How have our new recruits been in their debut season?
This time last year, who would have thought that we’d have had a season with Xherdan Shaqiri, Ibrahim Afellay and Glen Johnson in our team? Mark Hughes and Stoke City made that a reality last Summer by tempting these talents, among a few others, to set a course for the Britannia Stadium. In addition to these new faces, Stoke also smashed their brand new transfer record by bringing in Giannelli Imbula right at the death of the Winter window. A lot of these signings showed pedigree, others promise and one was celebrated so much that he had his very own press conference. Even though a couple of Premier League veterans adorned the red and white for the first time, a lot of these incomings has yet to experience English football. Now that the season has drawn to a close, it’s a good time to look back on how the new Stokies have got on in 2015/16. In order of their arrival date:
Stoke swooped for their second Hannover striker in a year with Joselu. Although known as ‘The Killer’ at former clubs due to his poaching ability; he came to England as somewhat of an unknown quantity and, with a price tag of almost £6m, had fans wondering exactly what the Spaniards’ role at Stoke would be. It emerged that Joselu could be a younger, stronger, faster version of Peter Crouch and could end up being his long term replacement. It’s been a difficult campaign for Stoke’s strikers this season as none of them have had a consistent run in the team or a consistent group of teammates to play with; but that didn’t stop Joselu from making some important contributions. These include winning a penalty on his debut at White Hart Lane, scoring a goal in the 4-3 thriller at Everton and beautifully chipping Heurelho Gomes during Stoke’s 2-1 win at Watford. However, in 22 PL appearances this season, Joselu scored four goals and created one assist, which didn’t bring him close to being top goalscorer for his club this season and will want to add more of these next term. His workrate in the games that he has played in has been decent and could go on to better things next season but Joselu will want more game time and become more prolific if he wants to do so.
Who needs a posh hotel, Ant and Dec, and a crowd packed with celebs when you have a blog. They’re basically the same thing, right?
Signing of the Season
The Nominees are…
Glen Johnson: The England international joined for free in the summer, and had been a mainstay of the squad up until his recent injury. Johnson has provided some much needed width and crossing ability down the right flank, and will hopefully return to the starting XI before the end of the season to cement his place for next year.
Ibrahim Afellay: After initially struggling to get to grips with English football, although he did get to grips with Gardner’s neck, Afellay spent time out of the side after his suspension. But he returned in the League Cup quarter final with a majestic display, and has continued in much the same vein up until his (everyone together now) recent injury.
Philipp Wollscheid: If these nominees were announced a month ago, I am almost certain the new fan favourite would walk to this award. But some poor performances look set to tarnish what has been a breakthrough season for the German centre half. After an average loan spell last season Hughes chose to sign the big German permanently, and he has been the man to bear the weight of an injured Ryan Shawcross.
And The Winner is… Ibrahim Afellay, a fantastic first year for a player who has left many fans mesmerized with his ability on the ball. He overcame the difficulty of settling into the Premier League to reclaim form befitting of a former Barcelona man.
A fitting farewell for Andy Wilkinson on Monday night brought one particular thing to my attention. That was the calm, clinical finish of young striker Dom Telford.
Telford arrived from Blackpool last summer alongside Mark Waddington as a promising goal-scorer with a good bit of potential. His time at Blackpool saw him progress from first year scholar to first-team player, receiving nominations for the LFE’s goal of the month and goal of the season awards, which included a classy 35-yard chip against Liverpool. By the time he made his move to the Potteries he had 15 senior team league appearances under his belt and a growing reputation as a dangerous attacker.
We’re at the end of the season and I felt this was a great chance to tell you all about the future of the channel and to thank a lot of people for what they’ve done for us so far.
When I started The Bear Pit TV in August with a couple of friends and we did our first game for Tottenham away, I couldn’t have imagined what it would all eventually lead to. The day itself was a sunny one in the capital; I interviewed random fans for the first time, and captured the game and the resulting mayhem from a last minute Diouf equaliser.
Moving forward to right now we’re at the end of the season, and in fitting fashion last night it also ended in absolute chaos as Andy Wilkinson put away his first ever goal, and true to our word, we were on the bloody pitch.
Ever since The Bear Pit TV took off it’s still surreal when attending games people say hello and come up to you, commend you for what you’re doing, and stop to have a proper chat about the club. I want to take a moment to thank everyone I’ve spoken to and the pals I’ve made along the way (you all know who you are).
Midway through the season we also had Dave come on board as another presenter because I took a new job, which requires an amount of weekend work so I can’t make every game unfortunately. If we want regular content and to keep viewers then we need someone at games, and Dave’s come in and you lot took to him very well, which again is something I have to thank you for. Dave’s also done very well since he’s been doing videos for TBPTV and I can only see him growing with the channel.
Not only that, but quite recently we launched our website. We have a host of bloggers who I can wholeheartedly say give their all and put everything they can into the pieces they do for us. And I hope that with the way the channel is going they can soon be rewarded in some way for the massive effort they put in.
