Simon the snail

Season Summary - 2012/2013

Early on in the pre season the Stoke manager admitted that this is the most pressure he has ever felt as a manager and just can't wait for the season to get underway. The fans are very similar, they are excited but are trying to restrain themselves. They know they have the team to take them to the premiership (bar one or two signings which should come along soon anyway...won't they?) but the older fans have ben there before - where the players have had too much pressure and expectation heaped on them and fail to deliver when the season comes around.

The transfers everyone was hoping for did come eventually and the manager put his trust mainly in the hands of the existing squad - bar 3 signings. They were right back Greg Halford from Preston on a free, replacing the retiring Danny Butterfield. To replace the retring David Beckham talented swede Emil Samuelsson was bought for 750k from Cardiff. Also Tim Sparv was bought (yet again) for 300k from leicester to add depth to the squad. There were no first team players sold or released, although Sol Campbell left to become assistant manager at Doncaster.

The big question on the fans' lips was 'who is going to be the new captain?'
Many fans wanted to see either Dean Bowditch or Asa Hall to lead by example, whilst others felt that young Josef Broz had all the credentials to make a great skipper. They all agreed that Beckham was going to leave a very very big hole to fill. So the man himself solved that dilemna by pledging his services to the team for another year in return for a player/assistant manager role at the club. Needless to say, fans were ecstatic. Now they really felt they had a great chance of promotion this year.

They were dissapointed on the first day of the season, when Stoke narrowly lost 3-2 to Cardiff, and when they drew 1-1 against Bristol City a few days later, there was a few mutterings about the managers choice of formation this year. In a radio phone in one season ticket holder came up with these wise words, 'Although we loved the 4-1-2-1-2 formation last year, most of the fans feel that it's just not working this year. It was a surprise element last year and we did well from it but this year other clubs have done there homework on us and we're being caught out down the wings too much' When asked what formation he would like to see, he replied '4-4-2'. This opinion was voiced by manay Stoke fans in a poll on the fanclub website, and for the first time ever, after another average eight games, the manager agreed with the fans and changed his system. Despite a blip in the league cup 1st rnd (a 3-1 loss to league 2 side Rochdale), the team started to perform like potential promotion chasers. Dean Bowditch seemed to be loving this new formation and helped his team to the following results, one after the other; 4-0, 5-2, 4-1, 4-1, 4-2, 5-1. After these 6 victories in which Stoke averaged 4.3 goals per game, they were firmly positioned in top spot in the league and looking unbeatable. Many people were not only praising the change in formation, but also the change in goalkeeper which came with it. Indeed the manager had decided to drop David Button after one too many dodgy games, and handed the gloves to 'the next Paul Robinson' - Simon Williams, who performed extremely consistently, albeit with a cushion of 4.33 goals for his first six matches!

two other notable results before the FA cup 3rd round match against Bristol City were, a 7-1 thrashing of Tranmere, and a 6-0 dress rehearsal victory against the red team from Bristol. Of course everyone knows that the winner of the dress rehearsal is not neccesarily the winner of the cup tie. It should be noted at this time that Bristol City were lying 2nd in the championship so the 6-0 defeat was highly embarassing for them and they were determined to make amends in the cup. As it happened, the aggregate score was 10-1 to Stoke, an under average goals per game result of 4-1 was easily enough to propel Stoke into the fourth round and a tasty trip to Villa Park... To be Continued...(a certain Germany vs Argentina QF has started)

tom q

great well done :thup:

Simon the snail

12/13 continued...

As an extremely well known giant killing side, sky tv were straight over to Villa park in anticipation of a mouth watering tie. Stoke fans were very optimistic and expecting a victory due to their team performing so well at the top of the championship. The ground was a sell out and the noise was deafening as the teams walked out onto the pitch. The noise was even more deafening as Villa took the game by the throat and scored in the 2nd minute. It was only down to some great defending and even better goalkeeping that stoke managed to walk in at half time with only the one goal deficit. The players came out for the second half with a motivational churchillesque teamtalk ringing in their ears, and were promptly inspired. Bowditch continued his fantastic season by scoring in the 45th minute and a delicious christoffer Karlsson strike gave Stoke a 2-1 lead in the 46th. Villa were stunned by these two, quick goals and it took Luke Moore until the 74th minute to get one back, by which time Karlsson had scored his second and Stokes third. With the game at 3-2 and 15 minutes to go, the Stoke manager brought on Simon Watson, to see if his pace would worry the Villa defence. It did. In the 79th minute he took it past two players before lobbing the despairing keeper to give Stoke the victory and open the door to the next round in the FA cup!

