ON THE CLIMB!
WEEKEND VICTORIES SEE STOKE AND VALE RISE UP THE TABLE:
MICHAEL O’neill is looking to the long term and building the kind of hungry and hard team he believes fans expect from Stoke City.
O’neill - fresh from seeing off his predecessor Nathan Jones with a 2-0 Championship win at Luton Town, as well as signing off his first major transfer window in charge - has a chance to reflect on the bigger picture as he approaches the first anniversary of his appointment at the bet365 Stadium.
And he is confident that his vision for the club is coming together.
He said: “Yeah I think it is – slowly, because we haven’t been able to possibly change the personnel as much as we’d have liked because of the contractual situation of players at the club.
“But I think the players we’ve brought in have all been positives, both in the previous window and this window.
“We’re realigning the club a little bit, financially as well, so there’s that aspect to deal with as well.
“We want a hungry team, a team that is reflective of what Stoke stand for, I think, when the club was successful.
“What we’ve managed to do is get some of the younger players around as well, players who couldn’t get near it because of the bodies that we had and the signings we made.
“It’s taking shape. It’s still a long way from where I would like it to be, but I think we’re going in the right direction.”
O’neill, having inherited increasing pressures of Financial Fair Play, has spent under £3m to bring in eight players since taking charge in November 2019, compared to the £16m spent in 10 months by Jones and the best part of £50m by Gary Rowett.
There has been one free transfer, one loan and four free agents – one of whom, Steven Fletcher, was key to the win at Kenilworth Road.
It was Fletcher who scored the opener as Stoke surged in front at the start of the second half.
“His link up play outside the box was extremely good as well,” added O’neill.
“The reality of the situation is that if Steven Fletcher was 27 we probably would have had to pay 10 million quid for him. That’s the reality of the situation. We’re not in a position to do that at this minute in time.
“We’ve spent very little money and we’ve been very careful with our recruitment that we bring the right type of player in and also the right type of character.
“I think we’ve got a strong dressing room at the minute, a good dressing room and Steven is a bit part of that alongside John Obi (Mikel) and James Chester.
“Just bringing the right type of character into the club is a big positive as well.”
The average age of the starting XI (26.8), however, was younger than any league side fielded by Jones or Rowett.
O’neill said: “We knew what we were getting (with Fletcher). We were looking at players that we felt still had miles in the tank and that’s certainly the case. I think John as well has proven to be a good signing and I still think we’ll get more as the season comes with John as well.
“The other thing is that we’ve got young players around them. The balance is nice.”
Angus Gunn will train with Stoke for the first time today having arrived late on deadline day as a replacement for Crystal Palacebound Jack Butland.