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Stoke City

The Premiership, its overpriced, over hyped, and over exposed

Given my self imposed exile from the oatcake (2 weeks now), I have been unable to vent my opinions on some of the key debates regarding my beloved Potters on that forum, so I have decided to set them down in a blog, how regular these will occur is an unanswerable question at this time.

The Relegation Issue

Whilst i don’t want to see my team get relegated, hell it took us 23 years to get back into the top flight, it would not be the unmitigated disaster that some would have us believe. In my opinion apart from the top 6 teams the standard of football isn’t leagues ahead of the league below, however it has to be said that I haven’t been to as many games as I would have liked, or of some others, I have however benefited from the above mentioned over exposure by having seen many games over the internet or on Sky and Setanta, and listened to almost every other via Stoke City World and their relaying of Radio Stoke’s commentary across the internet. We are in the situation we are in because Tony Pulis is a stubborn old goat who has attempted to get a draw in away games, and failed miserably on all but 3 occasions, we have shown time and again that we can hold our own in this division in home games when we play to our strengths, yet for reasons known only to him, we haven’t played to the same strengths in away games that were far more winnable than some of our home games that we have won. His stubborn persistence with playing Richard Cresswell an average to poor Championship striker on the left wing or even up front, whilst leaving our record signing of £5.5M Dave Kitson on the bench is unfathomable, or £2.5M of Left midfielder Michael Tonge both proven Premiership player.

I can’t fault Pulis in home games, I can’t fault him on 90% of his signings, I am at a loss to explain what goes through his mind when it comes to away games, its like he has some kind of mental block with them, could we have 2 managers ? Pulis for home games, and bring back Johan Boskamp for away games 😉

On the subject of relegation, yes its possible to survive without winning an away game, and more than one team has managed it, Coventry City finished 14th in 1999/2000 with no away wins, and 7 draws.

The “Pulis has blown £XM on …… ” Issue

Chiefly this debate centers on some peoples inability to grasp that football is a SQUAD game these days, and frankly the squad that some famously got us promoted was threadbare, and some people forget this. It was SO threadbare at the start of out promotion season that we were in fact tipped to be relegated by some of our own fans due to its lack of depth . So yes we have spent a LOT of money on players who aren’t getting games regularly, however we NEEDED to spend that kind of money to bring some depth to our squad, if only to bring it up to the level it should really have been for a team going for promotion. As for the “all that money wasted” issue, not a penny has been wasted until the player is sold for less than he was bought, and his age and contract length taken into account. What nobody ever seems to mention is that we (Tony Pulis) failed to waste £4M on Scott Carson by getting Soresen, a far better keeper on a Bosman

The History of Stoke City

When I graduate from my History degree I’d love to write a book on the history of Stoke City, to clear up the grey areas, lay waste to some of the myths, and set down the facts about Stoke City.

Stoke City FC are the 2nd oldest PROFFESIONAL ASSOCIATION FOOTBALL TEAM STILL IN EXISTANCE, is the closest you will get to a definitive statement on it at this time. Founded in 1863, it is not known what CODE OF FOOTBALL they played in their early years , it certainly wasn’t the football (soccer) we watch now, as their first recorded game was against E. W. May’s XV. When Notts County were formed in 1862, they played to their own code of rules, its quite possible that Stoke Ramblers played some kind of Rugby/Soccer hybrid

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldest_football_club

Portsmouth

It goes without saying its a must win game, not only that but we must NOT get another red card, and remember how the song went at Upton Park a few years back.

If james can play for england so can I

Wish i was going, alas the great depression of the naughties has laid waste to my disposable income for the time being

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