STOKE CITY ARE FLYING AGAIN AFTER BANNING MOBILE PHONES
Stoke City are dreaming again. It is more than seven years since their relegation from the Premier League yet something is stirring in the Potteries and Stoke are finally flying high.
Second in the table, with the best defensive record in the league, they face Championship leaders Coventry at home this weekend in arguably the biggest game of their recent history.
Excitement is building, attendances are on the rise and Stoke are looking up rather than down under the management of the vastly experienced Mark Robins.
Supporters have been anxiously waiting for moments like Saturday afternoon, when the bet365 Stadium will shake with noise.
In recent times, Stoke are the club who have established an unwanted reputation for exhausting the ways to underachieve. Since that relegation in 2018, their highest finish has been 14th, twice under Michael O’Neill.
A Premier League return has appeared so far away, yet this season feels different and a promotion assault seems set to replace annual flirtations with the drop.
Stoke have made their best start to a campaign since falling into the Championship [with five points more than the previous best after 14 games under O’Neill in 2020-21] and will face Robins’s former club in front of a full house.
With an exciting, vibrant squad and significant progress being made off the pitch – with Stoke’s focus on data and analytics – the future appears bright.
Two prominent players from Stoke’s Premier League years, Jon Walters and Ryan Shawcross, are proving key figures in the rebuild. Walters is the club’s sporting director who reports to the owner, John Coates, while Shawcross is establishing a reputation as a first-team coach on Robins’s backroom staff. Another ex-Stoke player, Gareth Owen, is the club’s academy technical director.
At the forefront of this revival story is Robins, who has accumulated well over 800 games in management.
Appointed on New Year’s Day, he became the seventh manager of Stoke’s current Championship era. Robins is the shrewd, calm leader that Stoke desperately needed. The 55-year-old has united a fan base that was disillusioned and veering towards apathy.
With four wins from the last five matches, Stoke have been very effective. Robins’s team primarily play 4-2-3-1, with the intention to gradually evolve the team by moving players higher up the pitch. Data suggests they are currently overperforming, with xG (expected goals) placing them 10th.
In a nod back to those days under Tony Pulis, Stoke’s defence is the stingiest in the division with only nine goals conceded so far.
Robins’s impact around the Clayton Wood training headquarters also cannot be overestimated, creating a high-standards culture for players and staff with the help of Walters. He encourages his players to communicate, so mobile phones are banned in the canteen and team meetings. He believes his squad are already more cohesive as a result.
Training sessions are mapped out in six-week cycles and based on periodisation – a form of training in the four phases of attack, defence and the transitions in between – with the workload decreasing nearer to match day. This method has been significant in reducing injuries.
On the training pitches, Robins prefers to let his coaches do most of the work. Assistants Paul Nevin and James Rowberry are experienced, respected operators who have worked at national level with England and Wales respectively.
Shawcross, the club’s former captain, is building a fine reputation as a coach since retirement and has been in possession of the Uefa pro-licence for four years.
Nevin and Rowberry focus mainly on possession sessions, both with the ball and without, while Shawcross deals with set-pieces and individual development plans.
Robins is unquestionably the manager, though, and has all the experience to deal with the emotional roller coaster of this crazy division. With two promotions during a seven-year spell at Coventry, he also has a track record for delivering success.
Behind the scenes, the mood is buoyant yet with an acknowledgment that it is still very early in the season.
Robins is urging his players to relish the challenge of fighting at the top. It sure beats last season, when Stoke avoided relegation by just two points. Plans for the January transfer window are already well advanced, with attacking players the focus.
Recruitment has been a regular bone of contention for fans since Stoke’s relegation, but is now an area where the club have made clear progress.
Walters has assembled a data and analytics team working together with selected staff at the Coates family company, bet365, to give the club an extra edge.
Though details are confidential, with only a limited number of people involved, Telegraph Sport understands huge advantages have already been discovered over the past 12 months.
Personal dossiers are prepared for every new signing to make them instantly feel at home, detailing their medical history, past media interviews and match statistics.
With Stoke’s spending restricted by financial rules in the Championship, recruitment has to be above average. There have been many recent successes.
Viktor Johansson, an £800,000 signing from Rotherham, is arguably the best goalkeeper in the league. Aaron Cresswell has been a revelation. Signed on a free transfer after his contract at West Ham expired, the 35-year-old is proving a model of consistency.
Cameroon international Junior Tchamadeu was a £300,000 capture from Colchester and is in the form of his life. There have been other notable recruits, including Wales international Sorba Thomas and the re-signing of Tottenham centre-back Ashley Phillips on loan.
Former Chelsea trainee Lewis Baker is revitalised, after Robins made the decision days after his appointment to recall the midfielder from loan at Blackburn.
Stoke are also making huge strides forward with their Category One academy. The Coates family has invested millions in the infrastructure, with the ultimate intention to develop their own stars of the future.
Brentford captain Nathan Collins and Leicester’s Harry Souttar are two former jewels from their youth system and there is optimism over others following them.
Emre Tezgel and Nathan Lowe are two graduates excelling on loan at Crewe and Stockport respectively.
Jaden Dixon, an England Under-19 international, was targeted by Chelsea late in the summer window. Aston Villa also held detailed talks with Stoke over the potential transfer of midfielder Sol Sidibe – the son of former striker Mamady – who instead moved to PSV Eindhoven in August.
The ambition to emulate Robins’s players and star in the first team is the driving force. At the club’s training base this week, there has been a tangible buzz of excitement over the visit of Frank Lampard’s leaders.
Victory over Coventry would reduce the deficit to one point before the final international break of 2025.
It would also provide further evidence that Stoke are genuine promotion contenders. After seven years of drift, any supporter would settle for that.
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2025-11-07T08:30:48Z