Why TP is right to wait..

When England started and finished in humilating fashion this summer every football fan wanted the EPL to start as soon as possible. Pre season friendlies hadn't started yet and Stokes only player involved in the World Cup Thomas Sorensen was looking like he hadn't quite got over his injury at Chelsea. Stokies were on the hunt for transfer rumours, snippets and above all crying out for TP to come back from his well deserved jollies and start signing players before the garage sale begins.

Linked with every player under the sun doesn't help matters as the market value starts to soar but look at the Carlton Cole situation, last month £15 wouldn't get the West Ham striker but now with a bit of patience and Avram Grant bringing in new recruits, Stoke could have him at the Brit for £8m, if you read the Sunday People that is!

The club have impressed this summer with their handling of the blind Joe Ledley and haven't been held to ransom by a player preferring Celtic v Inverness Cally Thistle to Man Utd at home. Each to their own I guess but this is where TP comes into play, quoted recently as saying we are waiting for "apples to drop" could never be more true, in 'Tonyland' I tend to agree with his analogies.

We started our first ever EPL season without a full squad, brought in a certain Abdoulaye Faye when all the other teams had played their hands and look where we finished. Another darling quote about shopping at Battersea Dogs home brought us Matthew Etherington, 2 players who have won Player of the Season award respectively.

Our first day opponents in 2010/2011 Wolves have been very active buying all the Steve's relegated from the EPL last season in Steven Fletcher from Burnley, Steven Mouyokolo and the injured Stephen Hunt from Hull City. Mick McCarthy clearly just sent Santa (a fat Jez Moxey) a wish list before he bored us senseless on the BBC World Cup coverage.

Other sides to recruit early have been Wigan who have signed several unknown players from South America (they do have a good record for buying players from there though) and of course Man City who like the rich kid in school buys all the football stickers in one go to finish the album before any real exciting deals can be done.

Stoke City have been linked with decent EPL players with experience but Cole and O'Neil will only be considered if they are in the best interests of the club. I think TP and Coates would be superb antique dealers which is probably why be brought back Carlo Nash!

I also believe that if TP and Coates did set up their own business lastminute.com would be a great place to start.

Official World Cup blogger entry..

The beauty of the World Cup can be measured in many ways; your team wins, your favourite player scores the winning goal or even just completing the Official Panini World Cup sticker album can be argued as a memorable moment. The sheer adrenaline rush of swapping three unknown Serbians for Stoke City and Denmark Goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen might not sound that exciting in comparison but football fans are a strange breed.

Rules of the playground exist with every country competing for that one elusive shiny item to complete the collection and take home the glory. England in search of only their 2^nd World Cup win are in safe Italian hands with Fabio Capello charged with looking after the needs of the nation.

I feel this year like I do every time that we have a chance so I will spend every single penny of my wages to complete the South Africa 2010 sticker album. If I have to spend £40 on eBay to purchase a ripped and dog eared copy of Algeria striker Abdelkader Ghezzal then this is my job.

Fabio Capello and the rest of the England team I have done my bit now go and do yours.

Are we going on the pitch Dad?

There is something quite unique about mid week football matches that separate them from the usual feeling you get on a Saturday. Perhaps it's the fact that you are either at work or School all day and the sense of reward after a hard day is to go straight down to the match. I was 11 years old when Stoke City played Plymouth Argyle at the Victoria Ground in the Division 2 winning season of 1992/1993.

These were exciting times for any young football fan but this game was extra special as it meant there would be the possibility of going on to the pitch at the end of the game. It was the final home game of the season with Stoke just needing a victory to claim the title so the excitement levels were off the scale. We went to the game early so my dad and his friends could go to the pub for a few drinks and we would go to Lonsdale Street newsagent to buy a bag of cola cubes to maintain our stratospheric sugar levels and head into the ground before the masses.

I was a season ticket holder in the Butler Street stand and loved every minute of it as we were able to perch on the railings that used to separate that particular area with the disabled section of the ground. This vantage point had its own benefits as we were that close to the pitch we could shout at the players whilst they were warming up to come over and chat to us.