The fifth round was against Milwall, who Stoke had beaten 2-1 and 4-0 in previous meetings this season. The latter result was repeated with Bowditch scorring one, Lopez bagging two, and Watson coming off the bench and scoring again - a header this time, from a Beckham free kick.
The quarter final was a trickier tie against Portsmouth, and although the previous results of 5-2 and 4-0 favoured Stoke, Portsmouth were currently looking very dangerous in attack with pacy striker sharing the lead with Bowditch at the top of the goalscoring charts. With goalkeeper Williams looking like the next Chris Kirkland (injury prone), David Button was getting an extended run in the team, and with Beckham recovering from a knock in the previous game, he was given the armband for this quarter final versus Portsmouth.

Simon the snail

Doh! Server went down. I also went on holiday for the past week so I am sorry for the delay. Here is the rest of the 2012/2013 season:

Stoke started brightly, with Dean Bowditch grabbing the lead in the 14th minute, but then Stoke went to sleep for the rest of the match, eventually letting Gary O'Neill force a replay in the 73rd minute with a thunderbolt of a shot.

The replay started just as tightly...for two minutes at least, then Jona scored in the second minute, causing Portsmouth to bring all their men behind the ball proving extremely difficult for Stoke to break them down. But break them down they did, but Bowditch had to wait until the 69th minute before he could equalize for his team. No more goals came in normal time, and another 30 minutes of football was needed in order to separate the two sides. Penalties was looking probable after 10 mins in the first half, where both teams were being extremely cautious, until, suddenly a chance for a counter fell to Stoke - Greg Halford sprayed the ball across field to Emil Samuelsson, who, noticing the surging run of Lopez, split the defence in two with a fantastic through ball which Lopez took round the keeper and slotted calmly into the net. Portsmouth tried to attack then, but left themselves very open at the back and the score ended up 4-1 to Stoke, although the match was much, much tighter than that. Nevertheless, Stoke city were in the Semi finals and facing their toughest test yet. They were up against a midfield quartet of Obi Mikel, Messi, Lennon and Rooney, and Beckham was asking the manager if he could be rested for the 4 league games leading up to this tie...yes Stoke city were facing Manchester United for a place in the FA cup final!

Turning up for the match at Wembley brought back memories of the players’ previous visit to this ground - a certain playoff defeat last year. They were determined to not let this happen again. Having secured the Championship crown fifteen days previously, the whole team had had the benefit of a fortnights rest to prepare for this game and the manager was hoping that this would be the telling factor in today’s game. He said as much to the reporter who accosted him outside the ground;
REPORTER: How is your team going to contend with these undoubtedly world class players?
BOSS: Sure, they've got the class, but have they got the legs?

They seemed to believe they had the legs for the first three or four minutes of the game. The Stoke players seemed slightly overawed by the occasion and the big names they were up against but luckily David Button (yes, Williams was injured, again.) was able to pull off some fantastic saves to keep the score at 0-0. Then, after 5 minutes, something very strange happened, United seemed to lose all concentration - maybe they were demoralised that they hadn't managed to score yet against lower division opposition, but they cheaply conceded a corner and Beckham made them pay. A typically perfect cross found the head of Dean Bowditch on the far post and Stoke were 1-0 up with 85 minutes left to play!!

