Stoke

[Big Daddy Cool]

If you're going to bang on about a long term project then fans have to see something early on that gives you confidence that the club is going in the right direction.

Jones record so far is really poor and nothing suggest he is the man to take Stoke forward.

He just screams lower league manager to me.

[SW4Baggie]

3 wins in 20 for Nathan Jones. He must be under some pressure PK?

P.s. The ground looks good with the corner gaps now filled in.

If he's not under pressure from the board, he massively is from the fans now. We all know this is meant to be a longterm project. Problem is that we've now had nothing but shit for three and a half years, so patience isn't something in large supply at the moment.

The fabled Jones diamond needs specialist wingbacks with lungs of steel. He's tried to convert McClean on one side, who as with everything he does, fulfills half of those attributes, and has replaced fans favourite Tom Edwards on the other side with the inferior Tommy Smith. So we now have too ineffective players filling the most important roles in the team.

So we spent 70 minutes flayling around hopelessly with an attack consisting of Afobe resembling a bag of cement alongside our 'ox' in the box, Vokes. We then replaced them, ditched the diamond, brought Ince on, played with two conventional wingers, and voila, we spent 20 minutes battering them and looking miles better.

There was also a blatant handball which should have provided us with a penalty in extra time. No one ever uses that as an excuse anymore though as we're as threatening from a penalty as we are from a goalkick.

Looking at your squad DK I’m really not sure how you’ve managed to spend quite so much money, and still end up with such an unbalanced side made up of ageing journeymen and lacking pace and invention.

You look to have assembled a squad of big, burley units who can muscle and huff and puff but not a lot else.

Your wage bill must be giving the Coates children sleepless nights too... quite how you still have Imbula, Wimmer, N’Daiye, Berahino, Martins Indi, Diouf, Bauer and Bojan kicking around I’m not sure!

[Dreamkiller]

If you're going to bang on about a long term project then fans have to see something early on that gives you confidence that the club is going in the right direction.

Jones record so far is really poor and nothing suggest he is the man to take Stoke forward.

He just screams lower league manager to me.

It's hard to disagree with that. The problem is that the club has so many issues - just too many to go into without me getting banned for boring you all with, so it's difficult to contemplate just how difficult all the previous mistakes are to rectify.

He may well be just a lower league manager, but that doesn't mean he can't adapt. Too often in football management now, people get chucked onto the scrapheap for making a mistake, rather than being allowed to actually learn from the mistake. 

There were definite signs of green shoots towards the end of last season, and when all is said and done, this was still only the first game of the season. 

I won't write the guy off yet, and after sacking three managers and backroom teams in the past year and a half, our club can't really afford in FFP terms to do it again, bearing in mind we had to compensate Derby and Luton to appoint their management teams as well.

The worry is that supporter pressure will get to the players to the point where the manager won't be able to do anything to prevent a slide that leads us to dumping a potentially good manager. We're in vicious circle territory here.

[Cunninghamismagic]

3 wins in 20 for Nathan Jones. He must be under some pressure PK?

P.s. The ground looks good with the corner gaps now filled in.

Ground looked empty from the highlights.

24k so not bad

[Wotty]

As long as it’s the right kind of football that’s all that matters.

Derek, you were on here not so long ago criticising the unnecessary name calling. You had a point and yet you practically beg people to call you a bell end with this belle endish comment you keep rolling out ffs

[hudds]

3 wins in 20 for Nathan Jones. He must be under some pressure PK?

P.s. The ground looks good with the corner gaps now filled in.

Ground looked empty from the highlights.

24k so not bad

Never 24k there.  More empty seats than occupied.

[Derek Hardballs]

As long as it’s the right kind of football that’s all that matters.

Derek, you were on here not so long ago criticising the unnecessary name calling. You had a point and yet you practically beg people to call you a bell end with this belle endish comment you keep rolling out ffs

Football is and always will be about getting as many points as possible. Trends come and go but this doesn’t change. Individuals may put aesthetics above this but clubs won’t if performances don’t translate into pts

[Big Daddy Cool]

If you're going to bang on about a long term project then fans have to see something early on that gives you confidence that the club is going in the right direction.

