WE CAN BOUNCE STRAIGHT BACK
Says new Stoke boss Gary Rowett
TO discover the reason behind Stoke’s position as firm favourites for this season’s Championship, you need look no further than their final preseason friendly. Eight full internationals started the game against St Pauli, and three came off the bench.
Xherdan Shaqiri may have gone, but Jack Butland, Joe Allen and Ryan Shawcross remain, beefed up by Senegal’s Mame Biram Diouf and Nigeria’s Oghenekaro Etebo, who both made good contributions at the World Cup.
New Stoke manager Gary Rowett warns that England’s second tier is not that simple, though. Previous jobs at Birmingham and Derby mean he is a manager who knows the division intimately and while there is expectation, he urges caution.
‘Every club I’ve been at promotion has been the aim, something you view as a viable possibility,’ he says. ‘But you have to be mindful that not every club who come down bounce back up. Some clubs have struggled. We can’t be blase about that fact.
‘But the moves the club have made to keep Joe Allen and strengthen in a way we feel will help the team means we have a very strong squad. So from my view, promotion is the aim.
‘But it is very easy to listen to what people say. I spoke to the players about it, we have to attack the season with humility and earn everything we get. Nothing is going to be handed to us just because we have a good squad and people think we’re the favourites.’
Amid tales of dressing-room fractures and work-shy stars, Stoke tumbled out of the Premier League following a 10-year stay, prompting a remarkable statement from the Coates family, admitting to much ‘soul searching’. The club’s loyal owners said ‘significant errors’ had been made in the transfer market and a ‘major overhaul’ was needed to ‘regain identity’.
Rowett was seen as the ideal manager to provide the balm and he has made sure this summer’s additions are hungry for success. James McClean, Tom Ince and Benik Afobe all have points to prove to varying degrees and can be relied on for maximum effort.
Charlie Adam said this week that was not always the case with Shaqiri, while Jese Rodriguez and Saido Berahino also drew ire from team-mates over their level of application. Berahino remains and Rowett insists the ex-England Under 21 striker is looking fitter than at any point previously in the Potteries. But a shift in recruitment was required.
‘We have to accept we were relegated last season, so clearly the balance hasn’t been quite right,’ Rowett says. ‘We have to re-instill a bit of confidence.
‘If people were here last year they can comment on it firsthand. But you take on board some of those issues that were there. You have to remember they finished ninth three seasons in a row, which is a tremendous achievement. Then you are always looking at how you go again. And the risk with that is to upset what got you there in the first place.
‘Dropping into the Championship, you have to have a slightly more robust mentality to the group. I would hope the players can see what we are trying to do. There is an opportunity to be strong this year.’
Keeping Allen was a major coup, likewise Peter Crouch, and while there has been interest from Chelsea in Butland, Stoke are increasingly confident of calling on the England No2 goalkeeper for the coming season.
Rowett believes Gareth Southgate will still keep a keen eye. ‘Jack’s our player and if he plays in the Championship with us, which we fully expect him to do, I don’t see how that will impinge on his international ambitions,’ Rowett says. ‘He’s still the same goalkeeper, got the same ability. We all know he could quite easily play at one of the top-six clubs.’
Rowett’s task begins tomorrow against Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds, a startling example of the status the Championship carries.
‘Pep Guardiola calls Bielsa the best coach in the world,’ adds Rowett. ‘It shows the magnitude of the division and how the Premier League cash seeps down. Teams that are desperate to get there go that extra yard.
‘There are a lot of other clubs that will feel they have an opportunity to get promotion. It is probably the most open Championship race there has been.’