Trust in O'Neill to put Potters on the charge

STOKE City’s primary contribution to the Championship in recent seasons has been to prove that parachute payments aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.

- Chris Dunlavy

Defeat. Humiliation. Proven managers reduced to helpless inadequacy and high-class players transformed into quivering wrecks.

Since relegation from the Premier League in 2018, the Potters have occupied an average position of 19th place in the second tier.

And this despite possessing players like Joe Allen, a semi-finalist at Euro 2016, Jack Butland, a goalkeeper with nine caps for England, and an international cast to rival the Eurovision song contest.

Why such a talented squad was so fragile is a question nobody has adequately answered, though a fractured dressing room certainly played its part.

Rumours of ructions and bad apples are overblown in football, but when members of the inner sanctum air their fury in public, it is fair to assume that the smoke is fed by a roaring blaze.

Attitude

Glen Johnson, who retired following the club’s relegation from the Premier League in 2018, told the BBC that the attitude of some players made him feel like quitting the game.