Expecting united to respond immediately, the Stoke players put many men behind the ball and prepared to defend the first half away. When the devastating attack failed to come, mainly thanks to some fantastic defensive midfield work from Nicola Beati, Stoke began to gain some confidence. They began to push forward more and managed to take control of the midfield. Now it was united who were pressurised and forced to defend. Then in the 14th minute, the pressure was too much for united when they conceded a free kick in a dangerous position. Beckham struck it, it was on target but the keeper made a great save to stop Stoke going two up...But, what's this? He couldn't hold on to it!! The ball's loose and has been parried out into the path of an onrushing Francisco Javier Lopez who has an empty goal to aim at, and he does not miss.
2-0 to Stoke and only 14 minutes gone!! To make matters worse for united, Wayne Rooney got himself sent off in the 27th minute and Stoke dominated from then on in. With 53% possession and 21 shots, Stoke came away slightly disappointed that they hadn't actually won by more goals, then the realization hit them...They were in the FA cup Final!! So much expecting to go out in this round, the players had completely overlooked the fact that they were only two - now one - game away from lifting the famous trophy! With an amazing double on the cards, one that no one ever dreamed would happen, the Stoke players were glued to the TV, awaiting the result of the other Semi final between Newcastle and Crystal Palace. It was a shock result; Palace had won 3-1! Although they were a premiership team, they were not of the quality of United, or even Aston Villa, the players told each other.

The team was again rested for the final two league games of the season, meaning they missed out on the hundred point milestone by one point. But no one involved with Stoke cared one bit, they were all completely focussed on the biggest game in the clubs long history.

Eventually the day came around, the day everyone had been waiting for. Stoke had performed so well this season that most bookies had them even favourites with Palace to win. Excitement was high on both sides of the ground, the Palace supporters too, seeing this as their best chance of gaining themselves some silverware, and a place in Europe next season of course. The manager's final words to his Stoke team before the game was to remind them of the last time they were over confident against perceived weaker opposition. They had lost, so don't make the mistake twice. The players obviously hadn't listened though, as Andy Johnson found himself without a marker and slotted home after 3 minutes to give Crystal Palace the lead. Stoke were awful for the rest of the first half, and most of the second - maybe the occasion had got to them, but they didn't look like scoring at all. So it was lucky for them that the other team did it for them, Louis Saha's fantastic finish from a Beckham cross gave Stoke the equalizer in the 79th minute. Stoke were now geared up for attack due to the manager panicking in the 75th to try to get a goal from his team. Stoke woke up for the last 10 minutes though, and played some sublime football, and five minutes later Pablo Ore received the ball on the edge of the box from a corner and volleyed the ball Scholes like into the top corner of the net. That was surely the winner!! It wasn't. In the 92nd minute Nicola Beati received the ball 40 yards out, a palace player tried to wrestle the ball from under his feet but Beati evaded him, pushing the ball slightly forward to give himself room, the defensive midfielder then smashed the ball home from 35 yards out to give Stoke the trophy, a lot of money, the double, and a place in Europe next year!!

What a season! The star man this season was undoubtedly Dean Bowditch who played 45 league games and 7 cup games, scoring 41 in the league and six in the cup. He also made a record 31 assists to finish with an avr of 7.93, which was enough to win him Championship player of the year and Stoke fans player of the year for the 3rd time. Lopez also chipped in with 24 goals while Watson came off the bench to score 15. Karlsson also managed 11 goals and 13 assists. The chairman was left speechless and his end of season report sounded something like this,
'Wow'
When he was asked for a little bit more a few days later, he came up with the following,
'I am absolutely ecstatic with the teams performance and am very proud that I am involved with a club that have managed to achieve a feat that many thought impossible in the present day, winning the FA cup whilst not being in top flight. But to then win the Championship so convincingly made this season even better. After the consistent performances over this season and the performance we have seen in this team, the board and I have made a few decisions, we have extended our managers contract, and decided to increase the capacity of the stadium to a European premiership standard of 42124 seats. This will not be the only change made to the stadium, as of July the 14th, a statue of our current manager will be erected outside the gates of the stadium to signify this remarkable achievement he and his players have done on this, Stoke city’s one hundred and fiftieth year since its founding.
Looking forward, to next year, I have no doubt we will survive and am very excited about the prospect of playing in the uefa cup as well.'

A statue, eh? Quick get out while you’re a hero, Mr Manager! Oh no, he's staying on, there's still more to achieve with this club.

league position
pos 1st W31 D6 L9 F131 A56 GD+75 pts 99

Bristol city came 2nd, 11 points behind and 15-3 down on aggregate to Stoke after 5 games.
In the premiership, Chelsea were champions, with Arsenal second and Newcastle, losing FA cup semi finalists, third. In the Champions league, there was an English representative in the final but Arsenal lost 2-1 to Roma.

