They say a week is a long time in football. The news to begin this one has been dominated by Arsenal, who exited the FA Cup at the hands of Stoke City on Sunday. Fewer than seven days previously we were revelling in the Gunners’ recent success as they comfortably dismantled Bolton Wanderers at the Reebok Stadium, before showing great spirit to overturn a two goal deficit to win 4-2 against the same opposition three days later. The aftermath of this fourth round tie has largely focused on Arsenal’s poor performance, Sol Campbell’s return and manager Arsene Wenger’s team selection. Stoke City have scarcely been mentioned. Virtually everywhere, the emphasis has been placed on Arsenal’s defeat rather than Stoke City’s victory.
While this may seem grossly unfair, Tony Pulis, the Potters’ manager, will be used to it. Rarely do his side get the credit they deserve and any recognition of their marvellous achievements is often hampered with derogatory comments about their style of play. Arsene Wenger has cast aspersions on them in the past, accusing their players of cowardice after a 2-1 defeat last season, but this is an easy way out. Other managers of the Big Four™ often voice their disapproval when supposedly inferior teams ‘park the bus’ and show no attacking intent in games against them, but this is one thing Stoke cannot be accused of. The two draws against Liverpool must not be overlooked as a huge factor in Rafa Benitez’s side’s failure to win the title last season, and Stoke were the better team in their recent defeat of Arsenal, as well as in the win against the North Londoners last term. Modest, recently-promoted teams do not have infinite finance, which makes it increasingly challenging to compete with the better sides in the division. Wenger should see it as a compliment: no team in the division can better his side’s panache, so they are forced to employ other tactics in order to try and win the game. Stoke’s refusal to roll over in such games is commendable and, despite being thumped last season 5-0 and 4-1 by Manchester United and Arsenal respectively, their effort cannot be questioned.
As fans of Bolton Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers will know, once you are stuck with a certain tag, it is difficult to shake it off. Accusations of dirtiness aimed at Stoke are announced only after a team is the recipient of a defeat against them; like Sir Alex Ferguson’s infamous attack on Alan Wiley, this is a means in which a manager can deflect attention away from his side’s performance. Pulis’ outfit finished twelfth last season which, considering it was their first ever appearance in the Premier League, is a tremendous accomplishment. Perhaps the scale of their success can be measured by the dismissal of the possibility of relegation this year: at the start of the season, the vast majority expected Stoke to survive with ease despite second season collapses from Reading, West Bromwich Albion and Wigan Athletic (although they were not relegated, they failed to emulate the top half finish they enjoyed in their debut Premiership appearance) in the past.
The facts cannot be ignored. Stoke City finished the 2008/09 Premier League season at the top of the disciplinary table, accumulating seventy-four yellow cards and five reds throughout the campaign. This, however, is by no means a shocking amount. Middlesbrough and Blackburn both received more points in the previous season, whilst the 100 point barrier (points are awarded for each yellow and red card) has previously been broken – Stoke’s total of 89 is not an aberrational figure. Rory Delap’s throw-in is an undeniably important weapon, so much so that Pulis himself cited an injury to the midfielder as key to his side’s defeat against Chelsea in September 2008. Regardless, to say that Stoke’s only source of goals is from Delap’s astonishing ability to throw a football such a distance and at such a pace is ignorant. Delap’s throw assisted City goals in only seven of their thirty-eight games last season. Whilst this figure is comparatively large, it is ridiculous to say that without Delap, Stoke are incapable of scoring goals.
‘It’s just like watching Brazil’ is a chant that could not be sung by Stoke fans unless it was supplemented with a huge dose of irony. Although dirtiness is a strong accusation, there is no doubting that Pulis’ style of football is not for the purist: Stoke’s primary tactic in their promotion winning season involved hoofing the ball up to Mamady Sidibe. The additions of Matthew Etherington and Sanli Tuncay have strengthened the argument that Stoke City’s long ball label is misleading, but they are still some way off qualifying as ‘art’, as Wenger himself likes to visualise the game. However, this is more than tolerable considering Stoke’s recent rise; the suggestion of the club holding their own in the Premier League would have been met with ridicule in the days of Chris Kamara, Brian Little and Icelandic consortiums. Unlike their Spanish counterparts, English fans do not go to football matches to be entertained – they go to feed their addiction. Stephen Foster’s excellent And She Laughed No More does not merely detail Stoke’s Premiership campaign, it pinpoints the key behind supporters’ feelings. If you are successful at football, your fans do not care how you play it. Notice how criticisms of Arsenal’s beautiful football have emerged in these five years without a trophy – style is, ultimately, irrelevant.
