Peter Coates decision was the final nail in Stoke City’s Premier League coffin: View
Stoke City were in the midst of serious relegation trouble as boss Mark Hughes was sacked in January 2018 but new manager Paul Lambert was no better and his appointment turned out to be the final nail in the Potters’ Premier League coffin.
Stoke had enjoyed some fruitful years under the guidance of Hughes, but had begun to drop off due to some poor transfer decisions and club unrest, and so started the 2017/18 season in poor form, with the 54-year-old eventually relieved of his duties just after the turn of the year.
The Potters’ chiefs surprisingly turned to former Aston Villa and Norwich City boss Paul Lambert to turn their fortunes around, as he was given a two-and-a-half-year contract despite his previous jobs being at lower-end Championship clubs, with 15 games to keep the Potters afloat in the top-flight.
As it turned out, chairman Peter Coates’ decision to appoint Lambert was the final blow to Stoke’s chances of Premier League survival, as he led the club to relegation with a miserly record in the second half of the campaign, and duly departed at the end of the season after just four months in charge.
Paul Lambert failed to improve Stoke’s poor performances
Stoke did have a good enough squad to stay in the top-flight that year, with the likes of Xherdan Shaqiri, Badou Ndiaye and Kurt Zouma alongside stalwarts such as Ryan Shawcross, Peter Crouch and Jack Butland, but Hughes’ management had begun to cause fall-outs and disruption among players behind the scenes, which led to awful form and his eventual dismissal.
That meant Lambert was tasked with restoring unity in the squad, as well as improving results, so he was arguably already fighting a losing battle as soon as he took charge, but still should have done so much better than he did with the talent he had at his disposal.
The Scotsman’s reign got off to a great start, as Stoke emerged 2-0 victors over Huddersfield Town thanks to goals from Joe Allen and Mame Diouf to move out of the relegation zone into 17th, but that was really as good as it got for the rest of the season.
Individual errors and poor shows of defending were littered throughout the next few games as the Potters failed to pick up maximum points from matches that they really needed to against the likes of Watford, Bournemouth, Brighton, Leicester City and Southampton.
A four-game winless streak unsurprisingly followed against Man City, Everton, Arsenal and Spurs, but Lambert remained sure that his players were “fighting for everything” with some huge relegation six-pointers still to come.
They were still unable to secure the vital victories that they needed though, with three consecutive draws against West Ham, Burnley and Liverpool, despite taking the lead in the first two, and were all but down heading into a crucial clash against Crystal Palace in the penultimate game of the campaign.
Palace won 2-1 in the Potteries, despite Lambert’s side again going in front through a Shaqiri free-kick, and Stoke were confirmed as relegated to the Championship after ten years in the Premier League, with the last game of the season seeing him record his second and final win in charge as Stoke beat Swansea City, but it was all too little, too late for Lambert and the Potters.