Well, at the end of that season, the manager see's himself back in the same position he was in in 2008. When asked whether he felt that way, he replied,
'No, this team is far better than the team from '08. It is a premiership team already and can only get stronger each year as the younger players gain more and more experience. I can't see staying up being a problem...' We'll see.

Wimb The Barman

Nice short story easy to follow, kutgw

lim

very nice to read simon, btw are you a stokie?

jongray84

i am enjoying this Tread esp enjoyed the BC team you done well i am BC on the first season and ummm COUGH will make a post after 3 season`s

Simon the snail

Thanks for the feedback guys - much appreciated.
For Lim, no, I am not a Stokie, but I will have a soft spot for them when the new season starts. The same happened in 1996 (god, is that really 10 years ago?) when I managed some Scottish team called St Johnstone - I'm still following them now.
What are your expectations for your team this season? Will we see them in the prem in the next few years? (in real life!)

For Jongray84, good luck with your BC team, one tip - try to stay on Mr Lansdowne's buddy list!!
BC have a decent team (especially in defence), but lack any quality strikers. Looking forward to reading your post.

Simon the snail

Season Summary 2013-2014

After promising a non relegation threatened season this season, the pressure was on for the manager in Stokes first season in the premier league. The board, however tried to do their pest to take away some of that pressure. Here is what the chairman had to say:
'We are all extremely excited to see how this squad can get on in their...our first season in the top flight. For those fans who expect immediate success, let me tell you this, winning the FA cup is completely different to surviving in the premiership. Yes we know we can beat the best teams, but the trick to staying up, so I've been told, is to beat these teams consistently, score lots of goals, have a good home record...and a lot of money. I am pleased to say that we are not lacking for money this season and more may become available depending on how successful we are in the UEFA cup.'

With the pundits split half and half, over whether Stoke will stay up, they feel that the telling point could be if the squad can cope with all the other competitions too. One well known pundit had this to say;
'Ah dunnae thank tha' Stoooke will stay oop. With tha sloppy defendin' they had last season, thaey have nay got a chance. Anyway, ye dunnae win anythang with kids.'

Bad news in the pre season for Stoke as 3 players, feeling they have made their names now, quit Stoke on a bosman transfer. Nicola Beati heads back to Italy to play for italian super power Lecce, Christoffer Karlsson shows his ambition by joining Aston Villa, and Tom Daemen leavesto join...no one. Whoops! slight miscalculation there Tom! What's that? You want to come back? tough luck mate!

The incoming players this year are slightly more numerous than previous years. Young English Centre back Rossi Jarvis joins Stoke on a bosman from a team where first team opportunities where slightly limited - Chelsea. Two young Finnish players were brought in for a cumulative 3k by a scouts reccomendation. These are striker Markus Kinnunen, and midfielder Esa Pekka Raisanen. Versatile Swedish youngster Niklas Andersson joins the club for 8k. The final youngster to join this year is Graham Richardson, who will be understudy to Josef Broz at left back. The final 3 signings were the ones to make the fans excited. Finally, they say, the manager's gone for experience - having already forgotten Beckham, campbell etc - as fans do.

These three veterans are, centre back Aaron Mokoena (the second Mokoena bought by the manager in his career) from Blackburn for a sum of 1.6m, Daniel de Ridder who is a right winger , taken from Celta for free, and Andres D'Alessandro, who has agreed to end his career at Stoke after having a poor last season with Liverpool.

The first test for Stoke was the community Shield. The team travelled to Wembley, passing the chelsea bus outside the gates - it appeared to be broken down- and began to prepare for yet another match at this ground. The slight mishap with their team bus seemed to have shaken Chelsea as they never looked like getting into the game and Stoke signalled their intent by thrashing the blues 4-1, with D'allesandro scoring two, Lopez one, and Watson 1. The league started relatively well, everyone could see that they were not going to be troubled by relegation this season, unless they were hit with a lot of injuries. The first significant game was a EURO cup 1st round game versus Trabzonspor. The team were not troubled playing against foreign opposition and overcame the hostile crowds to win 3-1 away, and then 2-0 back home. Simon Watson was the star in that tie, scoring 3 of the 5 goals.

