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Stoke City – Our Best Year Ever and Best Ever Manager

December 24th, 2011 No comments

It’s Christmas Eve 2011 and Stoke City have arguably had their best ever year. It’s something that I believe to be true, especially when comparing it to what we sometimes consider being halycon days of 1972, days of The League Cup Victory, European Football and a league finishing position of 17th out of 22 clubs. Hang on a minute, 17th!!! How memory distorts the thruth! Looking at the table back then I was surprised to discover that we only had 6 home and 4 away victories! (It was 2 points for a win and 1 for a draw back then).
Brian Clough’s Derby County had won the title with 58 points, one point more than Leeds United, Liverpool and Manchester City. United finished eighth while Huddersfield Town were relegated.

The main point of difference between now and then is the money that the club generates and how it compares to others. Back in the 70’s Stoke City shared gate receipts with other clubs both home and away.
Our average home attendance was 24,204, which was ranked 19th in the pre Premier League days of Division One. Even Leicester had the 15th highest average attendance with 28,536. So If we were playing the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea and the other clubs in the league, then we would take half of the gate money from the away fixture and give them half of the cash from our home games. This meant that clubs back then had a more evenly split balance on revenue raised and money they could spend as gate receipts were the primary source of income, meaning that the league was being played from a more even starting point in terms of finance. I know that the argument about the periphery sales of food, programmes, etc could make a difference but back then, in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t a major factor.
Now in 2011 every club keeps it’s own gate money and the divide between the big and not so big clubs continues to grow. Last season we had an average gate of 26,858 which ranked 13th. highest in the Premier League. However, gate receipts are no longer the primary source of income for most clubs as television monies and off the field activities generate more money than attendances.

Whilst recognising the amount of investment that the Coates family have put into Stoke City I feel that the achievements of a F.A. Cup Final runners up place behind the richest team in the world, a final finishing position of 13th in the Premier League (and being on course to better that this season) and the achievement of a final 32 place in the Europa League put’s the managerial skills of Tony Pulis in a higher regard than those of Tony Waddington, given the difference in the landscape of football between 1972 and 2011.
This in my eyes makes Tony Pulis the best manager that Stoke City have ever had.
What do you think?

 

12 Days ‘fore Christmas