FM15: Stoke - funded by adverts with Ray Winstons floating head

The Brief Introduction

One of footballs oldest clubs, and the second oldest professional club in England don't have an awful lot to show for their longevity in the game. Stoke have been a club that seems to have suffered from a variety of circumstances, the second world war saw Stoke and football miss out on what in theory should have been Sir Stanley Matthews best years as a winger (from around 23/24 to 29/30) and the team that looked like it may have been capable of winning something never had the chance. Nothing of particular note really happened during the following years until at the age of 46 Sir Stanley Matthews was re-signed by Stoke. It began another assault on the top of the old division one for Stoke, they got promoted with the oldest team in the football league with then manager tony Waddington favouring experienced players as well as bringing through the clubs younger players and trying to sign creative players. Come the start of the 70's Stoke were progressing well and in both the 70/71 and 71/72 season Stoke were left bemoaning the fact they had been brutalised on the pitch by Arsenal in FA cup semi-finals each season with many complaining the referee wasn't protecting the players... how times change.

Winning the league cup in 1972 turned out to be the peak when it looked like it was just the beginning. Gordon Banks was involved in a car crash and lost sight in one eye, it ended his professional career. In the 73/74 season Stoke were top of the league with 4 games to go, Peter Shilton had been signed as the hopefully longer term replacement for Banks but the team weren't able to see the title race out and finished 4th. In 1976 the roof blew off one of the stands and Stoke, uninsured, were left with an enormous repair bill. The only way to fund it was to sell off the star players, while the club got relegated and manager Waddington left after 17 years a bleak period once more loomed for Stoke. They briefly returned to the top flight, but for a number of years after this there was nothing major for Stoke.

More Recently

It was around the year 2000 when Stoke were bought by an Icelandic consortium who aimed to get the side to the premier league within 5 years. They threw a lot of money at the club, but it was to secure primarily Icelandic talent. After this initially did not work they looked towards the continent. Stoke were still able to get promoted back to the championship but the owners had underestimated the amount of money it would take to get a side like Stoke to the premier league. A number of directors fell out with one another, and this meant the funding provided to the club was minimal. Financial worries were beginning to grow as the clubs debts got larger and there were seemingly no real prospects of promotion.

In 2006 the previous chairman Peter Coates bought back the club, in his first stint as chairman he had been involved in football ground catering companies so while he was well off - he was never well off enough to fund what Stoke needed on his own. Many fans were hesitant at first, remembering the chairman who sold so many of our best players. Starting the season with few players (and fewer still who were at the standard needed for the Championship) Stoke were favourites to go down. Our record signing Sambegou Bangoura had gone AWOL and had not been seen since the previous season. The club terminated his contract and with Tony Pulis back at the helm new players were coming in, mostly on loan.

During the 06/07 and 07/08 seasons Stoke probably made better use of the loan system than anyone else had previously or since. There was something of an intelligent plan behind it all, loan fees were less than transfer fees and as soon as the club got promoted they had the option of taking the players permanently or letting their loans expire. Patrick Berger, Shola Ameobi and various others went back to their clubs. Ryan Shawcross, Leon Cort, Liam Lawrence, Salif Diao, Rory Delap and such were kept on. It upset a few clubs who felt there were agreements to buy the players if we got promoted, but nothing major came from that.

Even with the additional income of premier league revenue it still showed just how much Peter Coates now had to give. Over the following seasons Stoke spent quite a lot of money, in part due to the management style Tony Pulis has. Pulis has shown he is an excellent manager, but his style has always been of quite high turnover except for his stalwart players. Whereas in years gone by previously players would sign 1 or 2 year contracts, once you get to the top flight players expect 3, 4 or even 5 year contracts when they sign. This meant the players who didn't work out were stuck on the clubs books for a number of years, eating into the wage budget. Pulis became a victim of his own success in some ways as with the impending implementation of FFP it was realised ultimately the Bet365 group wouldn't be allowed to cover losses of £20m-£30m a season and so the club were going to have to change direction.

Now Stoke are more conservative with transfer fees, despite some like Martin Samuel openly claiming at the time Stoke had paid £8m for Stephen Ireland from Villa, when he had just 6 months left on his contract these were not true. Bojan was signed for less than a million (but with a hefty sell on clause) its showing that Mark Hughes has embraced the new values the club has had to adopt in the face of FFP.

Taking Over

When you take over the club has a transfer budget of £4m and £30,000 p/w available in wages (from a budget of £900,000 p/w). This will give you room to maneuver to get a second player in on loan, or to purchase a squad player which is roughly in line with what Stoke were trying to achieve towards the end of January. The club has quite a substantial amount of debt around its neck with £57m owed to the chairman but its only to be repaid upon his departure. If the club lives sensibly over the next couple of years then that won't be much of an issue, so sensible spending is the first order unless you can find other means to dramatically increase revenue into the club.

One other potential problem is the fact Stoke no longer own their stadium. At present its owned by Stoke Holdings - who in turn own Stoke City. The club currently pays around £4m per year in rent to Stoke Holdings for the ground/facilities. Once the club does have some money you may want to pressure the chairman into letting the club buy the stadium back so that the ground can be expanded.

The club is expected to finish midtable so anywhere between 8th - 14th will be viewed as a reasonable season. The club doesn't have any philosophies for you to follow, but the chairman favours youth development and so club funds may get funneled in that direction. A lot of players will be quite disappointed if during your teem meeting you aim for a "respectable" position as too ambitious, but if you aim for mid-table first then revise up to respectable the majority are happy with this.

The club has Daniel Bachmann (GK) and Dominic Kurasik (GK) with decent potential in the U21's. Stoke are already well supplied for goalkeepers however, and neither are close to first team ready. Beyond this there isn't really anyone else who could really make the step up to a first team role.

In the U18's there is Julien Ngoy (ST) and Oliver Shenton (CM), both 16 Ngoy is a lightning fast striker while Shenton is a capable player who could be moulded into a similar role to Whelan.

Beyond this though there are no prospects who look capable of making the step up, you'll either need to recruit from elsewhere or hope investment in the youth facilities pays off.

The Current Senior Squad

Key Players

Who to Sell?

Who to Buy?

How to play?