In his first spell at the club, Pulis was begrudgingly considered a success after steering Stoke away from relegation to League One, saving them with a 1-0 victory over Reading on the final day of the season. On the back of a mid-table finish in the 2004-05 season, the Welshman’s disagreement with the club’s owners led to his sacking. Johan Boskamp replaced him, bringing with him flair, pretty football and a bubbly personality. Despite no progress being made, Pulis was not missed as fans decided they favoured being a mid-table team that was worth watching. Nonetheless, Pulis was reappointed when Peter Coates bought the club in June 2006, a decision which was met with frustration and despondency from the Stoke faithful. In his book, Foster admits his transformation from rejection of Pulis to acceptance. His views have clearly disseminated around the Britannia as Pulis’ name is now sung by the fans with real gusto. How times change. If a week is a long time in football, four years must seem like a millennium.
excellent article, really good read, a very well balanced story on our beloved club. just 1 thing and it isnt a criticism, but while we dont have “infinite finance” we do have chairman worth £400m and are one very few English clubs who arent in debt, as i said before not a criticism, so please dont take it as such
I’ve just tried to leave the following comment (exact words) on 606 but it’s been rejected as breaking house rules! Thought I’d try here instead (not totally the right place but I can’t believe the censorship of the BBC):
I’ve not posted before but I’ve been getting fed up with all the Arsenal supporters on the Stoke board moaning about us killing football.
Enough people have responded correctly about the quality of our goals and your goal for me not to go down this route but I did want to see your comments about a small group of your supporters. When we scored our third there were various individuals that started throwing coins into our family stand. Where I sit, which was close to where some were landing it was full of 6 to 10 year olds.
Is this normal Arsenal behavior? Are smaller teams just not allowed to beat you and if they do the kids will get a kicking?
Are your more human supporters happy to just let this happen and prefer to moan about perceived football quality instead?
Good read and well researched but as Thomas has said we do have the Chairman who has built an empire up on BET365.com. In Stoke we had real financial difficulties when the Iceleanders came in and sorted the mess out. Peter Coates and Tony Pullis were very brave coming back and have done a wonderful job.
In Stoke the folk are very close to the club and the club are very close to the community. For example Tony Pullis running the Marathon, Rory cycling in the summer.
I am in the south but still have family in the Potteries and get up as often as I can
Very balanced article that i enjoyed reading. The one thing that stoke supporters do and do bloody well is get behind the team even if we want to see different styles of football. Vis Unita Fortior is our motto and one that we all abide to.
Really good article, I found it from the link you put on the Oatcake forum.
Whenever fans of other clubs criticise Stoke, I try to make almost all the points you’ve made above; it’s fair to say you’ve really captured the feelings of the Stoke fans with many of them.
The one thing I disagee with is your dismissal of our tactics in our promotion season as simply hoofing the ball up to Sidibe. Ricardo Fuller was on fire that season, as was Liam Lawrence and those two, both good, skillful footballers were integral to our play, far more so than Sidibe, who missed much of the season injured. If you watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hwt7EDGdSrY&feature=related
video you’ll see that a lot of our goals that year came from fine flowing moves (though set pieces accounted for a fair share too.)
Alec, i agree we played some decent stuff in the promotion season especially when fuller and lawrence were on it and later sidibe when he came back, they made a fairly deadly trio and played some good quick stuff around the opposition area. Great article though i must say. Really good read.
Nice article on the perception of teams and styles.
I accept Stoke’s limitations but happily take the passion, power and uncertainty of Stoke ‘competing’ over the sterile, sanitised ‘product’ of Arsenal. I certainly relate to Stephen Foster’s book ‘She Stood There Laughing’. I was originally devastated that Pulis returned as Stoke’s manger, but I was mistaken. He has been a revelation.
I was there Sunday and Stoke played the best I’d seen them play in ages. It says a lot about the Arsenal team when a 35 year old defender playing is first top flight games in ages was for me their star player.
People say Wenger didn’t take it seriously with his team selection but the 3 substitutes he made in the second half said differently.
Well done Stoke let’s hope we can beat Man City at Eastlands now !
Excellent, well informed article. Like you say, tags are hard to shift and do colour perception of teams. I have seen Stoke play some good stuff on MOTD this season and score some good team goals yet these are not always given great coverage.
They obviously play to their strengths and it’s always good to see unfashionable teams upsetting the odds, especially against the often foreign player heavy teams of Liverpool, Arsenal et al. I like your comment that manager’s only tend to complain about their play when they lose.
Stoke’s success in Premiership gives me hope one day Palace may again establish themselves in the top flight. I would love if Palace were as stable and successful as Stoke have been in the last couple of years.