Jones record so far is really poor and nothing suggest he is the man to take Stoke forward.

He just screams lower league manager to me.

It's hard to disagree with that. The problem is that the club has so many issues - just too many to go into without me getting banned for boring you all with, so it's difficult to contemplate just how difficult all the previous mistakes are to rectify.

He may well be just a lower league manager, but that doesn't mean he can't adapt. Too often in football management now, people get chucked onto the scrapheap for making a mistake, rather than being allowed to actually learn from the mistake. 

There were definite signs of green shoots towards the end of last season, and when all is said and done, this was still only the first game of the season. 

I won't write the guy off yet, and after sacking three managers and backroom teams in the past year and a half, our club can't really afford in FFP terms to do it again, bearing in mind we had to compensate Derby and Luton to appoint their management teams as well.

The worry is that supporter pressure will get to the players to the point where the manager won't be able to do anything to prevent a slide that leads us to dumping a potentially good manager. We're in vicious circle territory here.

Yeah I can understand that. 

Rowett looked a decent appointment and had a good record in the Championship so I have to think if he couldn't get a tune out the players then there was something wrong somewhere. Therefore you probably have to give the next man a bit of time for a club that was on a downward spiral. Jones probably deserves a bit of patience right now but we all know you don't get that time in football. We all want results now.

[Dreamkiller]

3 wins in 20 for Nathan Jones. He must be under some pressure PK?

P.s. The ground looks good with the corner gaps now filled in.

If he's not under pressure from the board, he massively is from the fans now. We all know this is meant to be a longterm project. Problem is that we've now had nothing but shit for three and a half years, so patience isn't something in large supply at the moment.

The fabled Jones diamond needs specialist wingbacks with lungs of steel. He's tried to convert McClean on one side, who as with everything he does, fulfills half of those attributes, and has replaced fans favourite Tom Edwards on the other side with the inferior Tommy Smith. So we now have too ineffective players filling the most important roles in the team.

So we spent 70 minutes flayling around hopelessly with an attack consisting of Afobe resembling a bag of cement alongside our 'ox' in the box, Vokes. We then replaced them, ditched the diamond, brought Ince on, played with two conventional wingers, and voila, we spent 20 minutes battering them and looking miles better.

There was also a blatant handball which should have provided us with a penalty in extra time. No one ever uses that as an excuse anymore though as we're as threatening from a penalty as we are from a goalkick.

Looking at your squad DK I’m really not sure how you’ve managed to spend quite so much money, and still end up with such an unbalanced side made up of ageing journeymen and lacking pace and invention.

You look to have assembled a squad of big, burley units who can muscle and huff and puff but not a lot else.

Your wage bill must be giving the Coates children sleepless nights too... quite how you still have Imbula, Wimmer, N’Daiye, Berahino, Martins Indi, Diouf, Bauer and Bojan kicking around I’m not sure!

Why are we unbalanced? Joe feckin' Allen.

Big burley units? Yep. Muscle? Ha. My little 'un could bully 'em.

The money spent? Those first 4 names cost us around £53m. Many other wastes of money are available to view in our squad, but at least they get the odd game.

Disaster is just too lame a word in footballing terms.

On the attendance, I hadn't actually seen the figure, but August in particular always gives massively inaccurate figures because so many season ticket holders (who are counted as being there) are away on holiday. There are four of us who usually go. Two of them were missing yesterday for that reason. Our guess was 20k actually there.

[KratosBaggie]

As long as it’s the right kind of football that’s all that matters.

Derek, you were on here not so long ago criticising the unnecessary name calling. You had a point and yet you practically beg people to call you a bell end with this belle endish comment you keep rolling out ffs

Football is and always will be about getting as many points as possible. Trends come and go but this doesn’t change. Individuals may put aesthetics above this but clubs won’t if performances don’t translate into pts

What about cups where no points are on offer?