League form started to improve for stoke and they registered victories against Arsenal (2-0) and Bristol city (4-1), which clearly delighted the Stoke manager. Then came the first EURO cup group game. It was a potentially slippery game against Scottish outfit Dundee United. The 7-0 victory made the travelling Stoke supporters relatively pleased. The four goals scored by Simon Watson prompted calls for him to be called up to the England squad. But it was in fact the other striker, Dean Bowditch who got his international Debut first, coming off the bench to partner Jermain Defoe in attack for the last 30 minutes of an England friendly.
The next Euro cup game was against Mallorca, and they were a step up in class from Dundee, the 1-1 draw proving that point. However the team recovered, going on to beat Stuttgart 4-0 and Dinamo Kiev 3-1 to register a place in the first knockout round. Many people expected Stoke to get through, but not quite in the style they did it in.

One dissapointment in the first half of the season was taht the reserve team could not overcome league 2 Doncaster in the league cup 3rd round, losing 3-2. A 5-4 victory over Everton, and 2-1 versus Man Utd, kept the crowd singing into the EURO cup 1st round tie versus Slavia Prague. They defended well, but just did not have the class to do anything against a well drilled and gelled Stoke side and lost 3-0 on aggregate.

Sitting in seventh in the league, in the EURO cup 2nd round, beating Sunderland 5-0 in the FA cup 3rd round Bowditch(3) Lopez(2), and Portsmouth 2-0 in the 2nd round, left everyone to do with football very inpressed With the season they were having. One person who was not impressed was a certain pundit;
'ookay, tha team ha' done well soo fa'. But tha's jus' beginnas luck ye ken. The real test is nex' season. They'll struggle then, ah guarantee et. Aye.' The beginners continued to progress in the EURO cup, winning 4-1 against PSV in the quarter final 1st leg, only to scrape through after losing 4-2 away in the second leg. After a 2-0 victory over Liverpool in the 5th round of the FA cup, the manager was heard to say ' the players are starting to feel it a bit now. They are getting slightly fatigued and and taking longer to recover. It was always going to happen because I've stuck with pretty much the same team all season. We are safe in the league now, so maybe I will begin rotating players.'
A 3-1 victory against Bristol City followed, then the FA cup holders crashed out in the quarter finals, losing an uninspiring match 2-0 versus Bolton. Things then got worse when, after a fantastic 2-1 victory over Villareal in the first leg - thanks to two goals from sub Markus Kinnunen, the team had a lot of injuries and lost the second leg 4-2 with a half strength side to go out of the EURO cup in the last eight stage.
With only the league to focus on, Stoke picked up their form and and won a few straight games to finish the season in a lofty fifth position. Not bad for your first season in the top flight. The chairman thought so too;
'this is a fantastic season for Stoke. We have announce ourselves on the world stage with our fantastic run in the EURO cup, and have a chance to go one better in the competition next year. This is also great as we will have pulling power to attract the big names, and big money available to buy them.' The manager was ecstatic at this news, having lost out early on in the season on signing future great Cees Janssen due to the bidding exceeding the clubs transfer budget. On next season the chairman had this to say;
'I hope for more of the same next season, where we continue to establish ourselves as one of the best clubs in Europe. Hopefully we can begin to build a squad next year which is capable of challenging the top four in the future. We are all in full support of the manager and hope he can lead us to future success.'

In the premiership Arsenal were champions followed by Liverpool, with chelsea in third. Leeds were fourth, with Man utd just escaping relegation on the last day of the season.
Liverpool won the champions league with a 3-0 victory over Sevilla.

In the world cup, hosts Italy struggled to make an impact, and Argentina beat Holland 1-0 in the final. The third placed team was none other than Scotland, and Guess what? England lost in the second round. Against Germany. on penalties. After throwing awy a 2-0 lead. morons.

Bristol city came rock bottom so will be unable to be thrashed by Stoke next season. (the 'trailer' for next season is in the first posts picture by the way.)

jongray84

KUTGchampionsnextW :thup: