Hughes given two games to save Stoke job
Burnley and West Ham fixtures vital to future Supporters’ anger has to motivate us, says coach
Mark Hughes is facing two potentially crucial games as he fights for his future at Stoke City. Hughes takes on Burnley tonight with his position fragile after a torrid 18 months which have left him under growing pressure from supporters.
Stoke have lost three of their past four Premier League games and Hughes and his players were confronted by angry fans at Euston train station on Saturday night, hours after the 5-1 capitulation against Tottenham Hotspur.
It is understood Hughes’s job will be safe, even if his team lose at Turf Moor, but this weekend’s game against West Ham could be pivotal to his hopes of staying in charge. Peter Coates, the chairman, is eager to stay loyal to Hughes – who guided Stoke to three successive ninth-placed finishes – but results and performances are becoming a huge concern for the club’s board.
Hughes has challenged his players to use Saturday’s heated confrontation with fans as inspiration as they head into a big week.
“That is still resonating and it’s good we have a game tomorrow because it is still fresh in the mind, fresh in their ears probably, [we can] use it as a motivating factor,” he said. “Don’t allow people to have an opportunity to question you. You do that by getting results.
“There could be individuals in our group who haven’t experienced it, but they have now. You either suck it up and do something about it or you go under, and we can’t accept players like that. I don’t feel we have players like that.”
Stoke’s problems arguably stretch back to their collapse in form at the end of last season – losing six of their final 10 games – though some observers insist the team have never recovered from their League Cup semi-final defeat by Liverpool in January 2016.
Hughes was given the summer to repair the squad, selling Marko Arnautovic to West Ham for £24million. Stoke focused on the defence – spending £25 million on Kevin Wimmer and Bruno Martins Indi, while also signing Kurt Zouma on loan from Chelsea.
However, Stoke have conceded 35 goals in the league, and a staggering 59 in 2017, and their defence appears slow and unbalanced. The experiment with a back three has yet to produce an impact, while the selection of rookie defender Tom Edwards for tough games at Manchester City and Spurs surprised insiders at the Bet365 Stadium.
“There’s been an undercurrent since I’ve been here,” Hughes said. “On the day I was appointed there was a car outside the stadium with ‘Hughes out’ written on it. That was before I even got here. Some people won’t like you or your teams. Some don’t like your hair or the way you speak. You can’t take exception to it, I’m the public face of the team so I have to take the brunt of it, I accept that to a certain extent.”
Coates and his son John, the vicechairman, plus chief executive Tony Scholes, will make the decision on whether Hughes is given more time to mount a revival.
But the games against Burnley and West Ham appear vital for the Welshman as he seeks to extend his tenure in the Potteries.