Stoke City Relegated To The Championship

[Honey Honey]

Can they bounce straight back?

[Dickie]

Not as long as Lambert is in charge. I'm fearing a Wolves fall, because I don't think Coates is going to reinvest either. 

[True Blue]

To be honest i never saw Stoke going down any time soon, in the previous years they were always a very solid mid table team. You never know in the Championship tough, if they invest and keep some of the good players they could bounce back straight away. Shame for Dickie like him as a poster, but I am not a big fan of the Potters.

[Dickie]

5 minutes ago, True Blue said:

To be honest i never saw Stoke going down any time soon, in the previous years they were always a very solid mid table team. You never know in the Championship tough, if they invest and keep some of the good players they could bounce back straight away. Shame for Dickie like him as a poster, but I am not a big fan of the Potters.

You won't be seeing me anytime soon on the epl threads.

[Mel81x+]

33 minutes ago, Dickie said:

Not as long as Lambert is in charge. I'm fearing a Wolves fall, because I don't think Coates is going to reinvest either. 

What was the logic behind appointing Lambert in the first place? I think you'll were always a hard team to crack because of the way you'll used strength as a benefit in the way you'll played. But today the team seemed lifeless and the kind of misplaced crossing in the final third was extremely poor.

[Dickie]

41 minutes ago, Mel81x said:

What was the logic behind appointing Lambert in the first place? I think you'll were always a hard team to crack because of the way you'll used strength as a benefit in the way you'll played. But today the team seemed lifeless and the kind of misplaced crossing in the final third was extremely poor.

First they wouldn't do the 3 million release clause for Rowett. 

Then they were talking to bringing in O'neil and Keane, which was looking like it was going to happen and then they decided they wanted Flores who said he wasn't leaving Espanyol. By doing that O'neil was insulted and was like nah bro either you wanted me or you didn't I'm not second choice which is fine.

Then Lambert was like "I'll sign for dirt cheap and be a yes man" so they signed him and sank the ship. Honestly at that point might as well have kept Hughes, actually I'd prefer if they had.

[Smiley Culture]

They’d gone stale in the Premier League, so a relegation was inevitably. Stoke went away from their strengths, which was the aggressive approach, the long balls and the long throw-ins that were the reason the whole “can he do it on a cold, wet night at Stoke” statement become a thing. 

I’m not saying they should go back down that route but you should play to the teams strengths rather than trying to enforce something that doesn’t suit. 

Will they come back up immediately? I’ll go with no, there’s a few good teams in the Championship next season and I think there will be a lot of players leaving Stoke and it’ll take a while for a new side to gel. 

[Stan]

Glad they've gone down cos most of their fans are utter knobheads and they acted true to form when we got relegated to League One 10 years ago. They seemed more focussed on that despite the fact they'd got promoted to the Premier League on the same day...

For the last few seasons they'd become stale. About time they dropped. 

I do feel for @Dickie though as he's a good Stoke fan to have on here!

[Happy Blue]

Yay!! 

[RandoEFC+]

I've been rooting for this all season but it's never pleasant watching the game seeing the despair of the fans and kids crying in the stands. Condolences @Dickie.

Will they bounce straight back? I don't know. Despite being up here for a decade they don't strike me as one of the biggest clubs and prime candidates to come back up next season but that view may be heavily influenced by my bias against them to be frank.

[Dickie]

Ya'll are dickheads... happy we went down. 

 

Well enjoy your time we won't be back for awhile.

[Honey Honey]

It won't be the same on deadline day

[Dickie]

Just now, Cannabis said:

This means you can pick a new team @Dickie

*trying to conceal putting on an everton shirt*

What was that?

[Stan]

1 minute ago, Dickie said:

*trying to conceal putting on an everton shirt*

What was that?

why would you make a sideways step like that?

[Dickie]

21 minutes ago, Stan said:

why would you make a sideways step like that?

*slowly puts on Leicester shirt*

?

[Stan]

Just now, Dickie said:

*slowly puts on Leicester shirt*

?

better. you can say you've supported a Premier League winner now. 