We had interviews with Wilko at his house where Dave and me went along, and those were hopefully the first of a host of player interviews in the future. It was again a surreal moment, interviewing and chatting with a club legend in his own home. Some people say never meet your heroes, but I can safely say Andy was one of the most down to earth and polite people I’ve ever met. Again I also have to thank Andy and Emma for letting us into their home, and probably more so Emma for constantly pestering her!
Most recently I also attended the Facebook Football Awards on behalf of Stoke City for our Manager of the Season and Team of the Season nominations. No ideas how we had those nominations by the way, how many of you have set up accounts on Facebook and voted for us over and over again! But that is yet another example of how The Bear Pit TV is helping get a voice for the club out there, I don’t speak on behalf of all of you I know, but I do my best as a representative!
But it’s not all been an easy ride and surreal moments. We’ve faced continuous issues with Twitter and had a period of a month were we were suspended because we were apparently using KFC Big Bash cricket content…. Yeah, your guess is as good as mine, because I’ve never seen Bojan do a spin bowl to left stump.
Not only that, but when you first start out we’ve had technical issues that have sometimes ruined videos that would have been a pleasure to watch, especially one with Nello that was a belter. But all this comes with your first venture into media, and I would say that going into pre-season and next season, it’s going to be taken up a notch.
The club has also knocked us back at every request, when we’ve asked for some club access, player interviews, or just a conversation in how we could help out. I can understand their approach about letting in an external media outlet, but I also understand how stretched their media team can be, and we could certainly help ease that workload in some way working in conjunction.
I also have to mention the guys at Stoke Loud & Proud. We keep each other on our toes and have a fun rivalry both being Stoke pages run by completely different people. There’s been a lot of banter back and forth this season (especially regarding flaming cheetahs), but it’s good to see that our prominence has made everyone significantly up their game, which can only be good for Stoke fans when everyone’s trying to provide better coverage about the club. I did also see they had a microphone in their hand yesterday, and one of my favourite lines in life is “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”
Next season it’s going up a gear. There’s going to be more content, more videos, more interaction, and most importantly more fun. I’m not too serious, as a lot of you may know, and that’s what our channel is, a casual laid-back take on Stoke City and the fans. We don’t want to see a serious Sky Sports News type channel do we?
We also have our affiliation with Ball Street, as much as it may pain a Stoke fan to see, I have to thank Robbie from Arsenal Fan TV who picked up our channel and helped us grow as part of the Ball Street network. Being a part of Ball Street brings the majority of our opportunities, and you’ll be seeing something very exciting next week!
As I write this we’ve just confirmed our first sponsor (Partners Barbers) for the 2016/17 season, and we will also be acquiring some more. This means that the channel will now have some resources to help us improve. Better equipment (We still record on an iPhone), better content, and better opportunities.
If you own a local business, or know anyone you want to recommend, then please do put them in touch and I’ll come and give you a presentation that blows your socks off, I might even bring you a Wilko mug as a bribe.
That’s also reminded me I have to say thanks to our ever-present and always daft designer, Joe Barbieri. He does all the artwork for our channel, and from the great work he’s done he’s recently been picked up to do artwork for the club itself, and if you’ve seen an image of a footballer without eyes then that’s probably him.
Also a final thank you to all my personal friends who have pitched in and been the cameraman when they’ve had to be or come to games to help film and do bits here and there, especially in the early stages, it wouldn’t have happened without you.
But that’s me signing off. For the fans, by the fans, with the fans, The Bear Pit TV has only just got started.
Football fans generally don’t wish for much more than to actually play themselves, let alone for your local and boyhood club, let alone in the top flight of English football and certainly let alone being one of the most familiar and loved faces during one of the club’s most successful periods. Only a handful of people go through this kind of experience, so it’s no surprise that the whole of Stoke-on-Trent and beyond were devastated when the news broke that the career of Andy Wilkinson had came to an unfairly abrupt end.
Wilko joined Stoke City’s youth in 1998, signed his first professional contract in 2001 and remained contracted for 15 years, making nearly 200 competitive appearances for the club through the English First Division, the Championship and Premier League; not forgetting an FA Cup final in 2011 and the UEFA Europa League. It might come as a huge surprise that he never scored a goal for the club despite coming agonisingly close on a few occasions: after a scintillating run against Portsmouth, being denied by David de Gea against Manchester United and almost burying Stoke’s fifth goal in a glorious cup semi-final against Bolton.
Stoke City had to come from behind to end their winless streak today and push the club to ninth spot in the Premier League, as they overcame West Ham United 2-1 on the final game of the season and the final game at the ‘Britannia’ Stadium. It seemed that the Potters’ dismal form would continue when Michail Antonio poked West Ham into a first half lead; but a charismatic second half turned it all around as goals from Giannelli Imbula and substitute Mame Diouf ended the 15/16 season on a high.
