Mark Hughes appointed new Stoke City manager

eagle eye

I love to see teams with different styles and while Stoke wouldn't be my favourite team to watch by any stretch it is still interesting to see teams try and break them down and handle their tactics offensively.

As for the money spent, I think if you add up the value of the Stoke squad you will see that he has done alright in the transfer market. The likes of Begovic, Shawcross, Huth, Cameron, Adam and Walters would collectively command a fair sum of money.

Headshot

So let me get this straight Rafa is the favourite to take over Stoke

You seldom see this but how the hell did the bookies get that so wrong, quite funny tbh

UnitedIrishman

The thing about the way Stoke play is that it was necessary for them to stay in the league. If your knew you didn't have the players to play possession football, then you're going to have to play percentage football. I know from being in that position when playing junior league football it is boring as hell, not nice to watch, but amazingly effective with the right players. Tactically they were brilliant. Against the big sides they maintained a great shape which forced the opposition to try and use the wings which meant they were whipping balls into the box where you had two sasquatches in Shawcross and Huth easily able to clear it.

Now, what you could level at Pulis is that he didn't do enough to evolve their play and they continued to be a cynical side. But it's a business, and his job was to keep Stoke in the Premier League ever year and he managed to do so. There's no doubt that plenty of Championship sides would be willing to take a chance on him though because his style of play is so effective.

Kiwi_knock

The Stoke squad is not that bad, it is not an impossible job to take on. They still have the makings of a good team. Obviously they will not be able to transition to a passing team over night but I see improvement in their play next year.

Paully D

Headshot wrote: »

So let me get this straight Rafa is the favourite to take over Stoke

You seldom see this but how the hell did the bookies get that so wrong, quite funny tbh

He's the favourite for the PSG job and Napoli job too. A few Stoke fans have probably had a few quid on him. That's all it takes to send the ''next manager'' markets wild. It's all based on money coming in.

ArmaniJeanss

Headshot wrote: »

So let me get this straight Rafa is the favourite to take over Stoke

You seldom see this but how the hell did the bookies get that so wrong, quite funny tbh

He's not favourite, he's available most everywhere at around 10/1, 4th or 5th in the betting.
One bookie is out of line and have him 3/1 fav, but its hardly as sensational as you make out.

monkey9

Pulis did a brilliant job at Stoke. Promotion, stabilty, a cup final and Europe (one of those ties being against Valencia or Atletico Madrid ,can't remember which). Remember, this is Stoke City

In saying that, now is probably the best time for both parties to part. For the first time, Pulis has been coming under pressure over the past few months. It's good that this has happened now days after the end of the current season as it gives Stoke time to get the new manager in but more importantly, give them time to get players in and out in order implement a new style of play for the coming season.

As others have said, the squad as it is now is designed to play Pulis' style. But it's been reported that part of Stoke's problems this season was due to the fact that some players in the squad wanted to play a more footballing style so for the first time, not everyone was pulling in the same direction. There might be a more willing attitude to change and adapt.

Dempsey

monkey9 wrote: »

Pulis did a brilliant job at Stoke. Promotion, stabilty, a cup final and Europe (one of those ties being against Valencia or Atletico Madrid ,can't remember which). Remember, this is Stoke City

In saying that, now is probably the best time for both parties to part. For the first time, Pulis has been coming under pressure over the past few months. It's good that this has happened now days after the end of the current season as it gives Stoke time to get the new manager in but more importantly, give them time to get players in and out in order implement a new style of play for the coming season.

As others have said, the squad as it is now is designed to play Pulis' style. But it's been reported that part of Stoke's problems this season was due to the fact that some players in the squad wanted to play a more footballing style so for the first time, not everyone was pulling in the same direction. There might be a more willing attitude to change and adapt.

AFAIK, Pulis wanted to change the teams style of play aswell. Its not a case of Pulis wanting to play that style forever and ever. He has tried to bring more 'footballers' to the squad but a combination of the wrong players, in fighting with the director of football over those purchases and the results over the last 6 months has brought things to this point.

LiamoSail

Rafa to stoke? They'd be just a luis Suarez away from being held in similar regard to the third reich by the English papers/fans

starviewadams

Pity Brian McDermott didn't wait til the summer to review his employment options,would've been a good fit to re-invigorate Stoke I'd have thought.

Decent-ish squad that has just stagnated under Pulis for the last season or two,if the new manager gets a reasonable transfer budget this summer,and they ship out a few of their no hopers I'd say they'll be okay.

Paully D

Dempsey wrote: »

AFAIK, Pulis wanted to change the teams style of play aswell. Its not a case of Pulis wanting to play that style forever and ever. He has tried to bring more 'footballers' to the squad but a combination of the wrong players, in fighting with the director of football over those purchases and the results over the last 6 months has brought things to this point.

