It has certainly been a week of ups and downs for Stoke City and their supporters. A fantastic FA Cup win at Sunderland was followed by the news that top scorer Tom Cannon had been recalled by parent club Leicester City.
We’ll come on to that in a minute, but the positive news from the bet365 Stadium was that Ryan Shawcross has stepped up from the under-21s to become a first-team coach. Ryan, as we know, is a club legend and I’m going to make a prediction here – he will be Stoke City manager one day.
He’s had a couple of spells as interim boss after hanging up his boots and is currently embarking on his coaching journey. Ryan predominantly grew up under Tony Pulis’ management and he knows the club inside out. His latest elevation is just the latest step as a coach. Will he be able to work his way through the ranks at Stoke? I think so, yes.
Some people might have to go to another club to be a number one first before coming back, but I see Ryan just working his way through the coaching structure before eventually becoming the main man. I’m sure that is the number one ambition circled in his notebook.
Coaching is different these days. Back in my playing days we’d have a manager and not much else, but now there’s support staff all over the place. And that’s before you take into consideration a director of football or sporting director as we have with Jon Walters. But Ryan is on a positive path and no doubt he will learn plenty from working with the likes of Mark Robins, who is vastly experienced.
Robins has his own things to work out after seeing Cannon recalled by Leicester. He would have been on a high after seeing his side beat Sunderland after extra-time in the cup last weekend. And with a home draw against Cardiff in the next round the reward, Stoke couldn’t have asked for a much better outcome. But Mark will now be looking at how he replaces the 11 goals Cannon scored during the first half of the season. It’s not an easy situation to navigate.
Stoke have brought back youngster Nathan Lowe from his temporary spell at Walsall early and he had one hell of an impact. Lowe scored 18 goals in all competitions to help Walsall move well clear at the top of League Two. He’s already had a bit of a taste of Championship football, but is the jump up going to cause him any issues? Well, he knows where the back of the net is and is brimming with confidence, so the signs are good. As they say, if you’re good enough, you’re old enough, so I can see Robins throwing him straight in against West Brom today.
There might have to be a slight switch in Stoke’s approach because Cannon liked to run in behind. And when Sam Gallagher was fit, he was good at linking play – they were a good pair. However, without those two it might need a few tweaks here and there.
Loans are always a tough thing to sort out. Stoke have banked on a player who is not theirs to be the main goal scorer, so it is fraught with danger because they can be recalled. But the Potters have done the same with Lowe in terms of sending him out, so hopefully that will stand him in good stead.
Robins will no doubt look to strengthen before the window shuts, but this is a chance for the likes of Lowe and other Academy players to stake their claim. You want competition for places and Robins would love a selection headache of the right variety.
Stoke head into today’s game fresh from that cup win at Sunderland. I still find the whole approach to cup games pretty odd. Stoke went strong at Sunderland, but most Premier League teams fielded fringe sides. And we now see some Championship sides doing it. Staying in the Premier League or trying to reach it is the be all and end all for clubs.
For me, you should be wanting to win every game with your best available side. It’s sad that some clubs are not respecting the tradition of the FA Cup – but credit to Stoke, they took it seriously and got their rewards. Hopefully there will be more rewards with a three-point haul at West Brom this afternoon.
Discussion about this post