http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/story-13544602-detail/story.html PETER Coates and his family have invested more than £60m to transform Stoke City from a mid-table Championship club into an established Premier League outfit, chief executive Tony Scholes has revealed. City's £20m treble swoop to bring in Peter Crouch, Wilson Palacios and Cameron Jerome on transfer deadline day wouldn't have been possible without the financial backing of chairman Coates and his children, Denise and John. The summer spending spree was the latest injection of cash by the family since they bought the club back from its former Icelandic owners in 2006. Their investment includes around £7m to buy the club from the Icelanders and wipe out Stoke's debts; £6m to make the club sole owner of the Britannia Stadium, and another £6m to develop the club's training ground and Academy at Clayton Wood. But the majority of their money has gone on transfer fees and player wages to help manager Tony Pulis establish the club in the Premier League. City's forthcoming accounts will shed further light on the Coates family's significant contribution, but it is understood the vast majority of their investment has been in shares rather than loans. Denise and John Coates have been crucial to City's transformation, having been behind the success of on-line gambling giant bet365, which has helped finance the club. Denise owns 50 per cent of bet365's shares. John, pictured below, owns 25 per cent, with the balance split across other family members and the firm's finance director. Scholes said Stoke's success over the last five years had been the result of a winning partnership between the family, Pulis and his staff. He added: "It is important to note that Denise has been the driving force behind bet365, so her contribution has been immeasurable. "Would we be in the position we are without this investment from the Coates family? The answer is no. But you still have to use the investment wisely and make sure you are getting value for money. "Over the last five years people would have to look at this club and say the investment has been spent well and helped establish the club in their current position." Pulis has also hailed the contribution of the Coates family. He describes Peter Coates as the best chairman in the Premier League and has also been keen to highlight the contribution of Denise and John in the Stoke success story. The Coates family's backing for Stoke mirrors the £97m investment made by Jack Walker and his estate in transforming Blackburn Rovers' fortunes in the 1990s. The involvement of the Blackburn-born steel magnate helped Rovers become Premier League champions in 1994/95 and keep them in the top flight for most of the last two decades. But Stoke are having to compete with much bigger-spending rivals than Rovers did when they were champions of England 16 years ago. The Premier League big-spenders are led by Manchester City's Sheikh Mansour, who has poured more than £1 billion into the club since taking control three years ago.
