Darren Fletcher has been put off going into management by some of the abuse Baggies boss Tony Pulis receives.
Advertisement
― Reuters picLONDON, Sept 23 ― West Bromwich Albion’s Tony Pulis reached for one of the oldest cliches in the book as he looked forward to his 1,000th match in management and a return to his former club Stoke City tomorrow.
“He is a positive player, he likes to get the ball at his feet and move forward, and I like that trait in attacking players”.
Mark Hughes has strongly defended his record as Stoke City manager and insisted he has total faith in the players’ ability to climb the table, with the Welshman dismissing reports of dressing-room unrest after a poor start to the season and claiming there are no parallels to be drawn with his dismal experience at Queens Park Rangers.
Stoke’s last five Premier League goals have all come in the second half of games, including all three this season.
The 58-year-old will be the 25th manager in English football’s modern era to reach 1,000 competitive matches, joining a group that includes Matt Busby, Brian Clough, Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, Bobby Robson, Graham Taylor and Roy Hodgson.
“He is still going to have times where he will have to take a step back, watch and learn from the Premier League because it is hard to come here, at such a young age, and make an immediate impact”, he added.
“I think I have proved in my time here that I can take the club in the direction that we all want to be”. Now it’s just the next game for me.
Meanwhile, Pulis confirmed that neither Marouane Chamakh nor Momo Sissoko will be signing for the club.
Wilfried Bony has yet to solve Stoke City’s goalscoring problems since arriving on loan from Manchester City on transfer deadline day.
“To say we are questioning his attitude is totally wrong”.
Advertisement
But Hughes pointed out on Friday that beating Albion would give Stoke one more point than they had after six games last term.
