http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2328414/Tony-Pulis-leaves-Stoke-City.htmlhttp://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/tony-pulis-leaves-stoke-city-1902582John Percy
@John__Percy Tony Pulis set to leave Stoke City #scfc. More details later
Matthew Stanger
@MatthewStanger Will be interesting to learn if Pulis is leaving by mutual consent. The only way is down for him from Stoke.
Comments
Next Stoke City Boss:
Sir Clive Woodward 3/1
Martin Johnson 9/1
Lawrence Dallaglio 12/1
Warren Gatland 25/1
Johnny Wilkinson 50/1
Stoke fans want Poyet or Martinez.
How does the story go again? ...Cafc fans got so fed up with curbs they ran riot in the streets of South London in protest, and forced him out?????
...
Bollocks.
There was a mere rumble of disapproval towards the end of Curbs reign, it was far from a fan revolt as these talk shows like to tell everyone.
And you cannot begin to compare Curbs to Pulis. Curbs bought us from the very bottom to somewhere near the top.
Pulis has had an easy ride compaired to Curbs.
Martinez' total football approach with shaved chimps
More likely to be a Shearer and Owen partnership
However, 'doing a Charlton' seems to be on everyone's lips....http://www.talksport.co.uk/sports-news/football/premier-league/130521/exclusive-matt-etherington-fears-stoke-could-do-charlton-after-tony-puli-1980
Winky smiley face
I simply don't understand it.
I wish I could win £100m on the lottery.
I wish I could marry Jennie Runk
I wish they still made Courage Best like they did in the 80's.
So tell me my dear friend, what is there to be careful of in these three wishes?
Let he who is without sin.......
We're not all into matchsticks.
As a result, aware that his squad needs re-invigorating, Pulis has decided to pull the pin and move on - probably a smart move.
Stoke stayed up this season - and in previous seasons - because of their ability to grind out results on the back of a tight defence.
That made them tough to watch at times but you could not doubt its efficiency, in the season just gone the stats tell the story...
Stoke City: Scored: 34 Conceded: 45 W9 D15 Pts 42
Wigan Athletic: Scored: 47 Conceded: 73 W9 D9 Pts 36
So, basically, Stoke and Wigan won the same amount of games but Stoke's ability to grind out 0-0 draws, home or away, rather than conceding silly goals and losing games kept them in the Premier League.
Any new manager coming in will have to work out how to carry on collecting the 40+ points and yet somehow play better and more attractive football - that will not be easy and might end up relegating them.
The bottom line is that once you have developed a 'safety blanket' approach that works (as Curbs did) then its very hard to change it because at the first sign of trouble your inevitable instinct will be to go back to what worked previously.