He's brought ''footballers'' to the club during his tenure and he might as well have been asked to take up rocket science when it came to using said players. He was never going to change. He had his chance, he tried, and wasn't able to. His policy of signing older players with no resale value is the only way he knows how.

He was sacked from Stoke the first time around because he wasn't able to sign proper footballers or find any bargains from abroad. Things haven't changed.

He is not, has never been, and never will be able to adapt to modern football.

That said, he did a good job with Stoke and like Sam Allardyce, he'd be likely to keep you up every season, but the chairman was never going to continue to fund his transfer policy without seeing some sort of return on player sales.

Dempsey

Paully D wrote: »

He's brought ''footballers'' to the club during his tenure and he might as well have been asked to take up rocket science when it came to using said players. He was never going to change. He had his chance, he tried, and wasn't able to. His policy of signing older players with no resale value is the only way he knows how.

He was sacked from Stoke the first time around because he wasn't able to sign proper footballers or find any bargains from abroad. Things haven't changed.

He is not, has never been, and never will be able to adapt to modern football

That said, he did a good job with Stoke and like Sam Allardyce, he'd be likely to keep you up every season, but the chairman was never going to continue to fund his transfer policy without seeing some sort of return on player sales.

His style of football worked, the 'footballers' signed were terrible and overpriced so the failure to adapt happened

Pulis didnt decide transfer policy in recent times, hence the fallout with the director of football.

jimjamcos

Stoke to be relegated ala Blackburn post Allardyce.

monkey9

starviewadams wrote: »

Pity Brian McDermott didn't wait til the summer to review his employment options,would've been a good fit to re-invigorate Stoke I'd have thought.

Decent-ish squad that has just stagnated under Pulis for the last season or two,if the new manager gets a reasonable transfer budget this summer,and they ship out a few of their no hopers I'd say they'll be okay.

The bloke is manager of Leeds. A far better and bigger job than Stoke will ever be. Don't be surprised to see those two clubs pass each next May as one goes up and the other goes down.

dfx-

Jax Teller wrote: »

Remember hearing Stoke fan on a phone in show giving out about Pulis " We've spent over a 100million and we still can't pass the ball"
Shocking but true .

One of the highlights of the Rafa season was the 0-4 at Stoke. Stoke 'play' their game for the opening while, before Chelsea get the ball down 30 yards from goal for a minute.

Just as the Stoke fans start to shout "booooring, boooring, boooooring" at the controlled passing, a quick one-two sets Lampard free at the keeper and his shot is saved. It would've been great if he had scored.

circadian

Just seen some Stoke fans on tv scoffing at the suggestion that Rafa or Phil Neville will take the job.

Rafa has proven himself to be a good manager on a number of occasions, I wasn't his biggest fan but he's won me over this year by weathering the Chelsea storm. Fair play.

I don't think Neville is ready for management yet but I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up being a decent one.

I don't think some of the Stoke fans realise they're at a bit of a crossroad right now and who the next manager is will have a big effect on what direction they go.

kryogen

Stoke are good relegation candidates now, scoffing at the thought of Benitez being the manager there? Well I can understand why people would think thats funny,i think the notion that he would be interested in the job is hilarious personally!!

cournioni

kryogen wrote: »

Stoke are good relegation candidates now, scoffing at the thought of Benitez being the manager there? Well I can understand why people would think thats funny,i think the notion that he would be interested in the job is hilarious personally!!

Hopefully so, they have a horrible set of fans.

kryogen

Not their fault really, they live in Stoke. Has to be enough to make anyone bitter and twisted

Kylo Ren

This is your chance Real Madrid. They could easily get in the obvious Ancelotti or they could so something bold.

Next season, arguably the biggest team in world football, could appoint three managers. Pulis, O'Neil and Hughes all take over together and bring Madrid back into world dominance.

Big Sam as assistant manager also? Fuck it, why not!

Paully D

circadian wrote: »

Just seen some Stoke fans on tv scoffing at the suggestion that Rafa or Phil Neville will take the job.

Rafa has proven himself to be a good manager on a number of occasions, I wasn't his biggest fan but he's won me over this year by weathering the Chelsea storm. Fair play.

I don't think Neville is ready for management yet but I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up being a decent one.

I don't think some of the Stoke fans realise they're at a bit of a crossroad right now and who the next manager is will have a big effect on what direction they go.

Any mid-table/bottom half club that turns their nose up at Rafa Benitez doesn't know their arse from their elbow. Neville, fair enough, but to scoff at Benitez is crazy.

He's far better than that job anyway.

Reekwind

circadian wrote: »

Just seen some Stoke fans on tv scoffing at the suggestion that Rafa or Phil Neville will take the job

So x2 Liga championships, x2 UEFA Cup/Europa League, x1 Champions League, x1 UEFA Super Cup, x1 FA Cup, x1 Club World Cup... and some people think he's not good enough for Stoke?