As you can imagine we were all awestruck when left back Lee Sandford came over to show us his new boots. I had my season ticket stuffed up my coat sleeve for him to sign and we firmly believed that our pre match team talk far surpassed anything that the manager could say. This was a magical year for many a supporter but for a child it was almost dreamlike, from our executive spot we could watch the whole game and take in the atmosphere. We could see to our left the sea of people in the Boothen End, the lights that hung from the roof illuminating their ecstatic faces and the sheer sense that we would be crowned champions.

All it took was a single goal from Nigel Gleghorn to send a happy 11 year old boy and 20,000 stokies onto the pitch singing the famous Queen song 'We are the Champions'. That is the overriding memory I have of that game, the sense that we could go on to the pitch and stand in the goal mouth, celebrate with my friends and stay up way past our bedtimes because it meant that Stoke City had won the league and let’s be honest, it was our team talk that won us that game but don't tell anyone.

Why Stoke City miss James Beattie

The reason why Stoke City lost to Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday was not due to poor refereeing decisions or the fact that Eidur Gudjohnsen had the strength of a Viking to knock Abdoulaye Faye off his feet but the real problem is we don’t have a goal scorer in our team.
The stats show for themselves Stoke have scored only 29 goals in the league this season and our leading marksman is Matthew Etherington with just 6 goals in all cup competitions and he plays in midfield.
The current side sit in 11th place in the best league in the world and this is a superb achievement especially when you look at how few goals we have scored this season. This statistic proves that scoring bucket loads of goals is not all that important but things can change very quickly.
The problem is that Stoke do create chances and they do have opportunities to beat teams and to be fair they are not all set pieces and throw ins. On Saturday Ricardo Fuller missed from 5 yards when it was harder to miss then Mama Sidibe unfortunately slipped at a crucial stage and lost his footing when he should have slotted the ball past Gomes. These are chances in the Premier League that strikers thrive off.
In the best league in the world you don’t get two bites of the cherry you get one and Stoke didn’t take their chances at the weekend.
Last season James Beattie scored 6 goals in 13 appearances which undoubtedly helped the potters avoid relegation with relative ease after his January transfer window move from Sheffield United. There were games in the season where chances were few and far between and this is where Beattie was worth his corn. The home game against Bolton was a prime example. In the game Beattie was played through on goal and smashed the ball past the Bolton goalkeeper which set up the potters for a comfortable win. The perfect example was the 1-0 victory over Manchester City where Etherington’s superb cross was met by Beattie arching his neck like a bull to power home a true centre forwards headed goal to win the game.
Stoke are currently not scoring the kind of goals from open play that we were at the back end of last season and this is down to the fact that we don’t currently have a proven goal scorer in our side.
Yes Ricardo Fuller is our best striker but he isn’t scoring enough this season, Mama Sidibe will never be a goal scorer, Tuncay is not in my opinion an out and out centre forward and Dave Kitson who showed so much promise at times doesn’t seem to be able to adapt to the style of football we play.
The problem with James Beattie though is that he has put his personality before his game, his attitude has not sat well with the management staff and this sadly has been the case this season. He now seems to have burned all his bridges at the club this week by asking for an internal investigation into his treatment by the manager since 'Partygate' and so will move on in the summer.
A fully fit and happy James Beattie would have put both those chances we squandered away last Saturday and Stoke would have won the game regardless of what the referee did.
The team have performed superbly all season and deserve every ounce of praise for their work ethic and ability to become one of the hardest teams to play against in the league.
Aston Villa were delighted with a point at the Brit and the Tottenham players looked like they had secured the 4th Champions League spot with their celebrations at the end. If we are to push on and finish higher up the table than last season then we need to get a striker in who doesn't need several attempts on goal to score. These players don’t come cheap but if anyone can find one it’s Tony Pulis. Chequebook needed Mr Coates please

A Stamford Bridge too far..

