I know it’s a lot to ask of you, but I want you to join me again on the journey into the alternate universe where Mr. Tony Pulis is still commander in chief at the Britannia Stadium.
Crisis talks began the summer of 2014. The board informed Pulis that a change of style was important to them and the club needed to score more goals from open play, and to achieve this they would be taking control of transfer policy. This saw two legends of the game given big money moves to the Premier League. Spanish assassin David Villa left Atletico Madrid joining the Potters, describing the move as an ‘irresistible prospect’. Fans were delighted by this move, but this did not come close to the mayhem and pandemonium of Stoke’s deadline day dash for Brazilian superstar Ronaldinho. This was a signal of intent from the board who intended Tony to change the clubs style to a more attractive one, which could be sold worldwide.
The transfer window can churn out some extreme candidates for clubs to sign when the media runs out of real news and Stoke is no exception. Being linked with unlikely candidates such as Yaya Toure and Xherdan Shaqiri (hehehe) means fans these days take most transfer rumours with a pinch of salt. However there have been some players that have been as close as hovering a pen over a contract to play for the Potters, only for the move to fade away into distant memory. Today I bring you an XI of names that will recover those memories and make us all wonder what could have been for Stoke City. Who would have signed? Who wouldn’t have been signed if they had been signed? Who have been signed instead of the person who was going to sign but didn’t sign and probably signed for someone else instead?
The positions of some have been slightly exaggerated, but needs must:
David James
Back in the Winter of 2010, Stoke looked to make a move for Portsmouth goalkeeper David James. It was the year where Portsmouth’s financial decline had meant that a nine-point penalty had all but relegated them. Stoke looked to try and help assist Pompey with their expenditure by taking the England goalkeeper on loan, but the move broke down as Stoke refused to pay the entirety of James’ wages. In the end this move never happened but Stoke did instead bring in James’ understudy Asmir Begovic for just over £3m. It looked like it worked out well after all.
Lee Cattermole
Winter 2014 saw Mark Hughes looking for midfield cover in the form of Sunderland hothead Lee Cattermole. A fee of £5m had been agreed by both clubs and Lee was a medical away from making a deadline day switch. However, Sunderland decided at the eleventh hour to perform a dramatic u-turn and cancel the deal, leaving Stoke stranded with no back-up plan so late on. Since then Stoke have failed to bring in an out-and-out defensive midfielder, relying on Glenn Whelan’s fitness and, at times, Geoff Cameron’s versatility. Cattermole is still at Sunderland and continues to fight the drop each season, poor bloke.
James Collins
In a recent interview, now West Ham centre back James Collins revealed that he almost signed for Tony Pulis and Stoke back in 2009. The Welsh international instead opted for Aston Villa before making his move back to London three seasons later. Collins said about his potential new manager: “He is from Newport and grew up not far from me, so I’ve always had a good bit of banter with him. I know boys that have played for him, but he’s a great manager and a great man.
Scott Parker
Following West Ham’s relegation back in 2011, Stoke chased for the signature of Scott Parker to boost their midfield options ahead of the upcoming Europa League campaign. Try as he might, Tony Pulis couldn’t convince Scott to move away from London (where his children were currently being schooled) and instead he signed for Spurs. He then went on to play for England and eventually joined Fulham’s unsuccessful fight against relegation from the Premier League, but Parker has been another defensive midfielder that failed to make way for the Potteries.
Mile Jedinak
In a more recent development, it was less than a year ago that a move for Palace midfielder Mile Jedinak. Although club captain, it appeared at the Australian had falled down in the pecking order since the signing of Yohan Cabaye and Stoke looked to guarantee Mile first team football. It was on deadline day where Stoke’s interest had peaked and a deal worth around £3m had been agreed between the clubs. Despite this, the player’s representatives conjured up fresh demands from Stoke and it was enough for the plug to have been pulled on yet another midfield sweeper. Making just 16 starts in the league this season, it could have been argued that some more serious competition could have been made with Glenn Whelan. But at Palace he stayed.
Javier Pastore
According to comments from one of Tony Pulis’ former backroom staff, Stoke were offered midfielder Javier Pastore for around £5m. Pulis was believed to have turned down the deal due to Pastore’s lack of physicality and doubted the impact he would have on the Premier League. A transfer story with a little less certainty to it, although Pastore is now one of the most highly rated midfielders at Paris St. Germain and certainly smashes the claimed £5m estimated worth. Let’s face it: who knows if Pastore’s development would have been the same at Stoke than it has been at PSG, but it could have meant that Stoke could have produced a truly world-class player.
Andriy Yarmolenko
For the past two Summer transfer windows, Stoke have been known to have been interested in Dynamo Kiev forward Andriy Yarmolenko. Certainly last Summer discussions between clubs and player agents took place and a deal certainly could have been struck if it wasn’t for Kiev’s club owner. His desire to keep Andriy for one more season saw Stoke miss out on the Ukrainian and looked elsewhere. Eventually Stoke snatched Xherdan Shaqiri from Inter, certainly not a bad alternative! As for Yarmolenko, his name is being whispered throughout the Premier League and a move for him looked likely this upcoming window. But who know’s where?!
