Stoke must back their manager
GIVEN what happened in the Potteries on Saturday, the verbal volley aimed at Marko Arnautovic by Mark Hughes as the player left the field was perhaps the least surprising moment of all.
Arnautovic quit Stoke for West Ham in the summer for a greater profile and, of course, more money.
West Ham full back Pablo Zabaleta is another player introduced to English football by Hughes. He signed him for Manchester City. But when the Stoke manager tried to bring in the Argentine on a free transfer in the summer, he was comfortably outmuscled by an offer from east London of £100,000 a week. that is £35,000 a week more than Stoke’s highest earner, Xherdan Shaqiri.
these are the restrictions within which Hughes works at Stoke. It frustrates him because he feels he has the ability and experience to be punching with considerably greater weight.
the 54-year-old has been successful in his four and a half years at Stoke, but any manager will come under pressure when progress stalls. that is exactly where he finds himself at the moment.
Hughes has two things in his favour as he looks ahead to pivotal games at home to West Brom and at Huddersfield. the first is his track record and the second is a sensible chairman who knows what it is like to get it in the neck from Stoke fans. this is Peter Coates’s second period in charge at the club. the first — in the days before he had built his remarkable Bet365 empire — ended not long after fans stormed the directors’ box after a 7-0 home defeat by Birmingham in January 1998.
Coates has enough about him not to panic now. this is why the message from the boardroom last week was wholly supportive. Coates also knows that his club’s natural rivals in the Premier League are not West Ham but Swansea, West Brom and Crystal Palace.
So, that is the argument when viewed from a perspective of logic. What Hughes must do now is find a way to settle the emotional side of it, too.
He knows he has to get more out of highprofile signings such as Saido Berahino and the gifted but inconsistent Shaqiri. He knows his team must be better when they fall behind in games.
In football, if you aren’t moving forwards then you are essentially going backwards. Hughes must dig deep to rediscover some forward momentum and do so fast.