People were scoffing at the idea that Rafa would come to Stoke.

Not that Rafa wouldn't be good enough for Stoke.

SlickRic

Mark Hughes will get it IMO.

circadian

Reekwind wrote: »

So x2 Liga championships, x2 UEFA Cup/Europa League, x1 Champions League, x1 UEFA Super Cup, x1 FA Cup, x1 Club World Cup... and some people think he's not good enough for Stoke?

That's pretty much how it came across on the telly.

I guess they're adverse to their team actually playing football.

BLACK MAGIC!!!

I am pie

Whoever comes in will need to realise that Pulis is leaving behind a squad which is built on ´direct´football. It is an incredible job to try and come in and turn that bunch of cloggers and long ball merchants into a football side.

Do you keep going in the direction they have and aim for premiership survival and financial stability or risk the house and start actually playing football.

For every Swansea there is a Wigan...it is a big risk, if I was a Stoke fan I would be very conflicted.

kryogen

SlickRic wrote: »

Mark Hughes will get it IMO.

If he does I hope he is actually given the time to change the team because that squad is full of guys who only know how to play one way, and change is often painful. They may survive by the skin of their teeth or whatever, but if they are going to go with Hughes, who is a good manager imo, they need to support him.

He wont change them overnight

dsmythy

BBC saying they're talking to Mark Hughes. Another relegation/sacking for the CV poor guy.

kryogen

Mark Hughes has relegations on his CV?

Em, nope.

wandatowell

dsmythy wrote: »

relegation/sacking for the CV poor guy.

He cant lose if he takes the Stoke job imo

dsmythy

kryogen wrote: »

Mark Hughes has relegations on his CV?

Em, nope.

That's why I slashed it with sacking. One or the other was happening last year. He'll have the exact same problem with Stoke and players as he had with QPR. If I were him I'd wait for a better job.

kryogen

I think he is desperate to get back in though, the longer you are out the harder it gets

Think he would do alright with them, certainly keep them up next season while making changes, his Blackburn team were a dirty team, very physical so Stoke would not be completely alien to him in that respect. Im trying to think of what job he resigned from Fulham because he thought he was getting (or thats how it looked anyway) was it Chelsea?

Paully D

Hughes is a good manager IMO. He was who I wanted when we sacked Bruce, miles ahead of O'Neill on my shortlist at the time. He has a track record of doing well at clubs that have a limited budget (which I'll look at below) and had Wales looking like a half decent footballing nation at one stage (losing in the Euro 2004 playoffs to Russia, and they beat Italy along the way).

Blackburn - Met the aim of staying up and got to the FA Cup semi-final. Then finished in the top 6, qualified for Europe and reached the League Cup semi-final. Finished top half of the Premier League and knockouts of the UEFA Cup, FA Cup semi-final again. Then he finished 7th in his final season. Excellent job all round, he made some cracking cut price signings, and they also finished bottom of the fair play league in each of his 4 years there (not an achievement by any means this, but it does tell us something) so he might well be suited to working with the aggressive players already at Stoke.

Fulham - He had a tough act to follow in Roy Hodgson who reached the Europa League final, but his Fulham team were extremely tough to beat from the outset. If I remember correctly, they drew 6 or 7 games in a row at the start of his reign. Stoke are quite a tough team to break down as it is and I think Hughes could have similar success in making them hard to beat. They eventually finished 8th, with 11 wins, 16 draws and 11 defeats, and actually qualified for the Europa League through the fair play league, so that proves his teams can leave the aggressive stuff behind too.

Yes, I'm not including the City (where I don't think he was as bad as some make out) or QPR jobs (poor job by Hughes done there, but with the owners and fans wanting money splashed around, I wonder how much of a say he had in transfer targets or how much pressure he was under to make ''popular'' signings, add in the fact the vast majority of players didn't want to be there to play football and you have a tough situation) but his track record in similar situations to Stoke and in terms of what he will have to work with is very good.

His training is supposed to be excellent, with Gudjohnson comparing the methods to those used by Barcelona.

Some value for money signings he has made (which is what Stoke will be looking for after £20m spends every season and getting nothing back under Pulis) include: Dembele, Kompany, Zabaleta, Nelson, Samba, McCarthy, Warnock, Bentley, Santa Cruz and Kacanicklic. All players who have done or who currently are doing well in the Premier League.

I actually think he's underrated by fans now after the QPR job. It's very difficult for clubs like Stoke, Sunderland etc to find the perfect candidate, so some sort of compromise needs to be made. I think Hughes fits the bill in most categories that Stoke will look for and although he will take a couple of months to put his mark on the team, he should do quite well in a stable environment again.

