1 week Ago By [email protected] (Peter Smith)
EFL presenter Aaron Paul had a brutal question for Tommy Smith as the defender reflected on three years tinged with regret at Stoke City. “Do you think people see Stoke City as an easy ride?” Paul asked on the BBC’s 72+ podcast. “Do they see Uncle Pete [Coates] with his very big pockets and think I’ve come here for a nice big pay day, good pay cheque, fans will probably get on my back eventually, the manager will get sacked, rinse and repeat?” That’s a tough one to throw at a right-back, now aged 32, who played just over 100 games for the club under Nathan Jones and Michael O’Neill and still sounds a little haunted by how far reality fell from expectations.
“I think, ultimately, without wanting to sound terrible, yes, you’re probably right,” he said. “One thing the chairman can’t be questioned over is his loyalty and commitment to the football club. He’s put his hand in his pocket over numerous years because he’s desperate for the club to do well.
“It’s a shame really because one thing I saw when I walked into the football club was a club that was desperate and geared up for the Premier League. It’s trying to find that sort of recipe, that’s certainly what Nathan was trying to do in the first few months of that season, trying to find that recipe for it all to click. For whatever reason it never did.
“I’m still of the belief that Stoke, at some point, will get it right to the point where they’re challenging for the play-offs. It’s a fantastic club but in the three years I had there I think we finished 15th, 14th and 14th and by Stoke City’s expectations it was nowhere near where we felt we should have been.” The expectations were high when Smith joined from Huddersfield Town for £4 million in the summer of 2019, an attacking full-back headhunted to complement the midfield diamond that Jones thought could take the club back to the Premier League.
Stoke had only been out of the top flight for a year at that stage, although that year had not gone well. Gary Rowett oversaw a huge squad investment but only lasted until the January when Jones joined from Luton Town full of enthusiasm, grand ideas and big quotes. His recruitment record was, in hindsight, mixed.
Sam Vokes and Danny Batth had joined in January, Nick Powell, Liam Lindsay, Lee Gregory, Adam Davies and Jordan Cousins followed in the summer while 33-year-old Stephen Ward was an unexpected arrival for the all-important left-back spot that needed so much energy. Scott Hogan, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Mark Duffy signed on loan. Stoke were 14/1 fifth favourites with the bookies to claim the title but didn’t win until October and Jones was sacked before November.
Smith said: “When I first arrived the atmosphere was very, very positive. It was a move that once I caught wind of it in the summer I was absolutely chomping at the bit to pursue. Stoke had signed some big players, it was a great football club, they were tipped that season to get promoted.
It was ticking all the right boxes for myself. “I spoke to Nathan about the move and he assured me that this was going to be the season, they were going to have a real challenge and it was all going to be fast, free-flowing football. I jumped at the opportunity, pre-season went well and we started the season.
.. and it just wasn’t what I think anyone at the football club envisaged.
“I think we realised that the Championship that season was tougher than we’d thought and game by game it became a slog. I refer back to the Huddersfield year when we got promoted and we were going into games full of confidence, full of enthusiasm, knowing we weren’t going to get beat. The first few months at Stoke was the polar opposite.
Every game was tough. We were really struggling to find that rhythm and cohesion. “One thing I look back at now with Stoke is that we had a lot of players.
The players we had were all desperate and adamant they should have been playing. You may have been in teams over the years when you have too many players and they all think they should be starting. It becomes a little bit difficult, doesn’t’ it?” Jones’s replacement O’Neill inherited a squad that had 37 players with first team experience but, although Stoke were bottom at Christmas, found play-off standard form to pull towards mid-table safety as it all played out behind closed doors in lockdown.
Smith had two more seasons at the club as O’Neill stripped back the wage bill and managed financial rules while trying to improve the squad. Promising starts faded to two more bottom half places. “He was very different [to Jones],” said Smith.
“I played a lot under Michael. He came in at a difficult time. His sole purpose in that first season was to keep us up and get us playing in a way that fans could get on board with.
He did that but results still weren’t great. Results were still pretty average. But we stayed up.
“I played a lot under Michael. We played some good football, not brilliant, but we just did enough and ultimately over the three years I spent there, I look back with a bit of regret that we were never able to find that identity or recipe that could propel us up the league.” O’Neill was replaced by Alex Neil shortly after Smith was released, Neil rebuilt the squad but was then replaced by Steven Schumacher when results didn’t improve and Schumacher has since been replaced by Narcis Pelach.
It is only just over two years since Smith left but there have been dozens of exits and arrivals, trying to find a formula that brings back success and figure out who they are in 2024. He said: “I look back and I’m sure you’re fully aware of the Stoke City team that got into Europe under Tony Pulis and the style of play and players they had in that team – Rory Delap with his missile of his throw and the big boys – and I don’t know if Stoke City fans and the culture of Stoke City is still not living in those sort of days but that’s the success they’ve had in the last 10, 12 years. “I think trying to go away from that and do something different they’ve found difficult.
They’re in another transition now where they’ve got a new manager in, Narcis Pelach with Dean Whitehead as number two, and they’ve gone down the route of signing players from overseas which notoriously Stoke City have never done. “I think they are really desperate to find that identity for what they are and who they are because for such a long time over the years they’ve been a real resolute tough team to beat.”.
