PotterLog

I honestly can’t believe he’s apparently survived this. We appointed him out of desperation towards the end of last season as a sort of temporary cheerleader and somehow he blagged our impressionable idiot chairman into handing him the reins to the club permanently, despite having precisely zero experience in managing, coaching, HR, scouting or recruitment. He then made a massive call in sacking a reasonably popular manager who was performing ok to install a coach from Norwich nobody had heard of - and when this went predictably catastrophically wrong, he’s somehow *still* being entrusted to find and line-manage our next soon-to-be failed head coach. It’s unbelievable and just another symptom of the incompetent culture of shit John Coates has presided over.

Thought I might pop on to add some insider wisdom about the situation at Stoke but it’s pretty much all been said in the last ten or so posts. You’re all exactly right. Talk about making a sow's ear out of a silk purse

4-0 Stoke. Phillips, Moran, Ennis and Gally (shock sub appearance in wheelchair) with the goals. 😉👻

Yeah well there’s also the small matter that Pompey were absolutely dreadful. But still, a positive start and I think him and Cannon could form a really dynamic partnership. God knows we need it

He really pulled the defenders about and made space for others (Cannon). Remains to be seen if he can keep the fitness and consistency but tonight was a bloody pleasant surprise after reading you lot on here 😂 Some fans are giving him MotM - in a game where someone else scored four

Absolutely bostin full debut for the big man. Scored with a smart near-post finish (wrongly given offside), played a beautiful weighted ball to assist our 2nd then scored for real with an unstoppable thunderbastard from 25 yards. Generally made good runs, good passes, was a right nuisance and a brilliant foil for four-goal super striker Tom Cannon. On that performance he is exactly what we need. Moran played well and scored too.

Don’t remind me 🤦🏼‍♂️ On BBD, surprised to see people saying he’s made bad career moves. The lad’s just secured a three-year contract with a Premier League club, off the back of scoring something like seven in 14 for one of the worst teams the PL has ever seen (whose fans idolised him while he was there). I fail to see how that’s remotely in line with his career going down the drain. Granted it’s not started great with Saints but he’ll be handy for them in the Champo next season 🙂 To deploy a cliche I think he’s probably found his level. Can be a monster in the Champ, and a useful option in the Prem but a bit too one-dimensional to start regularly for a team with any aspirations. I can see him bouncing along at them kind of teams for most of his career. Which will in no way be a failure or a fizzling out afaic

Gally immediately injured so not seen him Moran looks really promising, I know he drifted for you lot but I think he’s a talent. Started today and did well, some good through balls I was being slightly facetious about playing Phillips at RB. He’s played 2 games at CH and looks the business. Incredibly composed for his age Ennis I quite like despite him not really being up to the level. He has his uses, today being the perfect example - coming on to stretch defenders and hold it up. He won’t start many. overall I’d say Moran is the one you might have been potentially most “wrong” about. He may have just been a victim of circumstance with you. Did Baker do anything of note when he came on today?

played great (at CB) in the cup the other day

See above.. he's alright. Not a massive amount to shout about but I hope he does well

Pros: tidy on the ball, intelligent, well-timed runs, cracking long-range shot and good set pieces Cons: unimposing, a bit one-paced, prone to drifting out of games or jogging through them, attitude sometimes questionable His time had run with us especially under our new manager so he'll not really be missed. But a new start might help him and he'll probably fit your team better than ours. Definitely a good footballer in there.

One of my favourite ever Stoke midfielders 🤩 ..and Lewis Baker

Surplus to requirements, Schumacher has never fancied him really, doesn't fit his high-intensity style of play. He has good touch and showed a lot of promise as a youngster but at this stage of his career he's a bog-standard plodder and really won't be missed. He will score you the odd banger though.

Got crocked in his first friendly, back in October in theory

We’ve Been through this, Stoke and Vale don’t mix

To be brutally frank about it, he provides that, and not a great deal else. He's a skillful player but in a way not very suited to the modern game. Doesn't press well, doesn't offer much presence and too often the game passes him by. Does provide a goal threat though and that's not to be sniffed at. Put it this way I'll be very disappointed if Moran isn't an upgrade for us 😃 (which he certainly was in the cup the other night)

I think kiddies get a lot of slack while still developing. Circumstances like the ones you mention can chew up a young player. Hopefully we'll use him sensibly and he can come along. We certainly don't play Pulis-esque full-backs any more! They do outrageous things like cross the halfway line every now and again now, it'll never do

Cheers. I'm just struggling a bit to believe we've brought in a teenager as a first-choice centre-half, although you probably couldn't hand-pick a better mentor than Ben Gibson alongside him so hopefully that's the plan. Gally is out for the foreseeable future, by the way. 8 weeks minimum I think is the prognosis. Stupid fuckin signing 🙄

Can he play right back? It's probably where he's going to get shoved

Ours is a bit better, maybe more like a baboon in a monsoon

Apart from that they're sound though right

We'll be orate. We have a decent manager and players who appear to be invested.. the three from you will feature in the first team to varying degrees. We won't do anything spectacular but I fully expect us to have our best season yet back in the Champo (very low bar)

Appreciate the sympathy 🙂 Ennis just came from doing well at Plymouth under our gaffer, crappy stopgap signing. Moran is talented and highly-rated but still young so can understand him going missing a bit.. I think gets a bit of leeway. Gally, meh, we'll see but we've left our squad #9 free so ideally we'll be signing another first-choice forward.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C-vQ2LXKwLf/?igsh=MWZtZHNid2swd2Nkdw==

can add Paul Warhurst’s dad to my list an all then, he had a loan with us