'We'll be with you every step along the way' quite possibly is the only line you could use to describe this wonderful season and the togetherness every Stoke fan will feel towards their players right now.

Stoke City are fast becoming everyone's favourite second team, they play with passion that would make the most staunch of purists slide down off their high horse and admire. I watched the game yesterday and the first 20 minutes should have yielded at least one goal, if it wasn’t for the quick thinking of Obi Mikel then Dean Whitehead would have certainly scored or if Tuncay hadn’t taken a heavy touch or if we hadn’t wasted countless set pieces then we could argue but in all fairness, Chelsea are a very very good side.

There is no shame in being knocked out of this glorious competition by a team that boasts the footballing riches that they do. The difference between Chelsea and Man City was that the blues actually fought hard and demonstrated why they will go on to either claim the Premier League or the F.A Cup. They could even take both because Carlo Ancelotti has been quoted as saying 'I am a lucky manager' and against Stoke I think he earned that bit of luck.

Chelsea were impressive once they started to deal with Delap's missiles and they were spared anxiety by the potters not testing the petrified Hilario. It was always going to be one man that would get the home side going. It wasn’t Didier Drogba because he was more interested in rolling around on the ground like a dog enjoying having his belly rubbed. It was Frank Lampard with a trademark shot from the edge of the box that took an unfortunate and let's be honest 'lucky' deflection to send Sorensen the wrong way.

I respect everything that Chelsea did and have no gripes with their play at all but one incident did really get my goat and that is the egotistical idiot that is John Terry. It wasn’t enough for him to shave his head into a Mohawk or it wasn't enough for him to have 'John Terry Legend' banners around the ground, no he had to upstage his team by pulling his captain’s armband down in a childish justification of his own self importance.

Stoke City are 11th in the Premier League, reached the quarter finals of a major competition and now go on to play Burnley in the league where a win will put them on 37 points and clearly put some daylight between themselves and any nagging relegation worries. Tony Pulis will look on at this cup run like a proud father does when his child plays well and gets to stay up late but it's a school night and the players have to get their heads down because it’s back to the league now.

Stamford Bridge was a step too far, we just didn’t have the legs for it and for the 3,000 travelling Stoke fans who returned to the city in the middle of the night they will remember that the players who wore the red and white have done it with pride and respectability.

'We'll be with you every step along the way'

Pulis v Mancini The Triology

On the 13th of February Stoke City and Manchester City played out a simple football match in the F.A Cup 5th round. This would turn out to be the first instalment in a thrilling trilogy, full of red cards, red heads and red faces.

Stoke City v Manchester City Part 1 was a stalemate, a match befitting an honest film, decent cast, predictable ending but overall a real sense that there was more to come. The game felt a little like 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly', you half expected Clint Eastwood to drift into the ghost town like atmosphere that was Eastland’s and tell both managers to come back at dawn as this was most definitely unfinished business. The F.A Cup is a master piece of a competition, it would clean up at the Academy awards with several OSCAR's tucked under each arm and this is one tournament that every supporter wants to have a copy of. The question would be on the 24th of February which team would walk up the red carpet, collect the adulation and walk through into the quarter finals.

The agonising part to this trilogy of matches was that we couldn’t get straight to the replay because of rearranged league match the two teams had to play and this would take place at the home of Stoke City. The intimidating Britannia Stadium lovingly nicknamed 'The Bear Pit' because of the vociferous, loud and partisan home support. This was however an environment that Roberto Mancini was accustomed to having managed Inter Milan back in Italy but this was different, he was on foreign soil.

Mancini uncharacteristically based his whole team on size, every player must have been standing on tip-toes in a last ditch chance to get a starting place to prove to the manager that size doesn’t matter when you play Stoke, it’s how high you can jump towards Rory Delap's very own long range throws. Stoke City have their own arsenal of weapons in their team, they have the blistering pace of Ricardo Fuller, the sublime skills of Tuncay Sanli and a defence that would give the Spartan Warriors of ancient Greece a fight. These are not the weapons I am referring to but the weapon is a man who can throw a ball further than most can kick it. This is used to superb affect on the Britannia's narrow pitch. Roberto Mancini has the most expensively assembled team in the British game, Man City are the richest club in the world, he has won Italian titles and little old Stoke have reduced this man to picking his players out of a line up.

