Premiership Preview: Stoke

Stoke

In
Erik Pieters (PSV Eindhoven) 3.6m euros
Marc Muniesa (Barcelona) Free


Out
Dean Whitehead (Middlesbrough) Free
Matthew Upson (Brighton & Hove Albion) Free
Rory Delap (Burton Albion) Free
Mamady Sidibe Released
Carlo Nash (Norwich City) Free
Matthew Lund (Rochdale) Free

Positives: I am going to try and be positive to Stoke fans but there is not a lot of joy to be had at the Brittania. With Mark Hughes' appointment as Stoke maannger it did not get anyone on the edge of their seats and it is going to be a hard act to follow what Tony Pulis did there for the years that he was at Stoke. I think I will go to the negatives now sorry Stoke fans.

Negatives: Stoke regressed rather than go forward last season and that was worrying given the amount of money that was spent in those two seasons. Tony Pulis probably saw the writing on the wall and decided to leave at the end of last season. Since Mark Hughes took over he has signed tow defensive minded players and no-one else. They badly need someone creative in the midfield and a striker who is going to score 15-20 goals a season for them. Considering Mark Hughes transfer market record when he had the money at Q.P.R. in particular would cast doubt on whether he is going to get the support or not from the board to get those type of players that Stoke need to survive essentially. The aura of how they were tough to beat and hard to play against especially at the Brittania disappeared last season and if Hughes can't revive that then Stoke could go down and I predict they will go down due to lack of goals more than anything else.


Prediction:18th