.....to follow a basket case of a club like the R's or a side like Stoke? The reason I ask this is that last Saturday on MOTD that masterful analyst Phillip Neville said something along the lines of...... "if Stoke spend well during the coming summer they could make the step up from 9th to 8th in the Premier League....." So whilst considering the contents of a bottle of Port I decided to check out their track record...... 14/15 - Currently 9th 13/14 - 9th 12/13 - 13th 11/12 - 14th 10/11 - 13th 09/10 - 11th During that time they also had a trip to Wembley in 10/11 when they lost in the FA Cup final and an European adventure in the UEFA Cup. Us by Comparison have the following track record over the same period..... 14/15 - Relegated Premier League 13/14 - 4th Championship and OBZ Day 12/13 - Relegated Premier League 11/12 - 17th EPL 10/11 - Champions Championship 09/10 - 13th Championship So in the same period we have had 2 promotions and 2 relegations and a day at Wembley. Whilst accepting that Stoke appear to be a well run financially stable club it does appear rather boring being an upper/mid table Premier League side, just raking in the TV money and no real chance of progressing any further, whereas the R's on the other hand.......well I know what I prefer, there's never a dull day following the R's...... So back to the original question who would you prefer to follow? Discuss.....
Comparing those two records it does appear we have had the "exciting" of times! Being totally unbiased, I would rather have our record of lows off set by the highs. Being a Stoke fan or equivalent does seem really tedious. It goes back to what I have posted on other occasions that being a yoyo club would be best if at all possible. Good thread btw.
Give me the fun, excitement, heart break, worry, fear of not knowing what's going to go wrong next anytime over a boring mid table life.
Stoke. It's funny that a man that relegated us is the man achieving mid table obscurity for them. The question is, how and why is that the case.
Yes, he kept us up and then virtually single handedly relegated us the following season, similar to Harry this season. He is obviously a decent Manager. My question is, how can he be so bad with us and relatively successful with somebody else?
I can't remember what repetitive mid table PL finishes feels like. But if it feels worse than two shambolic and spineless relegations I'll be very surprised. A yoyo club with a sense of purpose (reckon Burnley may get there) is one thing, a fiasco wandering aimlessly something different entirely.
I would prefer to have Stokes record for the next 6 seasons than ours. Can't think of anything else I prefer about Stoke except the cheap and good curries. I don't think Hughes has ever felt the need to purchase almost a full team at other Clubs. He's just had to maintain squads that weren't in as bad a shape for the PL as us, before our 2nd season. For this same reason I don't go along with a total clear out of players now or ever really. Need to keep the best we have that have good prospects, if we can.
Could have something to do with the fact that Stoke had most of the foundations in place under Pulis and a side that didn't need complete re-building, just one or two canny purchases. I don't think it was Fernandez who brought Green and then a few weeks later brought Cesar to replace him, that must have been the managers decision, although Fernandez should have been stronger and said No...... Some of Hughes purchases with us were questionable to say the least.....
And who would be in charge of THAT club exactly? that's what the consensus was under Flav and Bern.....now Fernandes. Let's be honest, some folk will never be happy whoever is charge or whatever the clubs position is. Moaning is their lifeblood..
Whilst it may seem boring I would have thought that achieving what Stoke have is exactly what we should have been aiming for & could possibly have been done if Hughes hadn't bought so poorly the 2nd season.
From a purely business point of view, agreed. Bit tedious for the fans I would have thought. Even fighting relegation has it's excitement.
