What has happened to Stoke City?
Once one of the contenders for European football, Stoke City are on the precipice of relegation to League One yet
Despite being an historic football club, Stoke City have endured a fairly disastrous decade. After spending ten years in the Premier League, including three consecutive 9th place finishes, Stoke suffered relegation in 2018, and haven’t finished above 14th in the Championship since. From a club who, until recently, had the football world questioning if Lionel Messi was good enough to succeed at their ground, this fall from grace has been startling.
The Potters are one of the richest clubs in the country. Their owners, the Coates family, are regularly listed in the top 20 richest people in the country, as they own betting giant Bet365. They are described by many as local, passionate people who are willing to invest in the team. The club haven’t raised season ticket prices in 17 years and they offer free coach travel to away games. Most Football League clubs who have fallen from grace and are struggling have some kind of financial issues, for example Sheffield Wednesday, Reading and Wigan Athletic. For Stoke, that is not the case.
The club have seen years of turmoil, with players, managers, recruitment staff and directors all being chopped and changed. Poor recruitment, tactics, and sometimes downright misfortune have culminated in Stoke’s demise. Below is a summary of their plight.
Stoke City were founded in 1863, but it took until 1972 for the Potters to win their first major trophy, the League Cup. Stoke flirted with the top of the First Division table, and reached the FA Cup semi-finals twice, before a stand was blown off the roof of their stadium, the Victoria Ground, in 1976. Stoke had to sell all of their key players and were relegated at the end of the following season. The Potters did return to the topflight a couple of seasons later, in 1979, but not to their former glory, and they were relegated back down in 1985.
It took 23 years for Stoke to return to the Premier League. Tony Pulis guided a side led by players such as Ricardo Fuller, Ryan Shawcross and Rory Delap to promotion. Rory’s glorious, monstrous throw-ins started to terrorise the Premier League’s defences and Stoke beat Manchester City and Arsenal in their first season to keep themselves up. Pulis guided Stoke to the FA Cup final in 2011, losing to Manchester City after having beaten Bolton 5-0 in the semi-final, and they played in the Europa League the following year.
Tony Pulis departed in 2013 and was replaced by Mark Hughes. Hughes transformed the club into ‘Stokealona’ by bringing in former Champions League winners Bojan, Ibrahimm Afellay and Xherdan Shaqiri, as well as goalscoring forwards such as Marko Arnautovic and Joselu. Stoke finished 9th in 3 consecutive seasons, and achieved famous victories, including 6-1 against Liverpool in Steven Gerrard’s final game for them, against the established elite of English football. They were a penalty shootout away from reaching the 2016 League Cup final, ultimately losing out to Liverpool.
That game is often described as a turning point for Stoke. The following season they finished 13th, and then the year after they were relegated. The decline of the Potters since then has been enormous and sudden and doesn’t look like it will end soon.