Jonathan Pitroipa
Stoke looked to bring in Rennes winger Jonathan Pitroipa in a last ditch attempt on deadline day in the Winter of 2014. The deal looked to have been approved by both clubs and player and a deal looked dead certain, with the Stoke staff ordering pizza to celebrate the business. It’s unclear as to who’s fault it was that the deal was not finalised by the deadline, but it left all parties disgruntled with the failed transfer. Stoke followed up the following window by bringing in Victor Moses, Pitroipa now plays in the Arabian Gulf League. Make of that what you will.
Juan Agudelo
Stoke’s American dream was denied as Juan Agudelo failed to link up with compatriots geoff Cameron and Brek Shea. Agudelo did actually agree to play for Stoke back in Winter 2014 after his contract expired with MLS club New England Revolution, but the English FA denied Stoke a work permit and meant that the empty contract that Agudelo had signed was forced to be ran down and eventually Agudelo left for free back to New England. Stoke’s hierarchy thought that Agudelo could be worth around £10m in the future and missed out on a fantastic deal, but Stoke have materialised other good deals for strikers such as the free signing of Mame Diouf.
Demba Ba
One of the most bizarre collapses of a transfer ever, Stoke City turned down the chance to sign Demba Ba from Hoffenheim back in Winter 2011. In a deal worth around £7m, Ba was a successful medical away from joining the Potters, but indeed Ba did not pass due to a knee issue and the deal faded. Whether this was the true reason for the collapse is still unsure due to the fact that Ba has successfully signed for Newcastle, West Ham and Chelsea and must have passed medicals at those clubs. The most frustrated party appeared to be the player who thought that he had lost his big chance to make an impact in England. Luckily for him, he did go onto have many more chances and has called an end to his spell some time ago.
Loic Remy
Stoke appeared to have tempted Loic Remy to sign for them, he even got as far as being spotted and pictured in the club’s training ground finalising a move. However the move from Lille in Summer 2010 all of a sudden died and he very quickly ended up at fellow French club Marseille. Remy had been accused at the time for using Stoke as an advertising platform for a ‘bigger club’ to come and snatch him away. This seemed to have worked, after moving to QPR, Newcastle and Chelsea since that decision to turn down the Potters, but who knows what a spell at Stoke would have done for him, although he might like sitting on the bench getting paid by one of the richer clubs in England…
Who do you remember nearly signing for Stoke? And where do you think we would have been with them in? I’ll take what we’ve got now to be honest.
I’m bored, you’re bored, we’re all bored, life without football is an empty hollow one, well it is if you are as sad as the bloggers here. So to keep us all interested I decided to imagine what fresh hell our club would be in if we decided not to sack Pulis four summers ago. Whilst his style of play did get us to the Premier League it was stagnant, boring and just plain awful. So let’s hop in the Delorian and try not to shag our mothers.
The summer months were very dry for transfers under Pulis and the summer of 2013 made no difference. Erik Pieters signed for the club for 3 million (he really had no idea what he was doing to himself signing up as a full back in Pulis’ squad). Then nothing happened, at all. Carlton Cole was seen having a tour around Clayton Wood, but the transfer fell through due to a mysterious injury crisis at his current club West Ham. Nothing happened, until the night of the 2nd September, when the entire transfer team descended on the training ground, pizza deliveries in hand. With promises of new wingers and a clinical finisher to change the attacking dynamic of the squad the only player who had a photo with the Red and White shirt come the end of the night was James Collins.
With that strange time between end of season and start of Euros, much like between Christmas and New Years, I thought id write a very tongue in cheek comparison of what, if every Premier League team were a country. Some I believe are very accurate, and some are very tenuous.
Leicester City – Papua New Guinea
You are surprised right? Well I bet you didn’t know that Papua New Guinea has the highest growth in GDP this year. Just like the surprise that Leicester gave us this season.
Arsenal – China
They don’t like changing their leaders regularly, and the views’ on the leader are mixed, but no amount of protests will get rid of him. Their use of computers is impressive they always win online polls.
How have our new recruits been in their debut season?
Glen Johnson (Right Back)
Arrival Date: 12/07/15 | Former Club: Liverpool (England) | Fee: Free
Another Premier League veteran followed Given to Stoke on a free transfer after Johnson was released from Liverpool. He departed Merseyside with his reputation slightly faded, he had lost his place in the England team and had been behind a few young players, including Jon Flanagan, in the pecking order. However, Stoke needed new blood at right back due to the departure of club hero Andy Wilkinson and a player with vast Premier League and international experience was too much to turn down. Fans were apprehensive as to how Johnson would play in the side, but Glen was a breath of fresh air in a position that wasn’t exactly blessed with any kind of pace or attacking flair over the past few seasons. Not only were his defensive contributions useful, his link-up play with the right winger was wonderful, epitomised with his run and cross he sent in for Marko Arnautovic’s goal against Chelsea after being sent through by Shaqiri. It’s unfortunate that Johnson got injured and missed the majority of the second half of the campaign as it was his presence that contributed massively to Stoke’s great spell during the middle of the season. Providing Johnson returns to full fitness ready for pre-season following his injury, it could be a very good season for him and for Stoke City.
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.
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.