Tony Pulis now had a chance to say to his troops that it was down to them now, it was a time for his players to forget about the cup and focus on a meagre 3 points instead of cup glory. To Tony Pulis though, the League is his bread and butter, he prefers the league, he would rather finish 10th in the league rather than reach a cup final but that is the man. His stoic attitude towards achieving a goal in unwavering, he sends out his players with one thing on their minds 'don’t loose' and this is exactly what happened.

The game itself was poor to begin with, little action but livened up when Frenchman Patrick Vieira decided that Glen Whelan deserved to have his intimate area checked by the studs in his boots. The talented Irish midfielder took it like man and continued to play with a slight tear in his eye and the relief that he still had two and not one on the end of Vieira's boot.

The temperature was white hot when Stoke were reduced to 10 men when their Senegalese man mountain Abdoulaye Faye was sent off for pulling the lanky Toga striker Emmanuelle Adebayor down and the referee decided it was his time in the limelight. Stoke took the lead through the unscathed Whelan but when Barry equalized we feared for another 1-1 stalemate. There would be one more twist in this game that would shape the final game in the trilogy. His name was Alan Whiley, he was the referee and he wanted to take centre stage.

Rory Delap sent a long ranged missile into the visitors penalty area, Man City players running around in panic as Ryan Shawcross leapt high above the falling goalkeeper to score deep into stoppage time. The celebrations were short lived as Mr Whiley rather like an emperor in the gladiatorial arena waved his finger in the wrong direction to signal a foul on the keeper. The man had obviously read the script and thought he'd cover it in black pen, photocopy it and send it to the film company as he knew he had set us all up for a blockbuster of a finale.

Wednesday 24th of February, Tony Pulis and Roberto Mancini stood next to each other, they had front row seats but would refuse to sit down in case they missed a second. Similar to the league this game didn’t get going till an intervention by the referee. This time it was Adebayor, he was sent off for using his elbow then what can only be described as Tony Pulis having an outer body experience. I can relate this moment to any 'Star Wars' scene where Jedi will use the force to conjure up all their strength and act on it. The force was strong with Pulis as he made 3 substitutions that changed the game. The Turkish play-maker Tuncay was introduced, the flame haired striker Dave Kitson brought back from the footballing wilderness and Danny Pugh.

To say these changes were magical would be an understatement, within 5 mins of entering the ring Tuncay had threaded a ball through the eyes of Mordor where Kitson turned brilliantly to hit the back of the net. The home fans went into delirium, 'Super Dave Kitson' rang around the bear pit like a space shuttle launch. Mancini was downbeat but hardly a second had gone by when they were level, the pantomime villain that Craig Bellamy plays so well nicked the ball home for an equalizer. The game went into extra time, men all around the stadium were quickly sending mundane but very apologetic texts to their partners that it would be 'a late one' and not 'to wait up', this game would go to the wire.

The travelling City supporters started half heartedly to sing their favourite song 'Blue Moon' but this was quickly turning into 'Moon River' and the man playing this sad song was Roberto Mancini. He knew that his players were tired and lacked motivation, he knew that Tony Pulis had just given an awe inspiring team talk that would of raised the dead and above all else the home fans knew that what you put in, you always get back and boy did they sing.

The final quarter of this riveting trilogy was about to be finalised, the end scene was about to be unveiled and over 20,000 supporters were ready for the end. Stoke City scored two goals in quick succession to take the game. They served this up with a giant piece of humble pie when Shawcross headed Stoke into the lead before Tuncay finished City off with a pure slice of Turkish Delight to send Tony Pulis into the quarter finals and a meeting with Chelsea.

