the best manager in the world but you cant make a silk purse out of a bag of ****.
Ricc again I'd agree with that too. Pulis left us in this mess and I realise it's going to take some getting out of. I just don't think Hughes is the right man to do it. I sincerely hope I'm proved wrong and I have to eat humble pie. The only saving grace i can forsee is that there maybe 3 weaker teams beneath us come the end of the season. 2 out of the three so far we struggled against. Just about beat Palace after trailing and lost to Norwich who were destroyed by Man City yesterday. I'm also thinking we will mess up against Sunderland too with us being the charity team of the prem. I'd hate to see us go down and defo do not want that. I just cannot see at the moment where goals are going to come from?
Obviously I have not been around for a number of games but have been keeping up to date. Whilst I do worry about the ability of some of those players at this level we have gone backwards since 2011. A number of players have moved on such as Sidibe, Fulller, Cresswell, Whitehead, Delap, Shotton to mention those off the top of my head. Of the afore-mentioned, in my mind the only one with real ability was Ricardo. I expect that Whelan will become marginalised more and more. Jones has managed to do that himself by his recent comments. so unless Crouch gets another forearm smash I do not think KJ will be seen very much. Matty is either injured or else it is recognised that he wont go past a full back or have the confidence to do so. So for me that leaves Walters. For me I believe that he does add something to the team but it is not quality. Most recently MH has managed to sign or loan Pieters, Assuadi, Arnie, Muniesa and Ireland. I have not seen enough of these players but for me Arnie looks the business! Also Ireland seems willing to work but will reserve judgement. The wind no doubt made it difficult to play and from what I read and seen it looks as if Southampton applied themselves better than our beloved Stoke. So we should be grateful to Bego for his punt up the field in the first half and terrific safe at the death. (Although it was given offside). The pass and go transition is not perfected as yet and I agree that it is important to pick up points. More important to have a few wins as that is what will bring confidence. I still maintain that the players must not switch off until the final whistle is blown. The January window is important as I believe that MH will bring in some genuine talent to move us on. Whilst I would not go so far as Ricc to include only 6 players as good enough, I do think that Crouch needs a player close to him as Arnie was for 45 minutes at Old Trafford. This provides more opportunity to retain the ball in the opposition half and the final third. I am concerned but like Ricc feel that Hughes must be given time. one season or 6 months is not long enough. He is not responsible for the majority of players that TP brought in. Some of those playing yesterday for the opposition were brought in at less than Crouch or Jones and I understand looked the business. So give Hughes time please.
Still think we have a chance of pulling this off. it's not as if we are getting dicked every week or have a massive negative goal difference, we have a new striker joining in January and the strikers we have will be trying so much harder after this weekend because they will be ribbed mercilessly by everyone that knows them. KTF people it's our team, we have seen off Pulis, we are evolving and there are a lot of games to go before the fat lady sings.
Finally some of you are waking up to what we have been saying. DO NOT leave it to late guys..We got Arry through sheer cash outlay..I dont believe (and i may be wrong-sorry) that you have that same finance available. Shawcross/ huth crouch will walk into most prem teams,. It isnt your players because they have kept you up for the past 8 + years...What else could it be?
Ok, I have sat back a bit this season and tried to be both constructive and positive in my views - something I was unable to do at the end of TP's tenure. When reading SiS's post, its difficult to disagree and as a snap shot it consise and to the point and probably reflective of our current plight. However, I have to agree with Ricc/Tent in that whilst it is not pretty reading the clear facts are that MH's form is equivalent to TP's final games and the start to the season is on a par with what TP did last year. Black & white facts are difficult to argue and seems only fair that Hughes gets a chance given that TP had years. The debate is about the variables and this is where there will be differing views. For me SiS is right in that the current form/style/selections are not reaping the results we would want - but again may I point out that we are no worse points wise than we were under the Welsh Wizard - and I do have issues with some players who still make the squad/team. The counter argument (which Ricc has stated) is that Hughes has had no money to spend and none of TP's big signings have moved on, ironic considering Coates never wanted Crouch! This tells us that our "big players" will not be considered by other Prem teams or top championship clubs and unfortunatley that leaves Hughes with having to work with what TP had spent over a 100 million on and almost got us relegated. Given that his results (to date) are no worse than TP's - its seems unfair and unrealistic to be over critical at this stage. The counter argument is that we need results ASAP and we need fresh blood that can breath life into the team and more importantly score goals - or atleast create chances. We are improving our football, we are gaining more possesion and we are creating more chances - we just cant finish. For me Crouch, Walters, Jones, Ethrington etc need to go in January - we need to bring Jerome back from CP to give us more pace and impact from the bench and loan a decent goal scorer (AKA Demba Ba or similiar) who has something to prove. As a club we cant do anything untill the transfer window and regardless of the results its seems logical that the manager should be afforded the same time - hopefully we will pick up another 12 points by the new year and can build from there. I would just like to say that a couple of years ago I said "that TP was insuring himself against the sack by creating a squad and style that nobody else could/or will work with" - ironic isnt it?
Well said Smithers, we are no worse off but we are playing football, Arnie has started to score now we just need a few goals / results to move us on. Fully agree about the strike force and bringing Jerome back, problem for me is without a car crash we are going to struggle to shift Crouch and Co to pastures new. I bet the strikers had the p*ss taken out of them today when Asmir took striker training.
Hi I honestly think that Jerome like Jones signed himself off by slagging TP off. I was disappointed to see him go but have been amazed when seeing play briefly for Palace. He is now firmly on the subs bench. So we will have to be patient, get behind the team and support the manager though thick and thinnnnn Cheers
I am not for one minute saying that Jerome is the answer, it just seemed crazy to send the only player we had/have with pace out on loan leaving us with the 2 slow target men and Walters who runs in treacle. I never liked the signing of jerome and his record at Brum was awful (akin to how Walters has been for us) especially as Pulis gave 4 million for him? However, he did a decent job off the bench for us and stretched the game, something we are sadly lacking upfront at the moment. I dont like slagging players off, but the club has invested over 40 million in strikers and we have very little to show for it. Pure bad business by the club and leaves the current manager with very little option but to hope and play! You can put lipstick on a pig, but its still a pig!
It is largely the players, at the end of last season we were in relegation form, this has been coming since last christmas, Shawcross is having a terrible spell and the reason we stayed up for the past 2 seasons is because we played **** football and had lots of luck. Now we are asking the SAME players to start passing it around like Barcelona. You keep coming on here stiring the trouble up and it aint going help us so if you cant find anything positive to say about our club they please stick to stabbing your Mark Hughes voodoo doll and keep off the board. Im having a hard enough time trying to keep stoke fans positive without people coming on talking about something that they know nothing about (Stoke City fc). Our squad of players are very poor IMO and I dont care who is the manager we would still be in the bottom 5. We need to buy atleast 6-8 good players to turn it around and not keep slagging Hughes off all the time. IMO we would definitely have been relegated under Pulis so if we stay up Hughes has done a brilliant job because I dont think that many managers in the world would relish coming to stoke with the players we have.
Smithers, I was not thinking you were suggesting that Jerome was the answer for a moment. I agree that he was the only one with pace and stretched the game late on. He also was willing to shoot which some of others upfront would not attempt. Best Wishes
We said that at QPR and look what happened. When he had money and bought in his own players the majority turned out to be ****e and he could do nothing with them.
