Stoke City, who have just completed a tour of the Far East, have gone about reinventing themselves under the management of Mark Hughes.
Since taking over from Tony Pulis in 2013, Hughes has changed the Potters’ style of play to a less direct approach and built on the solid foundations put in place, which has seen the team carve out a place in the top-half of the league, a position they have not been in for over 30 years. While they were a hard side to play against under Pulis, the first two seasons under Hughes have seen them shake-off the tag of battlers punching above their weight in the Premier League, to become a firmly established top flight outfit.
Although he was a Pulis signing, Charlie Adam is one of the players that has come to typify the transformation of Stoke under Hughes. A midfielder of considerable talent and a sweet left foot, his potential was obvious at Rangers and at loan spells with Ross County and St Mirren. In 2006-07 he established himself in the first team at Ibrox and managed double figures from midfield, but the following season was not nearly as good for him. His early promise seemingly fizzling out, a loan move to Blackpool allowed him to revitalise his career in spectacular fashion. Under Ian Holloway, Adam became the hub of a team won promotion through the play-offs. He starred in Blackpool’s valiant Premier League effort, and with relegation interest from bigger clubs would have been no surprise.
It was Liverpool where he moved next, but changes at Anfield that took place meant his time there lasted only one season. Very often this is a test for footballers, and how they do in their next step forward is ever so important. Stoke would be Adam’s next port of call, but his first season there under Pulis did not yield much in terms of goals or highlights. Obviously a change of style under Hughes would be to his liking, as he rediscovered his scoring form for a Stoke side that finished a credible ninth, with the most points since returning to the Premier League.
Last season, however, was one of mixed fortunes for Adam, but ultimately ended triumphantly for both the player and for Stoke. With the signing of another name looking for a career relaunch in Bojan Krkic, Adam would find himself out of the starting lineup. However, he would return and hit a rich vein of form by scoring five goals in the last nine games. One of these attracted worldwide attention – a spectacular halfway effort against Chelsea in a 2-1 loss. But the impact was such that cricketer Andrew Flintoff made a memorable tweet about it. The season would then end in the best way possible with Steven Gerrard’s final Premier League game seeing Stoke humiliate Liverpool 6-1.
Watching the football and a bloke who looks like a bus driver just scored from his own half !
— andrew flintoff (@flintoff11) April 4, 2015
A squad with a mix of players including stalwart defender Ryan Shawcross, Steven N’zonzi, Erik Peters, Glenn Whelan, Marko Arnautovic, Jonathan Walters, Mame Diouf and Peter Crouch has not only repeated the previous season’s ninth place with an even higher points tally, but must now surely harbour even loftier ambitious. Stoke, however, are a club where success has been built on solid backing and prudence, certainly one of the better-run clubs in football.
[interaction id=”55b0804b8340fb0e060ea95a”]
For Charlie Adam, it is not only club success that he will be aiming to build on. Scotland are still in the mix for a Euro 2016 place in a tough group including Germany, Poland and the Republic of Ireland. Adam will hope to play a role in getting them there and is the sort of player Scotland used to produce on a pretty regular basis, but rarely do so these days, such has been the decline of the Scottish game. However, the expanded format of Euro 2016 may yet permit Scotland to qualify even if through the play-offs. Another good season for Stoke may yet be capped off with Euro 2016 qualification.
For now, however, Stoke City have used their Far East tour to raise their profile and continue to build optimism for 2015/16, which would seem completely justified.
What are your thoughts? Let us know by dropping a comment below via our Facebook comment box. Make sure you follow us on Twitter @Outside90 and like us on Facebook.
That Charlie Adam goal v Chelsea haunts my dreams.