The final whistle came with the home fans singing 'You should of kept Mark Hughes' referring to the previous Manchester City Manager who by coincidence is a fellow Welshman to Pulis. I hear the Italian translation for this coincidence is that the Welsh are better than the Italians and please remind me once again what nationality is Chelsea Coach Carlo Anchelotti?... case closed I think.

Dave Kitson and Tuncay celebrate Stoke's win

Why Referee's are better human..

The primary job for a Referee in any sport is to ensure that fair play occurs, rules are applied and most importantly followed by the people involved whether they like it or not. This blog will look into the reasons why cameras or computers will never replace the sheer unbridled emotion that one single person can create in one erratic second that will either have some poor person sacked or hired.

When you sit down and think about the 'big red button' that we all imagine the Prime Minister to have we think of sheer panic and 'what if' moments. For him it could be a nuclear blast or even an attack on his house. The red button would stop the incident and leave everyone standing still and watching in disbelief as to why he pressed that button (no idea what it would be like anyway). Well this is similar to a match referee having the 'what if' moments but instead of having just one chance at hitting the red button you get trigger happy and want to press that thing all day.What I am saying is that at some point in our lives we all have that same 'what if' impulse moment to see what happens, an adrenaline rush where you try to rationalise what is happening and what would happen should you decide on an outcome.

If like me anyone has ever done public speaking then you appreciate that when 10, 20 or even 100 people are watching you then it can be slightly unnerving but imagine 70,000 people watching you. A referee will have around 400 cameras watching their every move as well! Try telling me this wouldn’t test your abilities as a human being to deal with this situation in a rational manner. Add to the fact that all these 70,000 people are shouting and screaming at you to give them what they want. If you don’t they will hound you and quite possibly hang you from London bridge if they could.

If we had goal line cameras then you can forget winning the 1966 World Cup or if cameras had been used in 1986 we wouldn’t have seen Diego Maradona's 'hand of god' that we are still talking about 24 years later. Referees create excitement through their human traits; at times of great stress we do not act rationally or have the capabilities to make the right decision so how can we expect them to have it right every single second of the game.

If we take the human element out of the game we are taking a piece of our own personality out of ourselves, imagine the game without a 2 hour rant about a decision a person made that you didn’t agree with? Imagine a game where there wasn’t a series of obscenities following a wrong decision or even worse imagine a game where as a supporter you didn’t see a man give your team a penalty in the 90th minute against your arch rivals and say to me it would be better if a camera gave it? No chance. We all love that human being pressing the 'what if' button, that one person who made that crazy yet totally irrational decision to send your best player off over celebrating a goal by throwing himself into the crowd in that one wonderful moment that is scoring a goal?

Referees are as much part of the game as the managers chewing gum or the players putting their left sock on first because they did it when they won last week just for good luck. We don’t need them just to ensure that fair play occurs but we need them because we as humans always want someone to blame when we fail. I want to see mistakes because that is life and what better way to express blame than seeing a 43 year old man from South Shields disallowing a perfectly good goal in the 90th minute to deny your team the win. It hurts like hell but we felt it and by next Saturday it will have been forgotten.

I am against goal line technology because it takes the human element out, it minimises risk, how boring is that? It will make the game less exciting and deny fans the inexplicable answers they desire 'why did he give that penalty?’As a passionate football fan I have felt that feeling of frustration, of anger and disgust for a fellow human being who is only doing his best. I understand that there is far too much money involved and the 'what if' moment occurred when French striker Thierry Henry blatantly hand balled in the Republic of Ireland’s penalty box and subsequently the Irish were denied a place in the World Cup finals which probably cost the nation millions in merchandise, T.V rights and countless pints of Guinness in the pub.

I do not want to contradict myself in saying we should stop hurling unnecessary abuse at a referee but what I am saying is that would you do his job? Most probably not, would any rational manager do it? No, so let’s get on with it and allow these guys the chance to light the touch paper and give the game some excitement!

Tony Pulis be my valentine?

If St Valentine had agreed to call the 13th of Feb the day for true love instead of the 14th or if the Football Association had thought to play this tie on the 14th then we really would be in love with the beautiful game even more.

