Friday, March 29, 2024

Stoke players should show some respect to Pulis

Tony Pulis

Tony Pulis

One of the most surprising stories over the past week has been the growing rumour of unrest within the Stoke dressing room.

Avalanche

Tony Pulis guided Stoke to promotion in the 2007-08 season and then led them to a mid-table finish against all the odds in the 2008-09 Premier League season. Amidst a media and expert avalanche of opinion that Stoke would struggle this year and suffer from ‘second season syndrome’, he has again taken them to the safety of mid-table.

This performance is way beyond anything that the board, the players, the fans and even Pulis himself can have expected in their wildest dreams.

Desire

To an outsider, the success Stoke have had seems to be built on a huge desire to win and a team spirit that portrays an ‘all for one and one for all’ attitude.

The first time this image was slightly tarnished was back in December 2008 when the then captain Andy Griffin and striker Ricardo Fuller fell out on the pitch in a game at West Ham.

Back in December last year there were reports of a fall-out between Pulis and striker James Beattie in the changing room at the Emirates in a row over the players’ Christmas party.

Bust-up

Lat week reports came out of a dressing room bust-up between captain Abdoulaye Faye and Glenn Whelan during Stokes 7-0 defeat at Chelsea.

Also, in recent games, strikers Tuncay and Dave Kitson have both angrily walked straight down the players tunnel after being substituted.

Pulis is angry that he appears to have a leak from within the camp.

“We have no evidence who it is. We are desperately disappointed. It is one or two precious people who have had things not go their way who have decided they want to do certain things. It is up to them but it has no place in our dressing room. You don’t do that if you have bad spirit in the dressing room and people are not pulling together. Glenn and Aby are really disappointed the story came out. Once it was over, it was over and you just move on. Everything that happens in the dressing room should stay in the dressing room and unfortunately it hasn’t. The players have been desperately disappointed. There are some good characters in the dressing room and I believe one or two will have sorted that out.”

The rumours of unrest at the club and suggestions that Pulis has ‘lost the dressing room’ won’t go away, but it all seems so silly.

Pulis was understanding in relation to Tuncay’s attitude to being substituted but had some strong words about Kitson.

“Tunny is an exception in some respects because he comes from a different culture and has a different way of being brought up. For British players to act like that, they know what the score is and if anyone has a gripe I’ve got a manager’s room and they can knock on my door and have a chat. We’ve had a good meeting on Monday and it has been dealt with. That is what we used to do when we were players; none of us were happy being brought off but we never threw our hands up in the air and tried to curry favour with supporters. We used to get on with it and go and see the manager on a Monday face-to-face. For me it is petulant, precious people. They have to realise it is not about them, it is about the club. They don’t let themselves down, they let the team down, the supporters down and the football club down.”

That’s him told then!

I don’t know if there is any truth in the rumours or if the media are putting two and two together and making five, but if there is dressing room unrest the players have surely got to take a good long at themselves. Tony Pulis has achieved miracles at the club and if he is being treated with disdain and a lack of respect then the players are totally out of order.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Graham Fisher


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