Paully D

Martin O'Neill now joint favourite alongside Mark Hughes, although I think this one might be more to do with the fact that Stan Collymore had heard there was a good chance of it happening on his TalkSport show.

That would be a disastrous appointment, IMO. He's almost the exact same as Pulis, except Pulis will actually turn up to the training ground more than once in the blue moon. O'Neill is finished. A busted flush.

Amirani

Paully D wrote: »

That would be a disastrous appointment, IMO. He's almost the exact same as Pulis, except Pulis will actually turn up to the training ground more than once in the blue moon. O'Neill is finished. A busted flush.

Fully agree, would be completely the wrong way to go.

mike65

O' Neill, Hughes...can Curbishley be far behind?

Reekwind

Paully D wrote: »

[Hughes'] track record in similar situations to Stoke and in terms of what he will have to work with is very good

You mean teams with a track record of wasting good sums of money on mediocre players? I don't rate Hughes and I don't rate him because of his work at the last two clubs he managed. That is, the ones you decided not to use in your evaluation of him

Some value for money signings he has made... Bentley, Santa Cruz and Kacanicklic. All players who have done or who currently are doing well in the Premier League.

I'm not sure that you're being serious here...

Amirani

Reekwind wrote: »

I'm not sure that you're being serious here...

Blackburn made good profits on both Bentley and Santa Cruz, both of whom had good spells at the club. Kacaniklic looks a decent value pickup also.

RikkFlair

From one Welshman to another....looks like Sparky

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22689474

Dempsey

A good fit I think

Interesting to see who comes in and who goes over the next few months

LuckyLloyd

A Net spend of ~15m when you spent ~20m is different to a Net spend of ~15m when you spent 60. The starting base every time for the former example is significantly lower.

Pulis was offered an opportunity to sign numerous players in the 3m - 10m bracket. Too many of them didn't work out well and had to be offloaded for nothing. That is a valid criticism, but the '3rd highest net spend - what a disastrous tenure' stuff is rubbish imo. A club like Stoke has a natural ceiling and I'd suggest it isn't much higher than where they are.

It's going to be a tough job. That squad is built to play a certain way.

retalivity

can anyone give me quick odds on stoke to get relegated next year?
at work and cant check

Blatter

retalivity wrote: »

can anyone give me quick odds on stoke to get relegated next year?
at work and cant check

Best price 7/2.

Chucky the tree

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

A Net spend of ~15m when you spent ~20m is different to a Net spend of ~15m when you spent 60. The starting base every time for the former example is significantly lower.

Pulis was offered an opportunity to sign numerous players in the 3m - 10m bracket. Too many of them didn't work out well and had to be offloaded for nothing. That is a valid criticism, but the '3rd highest net spend - what a disastrous tenure' stuff is rubbish imo. A club like Stoke has a natural ceiling and I'd suggest it isn't much higher than where they are.

It's going to be a tough job. That squad is built to play a certain way.

The issue is lots of clubs who have spent far less in that time have achieved far more. Pulis and Stoke after all the money he has spent should not be battling relegation out with Norwich and Southampton who have been recently promoted and spent far far less in the last 5-6 years. A team like Swansea have achieved far more than Stoke again while spending far less and having started with a much lower base than Stoke. West Brom are another team who's spending, base etc is very similar to Stoke but have done much better this year.

LuckyLloyd

Chucky the tree wrote: »

The issue is lots of clubs who have spent far less in that time have achieved far more. Pulis and Stoke after all the money he has spent should not be battling relegation out with Norwich and Southampton who have been recently promoted and spent far far less in the last 5-6 years. A team like Swansea have achieved far more than Stoke again while spending far less and having started with a much lower base than Stoke. West Brom are another team who's spending, base etc is very similar to Stoke but have done much better this year.

Stoke probably should have garnered 9 points or so more over the course of the season and it would have been an okay performance. As I say, it's a valid criticism but they aren't a million miles below expectation on the season. And then, as far as the overall tenure is concerned he's done well enough considering what he started with.

IvySlayer

What is it about Hughes that people hire him lately? Left Fulham after one season claiming they weren't ambitious enough, disaster at QPR, meh at Man City.

retalivity

is he still represented by joorbachian?
He should never be allowed near a club again for that reason alone.

Zaph

Zaph wrote: »

I suspect it might be a while before any PL club gives Hughes another shot.

Shows how much I know :pac:

thebaz

IvySlayer wrote: »

What is it about Hughes that people hire him lately? Left Fulham after one season claiming they weren't ambitious enough, disaster at QPR, meh at Man City.

apart from his record at QPR his record is top notch - did real well at Blackburn. Fulham and Wales - and good at City - i think he will do a great job at Stoke - transfering them slowlly from the anti football of the previous regime - I'd expect Stoke to be mid table , playing a more atractive brand of football (thats the easy bit

The_Kew_Tour

It is Sparky.