Plucked from smaller, less fashionable southern clubs and thrown into cauldrons of expectation in the Midlands, Dean Smith and Nathan Jones face unenviable tasks in trying to restore their respective clubs to former glories. The appointments of Dean Smith and Nathan Jones at Aston Villa and Stoke City may signify a broader trend for football … Continue reading Smith and Jones: The Waiting Game
Please forgive me if this fails to do the man justice, as it inevitably will. It is a black morning for English football. We have lost a giant. Not only did one of the game's greatest players leave us, we also lost a kind, gentle, humble and thoroughly decent man. A greater ambassador for Stoke … Continue reading Gordon Banks, 1937-2019
Passing backwards, that’s a booin’. Losing at half time, that’s a booin’. Losing at full time, oh you better believe that’s a booin’. A binary thought process seems to have settled over the club, there appears to absolutely no nuance to the way in which matches are viewed. Passing forwards, winning matches – good; passing … Continue reading Stop. F*****g. Booing.
I recently dissolved my personal Twitter account. There were plenty of reasons for this, but a lot of it boiled down to just going weary of outrage, fake news, and outrage about fake news. It can be a cesspit, and while I did my best to cultivate a timeline that was generally made up of … Continue reading All football fans play the victim
"Act as if ye have faith, and faith shall be given to you. To put it another way, fake it till you make it." - Leo McGarry, The West Wing As our new manager might well attest, a lot of life is spent believing in things despite a lack of tangible proof. That's not a dig at the religious, because even as … Continue reading Back to reality
“I think we play a brave style of football. I think the areas we ask them to play when pressured – it doesn’t matter what the opposition do to us we ask them to keep doing things that we do in training. When it’s difficult and when there’s 10,000 fans wanting you to score – … Continue reading Shine on you Crazy Diamond: Nathan Jones’ footballing philosophy and Stoke City
A Queens Park Rangers podcast today commented on how their visit to Stoke came with a soundtrack of groans and grumbles from the agitated Potters home support. Even in one of the more entertaining games to be held at the bet365 stadium this season, there wasn't much to commend the atmosphere - the groans only … Continue reading Joyless division
In this blog series, we pay tribute to the people who write about our club, whether in print or online. If you want to suggest a great Stoke writer from the world of books, journalism, fanzines, blogs or more, let us know by emailing wizardsofdrivelpodcast@gmail.com. The final season of The Oatcake has caused me to … Continue reading Great Stoke Writers: Trouserdog
“Dawn, I’m fed up” – David Brent in The Office This isn’t a blog about depression, but it does contain some talking about feelings, so you know what to do if that makes you queasy. This isn’t the inspiring story of how Stoke helped me combat mental illness. That’d be false. I don’t know if … Continue reading Feelings and football
"That's why. The dead. The body count. We don't like to admit the war was even partly our fault cos so many of our people died. And all the mourning's veiled the truth. It's not "lest we forget", it's "lest we remember". That's what all this is about - the memorials, the Cenotaph, the two … Continue reading Football’s relationship with remembrance has only caused damage to both