On the weekend that celebrates all that is romantic you can forget the red roses or chocolate, because true love can found in the beautiful game that is football.Stoke City played Manchester City in the darling of all cup competitions, the English F.A Cup and the date was set, February the 13th not 14th.

The two men responsible for the success of the date with old lady F.A Cup were Welshman Tony Pulis manager of Stoke City and the Italian Roberto Mancini the head coach of Manchester City.

The two teams, one an unfancied, unattractive side whose style was bite and fright against the free flowing expensively assembled team of international superstars.

Manchester City are the wealthiest football club on the planet owned by billionaire oil tycoons from the middle east against the modest Stoke City owned by a local businessman who's wealth from his online betting company makes him the 25th richest man in English football but by comparison is similar to a Solicitor taking on a King in order to win the heart of the F.A Cup herself.

Man City have spent in excess of £250m on a team of 11 players against Stoke City's modest £25m in an attempt to win some silverware for their club's supporters.The stage was set, the game was screened live on terrestrial T.V so millions upon millions of avid football fans could watch the leading men show their hand and hopefully play their aces.

The result was a compelling 1-1 draw in which Stoke should have won and deserved to take the winnings but for a mistake from the usually rock solid defence the billionaires survived for another day.

The house kept its money but the gamblers out there would certainly have won a few pounds celebrating Stoke City's Ricardo Fuller running around the pitch shooting an imaginary gun into the stands when he scored, something which he may think twice about in the future but then again this man has been arrested on several occasions and is currently on bail but let’s be honest we all love a scoundrel.

The home team were and are like billionaire actors rehearsing for their big performance but only really whispering their lines as they were poor and seemed to sit back and allow the opposition to create the best chances. The watching England manager and fellow Italian Fabio Capello attending to see if his back up left back Wayne Bridge was up to the game following the sad news that his ex girlfriend had an affair with his best friend and now ex England captain John Terry. This farcical situation made worse by the national press overshadowed a Stoke City team including two genuine players who may make his squad to play in the World Cup in South Africa this summer.

Like all good Hollywood stories the two rookies who had their chance to impress the emperor in the big arena both fell just short of the mark, Matthew Etherington the tricky left sided winger that the national team is crying out for sustained a knee injury after 15 minutes and was stretchered off and Ryan Shawcross the colossal centre half with so much potential slipped at a crucial stage with Mancini's men scoring from his mistake.

Tony Pulis the Stoke City manager captures the hearts of every average fan with his no nonsense approach to his work. This man in his early fifties wears his heart on his sleeve with his clubs emblem sitting proudly on top of his favoured and now trademark baseball cap embodies what some women would call a real man.

The Manchester City manager is Italian crooner Roberto Mancini, a man so suave he'd pull your fiancé on your wedding day. He embodies the typical Italian stereotype, handsome, well tanned and with his greying hair even makes a blue and white stripped scarf look fashionable was standing proud in front of his adoring female fans with the cool calm eloquence of a film noire leading man walking up the red carpet.

The unfancied Mr Pulis was brave and commanding where as Mr Mancini sat quietly in his seat biting his lip as his team of glamorous players including romantic names such as Roque Santa Cruise and Emmanuelle Adebayor were shown up by names such as Rory Delap and Danny Higginbotham as they took centre stage to show the F.A Cup's leading lady how to dance.

Overall the game was superb, Stoke deserved the TV money, they deserved to win the game, they didn’t deserve to have 3 players out injured but what they got was the satisfaction that it doesn’t matter what aftershave you wear its he who wears it that matters.

Sorry Mr Mancini but the man wearing a baseball cap and tracksuit went home with the girl this time and will have to up his game in the replay because his valentines present didn’t impress not one bit.

Yes the game finished at a stalemate but the working man's hero has a second date and the Italian model is scratching his head in disbelief on how his advances yielded little response.

The scene is set; the 24th of February will be the day to find out which man will take his team on a trip down the Kings road to Chelsea in the quarter finals of this wonderful competition.

Roberto Mancini

Tony Pulis....