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What does the future hold for this Stoke City side?

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About four seasons ago, Stoke City rolled into Deepdale sitting pretty in the top two of the Championship for a match with relegation candidates Preston North End. It was February and with a few months of the season remaining the Potters looked well-placed for a shot at the Premiership.

This is very much a minor detail in the grand scheme of things but Preston won 2-0 on the night with a brace from diminutive midfielder Richard Chaplow. They scored both their goals in the first half and comfortably shielded their lead in the second 45. The Whites may well have added to that scoreline. Preston fans leaving the ground were pleased at another step taken towards Championship safety and also questioning how a team in the upper echelons of the division were beaten so comprehensively.

Of course, it’s now October 2011, Preston are plying their trade in League 1 and Stoke City are an established and well respected (some might say feared) Premiership team. Tony Pulis has even achieved what some Potters fans thought would never be imaginable a few years back and has the team pitting their wits on foreign soil against the likes of Dynamo Kiev and Besiktas in the Europa League after reaching last season’s FA Cup final.

After achieving promotion via the second automatic slot in that 2007-2008 season Stoke City defied the odds and beat the drop in their inaugural season in the top flight. Not only did they do so, they also finished comfortably in mid-table – a respectable 12th position and 11 points clear of safety.

I, and many other football fans, wouldn’t have given Stoke City a hope in the cut-throat world of the Premier League but manager Tony Pulis has proved the doubters wrong. Now in his fifth season at the Britannia Stadium, he has developed a close-knit squad with a solid work ethic, one which is a match for any team on its day. See this season as a classic example – they’ve already chalked up a win and two draws against Liverpool, Chelsea and Man Utd respectively.

Granted, the Staffordshire-based side aren’t to everyone’s taste. Rory Delap’s extraordinary long throws have become a surreal staple of the Premier League and with giants like Peter Crouch, Robert Huth and Kenwyne Jones any opposition knows full-well it isn’t always going to be a battle on the deck. But what Pulis has done with his side is make them very pragmatic, hard to beat and well-respected.

They’ve got players that can play a bit too – Matt Etherington and Jermaine Pennant are both pacey and skilful wingers who any full-back wouldn’t wish to face when on full form. Add these ingredients together and it isn’t at all surprising that Stoke are currently sitting pretty in seventh place in the current Premiership table, only four points off a Champions League spot.

In the recent transfer window, Pulis bought well to beef up his squad for an assault on the top ten. His acquisitions include, first of all, the gangly Peter Crouch – a £10 million purchase from Spurs to provide some firepower to an, admittedly, low-scoring forward line. Also poached from Spurs, Wilson Palacios, the type of powerhouse midfielder who is well-attuned to the hustle and bustle of the Premier League. Throw in experienced defenders Matthew Upson and Jonathan Woodgate (both in on free deals) and you can’t deny that the manager has got a squad looking up rather than down as they prepare for the labour of the next eight months.

You feel that if Stoke can become as formidable a force away from home as they are at the Britannia then they wouldn’t be too far off a shot at the top six. Their home crowd, as any other Premier League manager will tell you, is very much Stoke’s 12th man. They’re a very noisy and daunting bunch – one of the loudest in the Premier League – that makes the Britannia Stadium a ground that other teams simply don’t like visiting.

As messrs Lambert, Warnock and Rodgers look to establish their clubs in the Premier League they could do a lot worse than have a chat with Tony Pulis about how to perfectly achieve – and better – this ambition.

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