http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/story-19078363-detail/story.html#ixzz2UBneGEvx THE exit of manager Tony Pulis is but the tip of the iceberg in this summer's mass clear-out. The departures (and impending departures) add up to at least eight people so far. Tony Pulis's departure is sparking a mass exodus as Stoke City, including former caretaker boss Dave Kevan. Mark O'Connor will be the ninth if he declines an offer to switch from first-team coach to Academy coach. And their combined service to Stoke City amounts to a staggering 77 years. The exodus was always likely to include the various backroom personnel in this day and age of ever-expanding staff in the Premier League. So perhaps the most interesting name on that list is the latest addition to it â Dave Kevan â for he was nowhere near the first team. A popular figure, he is well known in these parts after serving as a player, a coach and even caretaker manager in 2002 between Steve Cotterill going and Tony Pulis arriving. He spent a period away from the club from 2003 onwards â serving as Cotterill's number two at Burnley for several seasons â before returning two years ago to coach in Stoke's Academy. His charges have included the under-18s and then, following a national re-organisation, he took over the newly-formed under-21s for their debut season in 2012-13. The under-21 set-up, designed to bridge the gap between youth football and men's football, is still being assessed after just one season under the spotlight. But here at Stoke, it's fair to say their results have been distinctly modest to say the least. Kevan was out of contract anyway this summer and so onlookers will be tempted to assume he has merely carried the can for those poor results. But onlookers a little closer to the scene believe Kevan would be an unjustified scapegoat. It appears that while he enjoyed a fair hands-on role when it came to the coaching of the youngsters coming his way, he had next to no say on the recruitment of those youngsters. That may or may not have caused the kind of friction that may have precipitated his departure earlier this week. And it is the question of recruitment which must surely exercise the owners more than any other as they now seek to see some dividend for their multi-million pound outlay on youth development at Stoke City. For while the buildings and the facilities, not least the pitches at the Clayton Wood training ground, are now firmly in place, they are rendered fairly useless if the coaching and the recruiting are not up to scratch. Whatever the rights and wrongs of releasing Kevan this week, the courtship of Mark O'Connor is a positive sign of intent on the coaching front. He has been a popular and seemingly effective member of the first-team coaching staff since joining the club in 2006 to work for the man he once played for at Bournemouth back in the early 1990s. And his impact appears to have impressed more than Pulis alone judging by the offer to move into a senior coaching role in the club's Academy. But even with the best facilities and the best coaches in the world, it's still impossible to turn water into wine if the wrong players are being recruited into the club. Pulis has been lambasted by many for failing to blood youngsters in and around his first team. To which he will argue that the likes of Ryan Shawcross and Asmir Begovic are examples of his willingness to blood good youngsters. His refusal to touch youngsters reaching the end of their youth education at Stoke was not a measure of his opposition to the Academy system, he would argue, but his opposition to poor players. Perhaps the test of his argument will come in the coming months when the club appoints a manager with a better reputation for selecting younger players. If he, too, shies away from Stoke's Academy products, then the club really does have some soul searching to do. STOKE have added 19-year-old Portsmouth right-back Elliot Wheeler to their under-21 squad after he came out of contract at Fratton Park. John Rudge (aged 68) 14 years Dave Kevan (44) 14 years Tony Pulis (55) 10 years Lindsay Parsons (61) 10 years Dave Kemp (60) 8 years Mark O'Connor (50) 7 years Adrian Pennock (42) 6 years Gerry Francis (61) 5 years Paul Maxwell (37) 3 years TOTAL 77
Nope that was; Little Joe or Littler Joe or Littlest Joe. Or that Big Joe played by Kojack in Kelly's Heroes.
