MICHAEL WINNER
Stoke shed losing mentality with O’Neill
MICHAEL O’NEILL admits he is no DIY expert, but he has successfully removed the revolving door to the Stoke manager’s office.
As O’Neill approaches one year in charge at the bet365 Stadium, he has already outlasted his predecessors Nathan Jones, Gary Rowett and Paul Lambert.
He has succeeded where they failed in stabilising Stoke and the Potters are looking up rather than down for the first time in three years. They are sitting in mid-table ahead of today’s clash with Luton and former Stoke boss Jones.
They are through to the Carabao Cup quarter-finals and have kept six clean sheets eets from their eight games. O’Neill ll has had to change much at Stoke, e, starting with the club’s mindset.
He said: “When you come out of the Premier League, and nd you’ve been in it for 10 years like ike Stoke were, there’s always the thinking, ‘ We’re a Premier League club’.
“But we’re in our third hird season in the Championship ship so what we have to do o is become a very good od Championship club and d then aspire to become a Premier League club b again.
“First of all you need d the stability of being a really good Championship club ub and that’s what we’re aiming to do.”
O’Neill, 51, is succeeding eding despite the mess he inherited erited as Stoke’s squad was bloated and demoralised because of a succession of bad buys.
He has sanctioned the exits of expensive flops like Giannelli Imbula, Benik Afobe, Badou Ndiaye, Peter Etebo and rebuilt the team around young players, many of whom were on the margins when he arrived.
He has done this on a relative shoestring and his two buys, Jacob Brown and Jordan Thompson, cost a fraction of the transfer fees Stoke used to shell out.
Welshman Adam Davies has successfully replaced Jack Butland as No.1 and the unified dressing room has a British and Irish heart, not seen since Tony Pulis’ days, with experienced players such as Sam Clucas, James McClean and Lee Gregory (all below) featuring.
“We inherited a very big squad,” said former Northern Ireland boss O’Neill. “There were quite a number of disgruntled g p players y who had come to the club and perhaps it had not worked out how they had hoped.
“We have five players out on loan and possibly more to go. It’s been a case of trying to get a group who were together, and focus on trying to change the league position of the club.
“We also want to put some value back into the squad as opposed to the money that was spent on the team without improving it.”
O’Neill is focused on leading Stoke’s return to the top flight and had no regrets as he watched Northern Ireland beat Bosnia to book a Euro play-off final against Slovakia next month.
“When I stepped away, I knew it was the right time for me,” he said. “I had to get my teeth into the challenge of Stoke. I’m lucky I’ve got really good owners, who have a real desire to get the club back to the Premier League.” g