Hughes made a couple of notable changes to the XI that lost against Crystal Palace last week: Shay Given returned in goal for Jakob Haugaard, Philipp Wollscheid was reinstated to the defence as Phil Bardsley made way, utility man Geoff Cameron shifting to right-back. Jon Walters was preferred to Xherdan Shaqiri on the right-wing, Bojan started ahead of in-form Charlie Adam and the striker’s dice was rolled again and landed on Joselu, replacing Peter Crouch. The most significant absentee was for West Ham, who had Dimitri Payet out injured.
It’s the hope that kills you. A sentence that probably sums up the mood for any Stoke fan at the moment. The season that promised so much, exciting football with exciting players, a potential tournament final and maybe even a late push for European football.
Complaints and footballing agony have been the only constant since Mark Hughes suggested an unbeaten end to the season was possible. It’s probably lucky that Stoke still find themselves under the media radar, the manager of a fashionable club would have been likely ridiculed for saying that before our recent string of form. Now the Potters rely on a lacklustre Manchester City beating Swansea, or we can pray that Stoke somehow rediscover an ounce of form/effort to beat an impressive West Ham outfit.
But why does it all hurt so much? Top half of the most competitive league in the world is surely an achievement to be proud of, regardless of the circumstances. Here are a couple of my ideas for why it just doesn’t quite cut it this time around.
“Oh god not Macron!” we all cried, even I cried. Stoke fans have a habit of slating things before they are given a chance. Look at the hostility Hughes got when he got hired. I’m not riding my high horse here, I myself was critical of the news that we would wearing macron for the next five years. But they look smart and I am loving the attention we are getting from the Italian sports wear manufacture.
But what will happen in the next five years whilst wearing this continental thread? This season has been one of mixed emotions, whenever Stoke seem to take a step forward we take a step back days later. Be it injury or be it just poor form and bad decisions. The start of this season was a tough one we went six games with out a win, and it’s been six league matches since we last won. Should this really be the results of a team who have the European stars of Shaqiri and Bojan amongst their ranks?
Well the season is well and truly over, and if I start talking about the Palace match I might cry again. So much earlier than normal the debate on who Stoke should target next season has begun with many big names being circled around the club. But an unusual aspect to the coming transfer window will be our need to replace aging/poor squad players with refreshing and exciting ones eager to impress whenever they get a chance. Obviously spending is again expected to be high, especially when targeting a 20 goal a season striker who will most likely blow the transfer record out of the water. Therefore a responsible spending policy must be taken to improving the squad depth, along with employing some of the more experienced youth players, to ensure the transfer spending is stable. So it may be useful for us to look to the teams leaving the Premier League seeking to move on players who will not be suited to life in the Championship.
Starting with the team who are mathematically relegated Aston Villa. Now many would suggest that this is the worst team ever seen since the leagues creation in 1992, and I would agree but this does not rule out taking some of the better players in their team to boost our squad. The first I would look at is Jack Grealish. Equally adept at playing on both wings, Grealish would be the perfect supplement to both Arnie and Shaqiri. If Hughes can manage him as well as he has managed Marko, Grealish could become a true asset for the club. Obviously behind our two current wide men game time would be limited, but at a young age Grealish could seek to impress with every performance he makes with the aim of giving Sparky a true selection dilemma. Further to this Grealish has something the club looks for in all new signings, re-sale value, making him an even more attractive prospect. That would be it for players from Villa as most are truly terrible and would be considered very high risk signings. A quick shout out to Adama Traore who must be feeling like he made a very bad choice in August, enjoy the trip to Rotherham away.
Well they love to make my job easier don’t they? Today Stoke once again took the lead in a BPL game and once again they let it slip, not just to a draw but instead to a defeat. Over the first few weeks of After the Whistle I criticised Stoke for being inconsistent, I called for performances like those against the Manchester clubs from earlier in the season to be more frequent. Well now I can’t complain about consistency, because we’ve fallen into the trap of being consistently poor. There’s no two ways about it, we have been poor for the entirety of the second half of the season and our league form in representative of that. 1 win in our last 9 games, is that the form of a team who is made up of players who believe they should be playing European football? Not in my eyes, so let’s get this started.
Issue 1: Killing off a game
I brought this up last week and it annoys me that I have to talk about it again, but once again our team has failed to display the desire and finishing acumen to kill off a game when we take the lead.
I don’t have the exact figures but I know that about three or four weeks ago we overtook Manchester City as the team who have dropped the most points from winning positions. Given that since then we have dropped two points against Sunderland and Crystal Palace (A team who have only one once in 2016 prior to today) each, I can feel assured that we are top of that unwelcome table.
There were two golden opportunities in this game for us that weren’t taken, one would have put us in front and the other would have pulled us level with a few minutes to go. If you had those chances who would you want to put on the end of the ball? For many it would be Shaqiri and Arnautovic. Well they were the players who had those chances and we failed to score either. However I’m a little more forgiving in regards to Shaqiri’s chance because I think that it was more of a good save than it was a bad shot.
This is a serious issue that needs to be addressed in the summer, I don’t know how, but someone who gets paid to find solutions for these issues needs to do so.
