Stoke City

Stoke v SAFC Who are You?: ‘mellow’ Kenwyne, hounded Shawcross, whingeing Arsenal

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Jake demands answers
Jake demands answers

Football’s back. Forget listless England, smarmy but sensational Ronaldo (impossible to like, impossible not to admire as I tweeted after his third), slightly lucky France. Disregard the intriguing battle for supremacy developing at the top end of the Premier. The resumption of proper football offers Stoke vs Sunderland and it really is the only show in town. Our City volunteer is Angela Smith*, former squash pro, broadcaster, lifelong fan. She shares her thoughts on the ‘hard but fair’ Stoke style under Tony Pulis, the fading Sunderland ‘old boys’ factor at the Britannia (with the engima that is our Kenwyne) and the Shawcross-Ramsey fallout ….

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Stoke City: now riding the Magic Roundabout?

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John McCormick:
John McCormick: definitely not on the wagon

Rather than rattle on about Gus Poyet, about whom I know nothing, I thought I’d rattle on about managerial changes in general. My starting point was Neil Carter’s 2006 book “The football manager, A history” which I used in my last post. You might remember me writing that Carter reckoned the average managerial tenure at the start of the Premiership was 1.5 years. There was room for argument as Dr. Sue Bridgewater put it at about 2.5 years in a recent report she wrote for the League Managers’ Association but as she also documented a declining trend, so much so that managers now last about 1.4 years, I don’t think it matters.

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All change at Stoke, all change at Sunderland – and both for the better

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Gareth gazes at two sets of red and white stripes and see sense
Gareth gazes at two sets of red and white stripes and sees sense

Gareth Barker has been thinking about Mark Hughes’s appointment as replacement for the sacked Tony Pulis at Stoke City and this led him to reflect again on Sunderland’s dramatic change from Martin O’Neill to Paolo Di Canio. In his parallel Sunderland universe, Gareth sees another 1-1 draw. Both clubs, he argues, got it right …

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Sixer’s Stoke Soapbox: a point from the Potters but is it enough?

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Jake guesses Sixer's mood

Pete Sixsmith, who shared some wretched news with me today about a good mutual friend, in his case a very close one, offers a clinical analysis of the match but ends with precisely the right sense of perspective. Our deepest sympathies go to Pete Horan, Emma and Clare on the loss of Pete H’s much-loved wife and the girls’ treasured mother, Sue, always to be remembered as a picture of vitality and warmth; my abiding memory is from outside the Dun Cow in Durham after a promotion or championship clincher, all four of them decked out in red and white and making the family car rock to Cheer Up Peter Reid …

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Paolo’s Pow-Wow: after Stoke, Southampton’s our Champions League final

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Not great but a result Jake would have taken at half time
An outcome Jake and probably PDC would have taken at half time

After the grim display at Villa Park, Sunderland started against Stoke City as if someone had persuaded them life in the Championship isn’t so bad, after all, so why not give it a shot? Paolo Di Canio’s post-match e-mail rightly makes no attempt to excuse Craig Gardner, rightly praises the qualities of pride and commitment shown by the 10 men and – having previously, post-Chelsea, described the remaining games as being six FA Cup finals – freely acknowledges that the one against Southampton is now our Champions League final …

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Sixer’s Sevens. SAFC 1 Stoke City 1: survival point?

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Sixer at the wall
Jake captures Sixer’s wall of strength

Each matchday, Pete Sixsmith – or a supersub in his absence – summarises the outcome and/or performance with a seven-word verdict, invariably followed by his considered Soapboax report. Tonight was yet another of those interminable must-win games for Sunderland. At half time, it looked like a no-hoper. The 10 men who remained after Craig Gardner’s astonishing lapse of discipline performed creditably for the rest of the game and fully deserved the point. No complaints from Monsieur Salut about the red though Dean Whitehead led a charmed life: three yellow offences, one card. All may still be to do but this ended up being a mighty point …

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