Stoke City look to mount a European challenge – but things were not always looking so positive

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Stoke City will start the new Premier League season in a stronger, healthier position than at any other stage in the history of the club. Forecasts were not always so positive though, and there is still plenty of work for Mark Hughes to do over the summer.

On the pitch, The Potters are now an established top-ten Premier League club, boasting a squad packed full of internationally renowned players that would comfortably slot into many of the biggest teams anywhere in Europe. Players such as Bojan Krkic, Xherden Shaqiri and Marko Arnoutovic would not look out of place gracing the turf at the Camp Nou, Allianz Arena or San Siro, yet instead they will be found weaving their magic at the Bet365 Stadium.

Off the pitch, Stoke have announced record season ticket sales and have a Chairman in Peter Coates who is willing to invest heavily in all aspects of the club. Coates has broken the clubs transfer record fee twice in consecutive seasons, has funded a multi-million pound new training complex (in 2012 the first team were using second hand portable cabins for changing rooms), and is now considering a stadium expansion.

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Life at Stoke City has not always been so rosy for both supporters and Chairman alike.

The 1997/98 season should have been a time for optimism and hope in The Potteries as Stoke moved to their new home in the form of the Britannia Stadium (now re-named as the Bet365 Stadium). However, the club instead suffered a torrid year which culminated in relegation to the third tier of English football.

In truth, the move to the Britannia Stadium was partly to blame. The financial burden of funding and running a new 28,000 capacity stadium that was often only half full left the club hindered and looking to do things on the cheap. There was a clear lack of investment from the board which was reflected in poor signings and the sale of any substantial performers that Stoke had on the pitch. To make matters worse, the manager; crowd favourite Lou Macari, departed the club before the season had even begun and was replaced by his uninspiring and inexperienced assistant Chic Bates.

Unsurprisingly, results were poor and The Potters slumped into the lower echelons of the Second Division (now The Championship) with the Chairman, Peter Coates, taking the brunt of the frustration demonstrated by supporters. The season came to a head on January 10^th 1998 when Stoke were embarrassed by local rivals Birmingham City in a 7-0 drubbing at the Britannia Stadium. After the final whistle, 2,000 Stoke supporters invaded the pitch and staged a protest against the board whilst there were ugly scenes in the main stand as some fans attempted to gain access to the board room.

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Stoke City were relegated, Peter Coates resigned as Chairman, and the club was sold to an Icelandic consortium a year later. The 1997/98 season remains one of the lowest moments in the modern history of The Potters. Fast forward to 2016 and the contrast between the Stoke City of the present and that which existed in 1998 could not be more striking.

Peter Coates re-purchased the club in the summer of 2006, armed with a new financial fortune earned through the success of his multi-million pound Bet365 business, and The Potters have been on a steady upward trajectory ever since. Promotion to the Premier League in 2008 was then reinforced by survival the following season, before an FA Cup Final in 2011 and subsequent Europa League participation. The club have made significant progress since the days of competing in depths of the old Second Division.

Whilst Stoke supporters can enjoy their current success, manager Mark Hughes will be in no doubt that there is still plenty of work to do.

The Welshman enters into his fourth season leading The Potters having established them as one of the top-ten clubs in England, finishing each of the last three campaigns in 9^th position, whilst coming within a penalty shoot-out of reaching the League Cup final last year. However, perhaps the most significant achievement during this period is that Hughes has been able to mould a team full of creativity and attacking flare that play in a more aesthetically pleasing style.

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The direct play and long throws which characterised the club under the reign of Tony Pulis has now been replaced with short, patient, possession football, but if Hughes is to turn Stoke in genuine contenders for European football and silverware, then he will have plenty of work  to do over the summer.

First, Hughes will need to convince Marko Arnautovic to sign a contract extension. The enigmatic Austrian was involved in 40% of the goals that Stoke scored last season and is a key figure both on and off the pitch. He has one year left to run on his current deal and negotiations have stalled with rumours persisting that other clubs are starting to show an interest. If The Potters are to continue progressing as a club then they will need to demonstrate that they can keep hold of their star players.

Secondly, Stoke will need to avoid the injuries which plagued the team so badly last season. A regional newspaper published an article detailing that senior players had suffered over seventy different injuries over the course of the 2015/16 season. These included long-term issues which saw key figures such as Jack Butland, Ryan Shawcross, Ibrahim Afellay, and Glen Johnson all miss great swathes of the campaign.

Almost above all else, Hughes will be looking to ensure that his captain stays physically fit. Shawcross has been blighted by lower back issues for the last twelve months and Stoke look extremely fragile defensively when their skipper is missing from the heart of the defensive line.

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Thirdly, Hughes will be desperately attempting to discover a way of making his team more consistent. At times during the 2015/16 season, Stoke were astonishingly brilliant (see the performances against the two Manchester clubs at home or the 4-3 victory against Everton at Goodison Park), yet there were moments when they produced performances that were frustratingly bad. Most notable of these was when the team conceded four goals in three consecutive games as the season came to its conclusion.

The Potters could be classed as consistently inconsistent – enough to make supporters want to tear their hair out. The Stoke city squad is undoubtedly full of talented individuals, but Hughes must find a system and style of play that gets the most out of his star players whilst ensuring greater consistency.

Finally, as with every other football club in Britain over the summer, Stoke will need to make smart, concise moves in the transfer market. Is a twenty-goal-a-season striker on the club’s shopping list? Saido Berahino may well be the man if Stoke and West Brom can agree a fee. A young, tricky, pacey wide man? The signing of Egyptian wonder-kid Ramadan Sobhi will do the trick. A defensive, competitive central midfield player? A fee has already been agreed with Liverpool for Welsh maestro Joe Allen.

It would appear that Hughes is well aware of the deficiencies of his current Stoke squad, although may Stoke supporters would like to see a new defender added to the list of potential signings, but the biggest test that he faces will be securing these transfer targets in time for the start of the new season.

So, Stoke City go into the new Premier League season in a strong healthy position. However, supporters will tell you that it has not always been this way and Mark Hughes will know that there is still plenty of work to do.

Featured Image: All rights reserved by Kody platter