Missing Tone already :-( http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/4941311/Tony-Pulis-plans-gone-to-Pott.html PLAN A Pulis spends 6mths working on masterplan to revolutionise Stoke PLAN B Club sack him anyway TONY PULIS spent months working on a blueprint to transform Stoke for generations to come. Little did he know he was facing the sack as boss and his concept â based on German efficiency combined with Spanish flair â would not see the light of day. Pulis, 55, branded a dinosaur by his critics, left the Britannia Stadium on Tuesday convinced he could have taken the Potters to the next level. He was accused of being too set in his ways to switch from traditional route-one football. But today SunSport can reveal Pulis DID have a new plan which he had been working on painstakingly since the start of the season. Ironically, his vision was based around promoting the Pottersâ own kids and relying less on the long-ball game which provoked so much criticism from friend and foe. Pulisâ files were so crammed with new ideas it took him three months to get all of his proposals down in print. But his detailed dossiers were ditched along with Pulis when Stokeâs 75-year-old owner Peter Coates terminated his managerâs seven-year-reign. In his last exclusive interview prior to getting the axe, passionate Welshman Pulis revealed to SunSport: âIâve done a report for Peter which took me six months to complete and three months to write. âIâve given it to Peter and everyone else who matters. âIdeally, Iâd like to transform this club with the right people in the right places, doing it the right way.â Stoke have spent a fortune on gaining the FAâs coveted Category A status for facilities, but Pulis was not convinced the FAâs regulations should be followed slavishly. He added: âI believe we can produce better youth players in this country than we have for the last 20 years. âWhat I donât agree with â and it will never ever sit right with me â is to do exactly what everyone else tells us to do. âI think every club has a different identity, a different thread. One size doesnât fit all. âEvery club has its own DNA and should be able to adapt to that.â Pulis revealed how Athletic Bilbao and Bayer Leverkusen had inspired and influenced his future plans. He marvelled at the way Marcelo Bielsaâs Bilbao pulled mighty Manchester United apart home and away in the Europa League last year â despite their policy of signing mainly Basque players. He wanted to harness that local pride and passion to produce a new generation of locally-reared talent, which could be supplemented by the odd big-money buy. Pulis revealed: âI went out and saw Bilbao and was very, very impressed with their set-up. âObviously itâs the Basque area, very similar to South Wales in respect of the population. âYet Bilbao remain the only club outside Real Madrid and Barcelona never to have been relegated from La Liga. âI wanted to know how they managed to consistently produce quality players and teams. âThey are like us in many respects, a community club who are up against global giants, yet they consistently manage to punch above their weight. âI was interested in the way Marcelo Bielsa trained and worked their lads. âIt was a similar story in Germany. I went over to Leverkusen who were overachieving in the German league. âI could easily have picked Dortmund or Bayern Munich, but I thought Iâd pick a club who were very similar to us over the last few years, who have really over-achieved. âTheir youth set-up work was fantastic - the way they trained, the way they worked, the way it was all linked together. âIt was as one all the way through the programme which joined up all the dots.â The one thing which struck a chord with Pulis in Spain and Germany was the quality and experience of the people in charge of the youngest players at the club. He said: âAt Bilbao the guys who work with the youth team are all experienced at first-team level. âAt Leverkusen the director of their Academy, Sascha Lewandowski, used to manage the first team. Heâs actually managed the first team and helped them qualify for the Championsâ League. âBut he wanted to step down to build the club from the roots up and now he is the director of the Academy. âIt is the way to go, without a shadow of a doubt. âIt has given these clubs not just continuity, but great experience as well. âTheir young players know what it takes to become a first-team player. âThe discipline, structure in their life, the competitiveness needed to make it to the first team. âIâve done my report, Peter Coates will look at it and Iâm sure John Coates will look at it too.â They did. Unfortunately for Pulis when push came to shove the Coates family and Stoke were not on the same page as Pulis. Now, the story moves on to a new chapter in Stokeâs history, as the club attempts to replace the man who wrote their most thrilling adventure to date.
Pulis IN! This all sounds well and good, but if he stayed, would any of it become a reality, or as Smithers likes to say "GROUNDHOG DAY"?
Do you remember his three year plan? Do you then remember his five year plan? I remember he said he had them but I never saw them in action.