[Dan+]

I had money on Stoke to go down in the summer so for them likely to not only go down, but finish bottom, is quite a shout.

I did that because I saw some worrying trends developing in that side. Mark Hughes is not a good manager. I've never heard a manager so incapable of holding his hands up and admitting he got it wrong as him. It's never, ever his fault.

And with such an attitude came a side that were regularly walloped.

I've got quite a good mate who is a Stoke fan and they've said for a while they're dropping soon. They're kind of how I see us going but further along the process - they're playing ageing, past-it players over utilising some of the talent they brought in. They've had a number of players I'd have taken here.

What also is similar about them to us, and something I think we need to be very mindful of, is that they've absolutely pissed everything up the wall whilst trying to 'evolve'. They have totally lost their identity and became a side that was trying to play more technical football with a group of players that wasn't truly capable of it. They ended up somewhere in the middle and ended up with the worst of both worlds - they were only occasionally that good, yet on the flip side defensively they were an absolute shambles on a regular basis.

Appointing Lambert seems like a meek attempt to try and claw some of that identity back.

No surprise it's failed.

RIP to another good away day. But I've not forgotten ten years ago. So ha.

[Rick]

Funnily enough they could do with Neil Warnock to get them back up. 

They don't have the players to revert back to their old style. They've commuted themselves to this passing game and now they have to run with it. Then again, I expect there to be an exodus of players so you really never who how they'll shape up first day of next season.

[Pig on the Wing]

Some genuinely perplexing goings-on at that club. Huge fees for the likes of Imbula, Berahino and Wimmer... and then never play them? Head of recruitment there needs sacking. 

As many have said, the 'get at them', intense Stoke City of old has completely gone. I liked that about them, but in the past couple of years, they've deteriorated into A.N.Other mediocre PL side. 

Good away day though, looking forward to that.

[Dan+]

1 hour ago, StefBWFC said:

Some genuinely perplexing goings-on at that club. Huge fees for the likes of Imbula, Berahino and Wimmer... and then never play them? Head of recruitment there needs sacking. 

As many have said, the 'get at them', intense Stoke City of old has completely gone. I liked that about them, but in the past couple of years, they've deteriorated into A.N.Other mediocre PL side. 

Good away day though, looking forward to that.

Sounds worryingly familiar.

I can see us heading straight down their path. Look at them and learn.

[Dave]

7 hours ago, StefBWFC said:

Some genuinely perplexing goings-on at that club. Huge fees for the likes of Imbula, Berahino and Wimmer... and then never play them? Head of recruitment there needs sacking. 

 

Jack Butland has suggested that poor recruiting is the main reason for their relegation and it's hard to argue with that really.

They moved away from what made them successful, then tried to move back to it last summer and it hasn't worked out.

I'll be surprised if they come straight back up too, especially given they're keeping Lambert. 

I imagine they'll keep hold of Shawcross, Allen, Fletcher etc and add to it with a couple of faces Paul Lambert trusts. Ben Marshall being the obvious one. 

[LFCMike]

On 5/7/2018 at 01:42, Dan said:

I had money on Stoke to go down in the summer so for them likely to not only go down, but finish bottom, is quite a shout.

I had them in a treble with Swansea and Brighton to go down. Be gutted if I end up with 2 out of 3.

[Dan+]

5 hours ago, LFCMike said:

I had them in a treble with Swansea and Brighton to go down. Be gutted if I end up with 2 out of 3.

I had them in a double with Cardiff to make the top six. Possibly my best ever bet.

Pre-season I had Brighton, Burnley and Stoke.

[Dave]

Stoke City owners Peter and John Coates have admitted to "significant errors" in the transfer market and promised a "major overhaul" in the summer.

[Dave]

Paul Lambert has issued a warning to Stoke players expecting to leave following the club's relegation from the Premier League:

"Lads are under contract," Lambert said. It's not as if you can just walk out here and throw your toys out the pram and think 'I'm going to go.' You might not be going anywhere."