Stoke City name Gary Rowett as the new manager

Stoke City have announced Gary Rowett as our new manager on a three year deal. He was previously at Derby who recently lost in the Championship play-off semi-final to Fulham. He has had previous managerial spells at Birmingham and Burton Albion.

Speaking to the club website Gary said –

“I am sure I will speak to some players over the next few days and few weeks to ascertain which of them are prepared to come back and put their bodies on the line to effectively get success for this Club.”

Rowett admitted that he was impressed that a number of the playing squad had already signalled their intent to help the Club rebuild on the back of a disappointing campaign which ended the Potters’ 10-year stay in the top-flight.

“It just shows how good this Club is firstly, but it also signals what sort of characters those guys are,” he added.

“That is what you want in these sort of situations – to keep players of genuine Premier League quality, providing they have a Premier League mentality.

No news on his backroom team yet although former player Rory Delap currently manages the Derby U23’s and he would be warmly welcomes back by Stoke fans should he join Gary Rowett’s staff.

Moritz Bauer (one of the players who has stated his desire to stay and help the club back up) and Kevin Wimmer (a player we could do without next season!), have both been called into Austria’s squad for three international friendlies. Wimmer is being linked with a season long loan move to Hannover 96.

Geoff Cameron could be on his way back to his native US to play in the MLS league. It will depend on what the new boss Gary Rowett sees as Cameron’s role in the coming season.

Already we are being linked with players and one is Notts Forest’s Eric Lichaj according to HITC.

Gary Rowett emerges as leading contender for the Stoke job

Derby County boss Gary Rowett has emerged at the front of the list for next Stoke manager. Despite Derby losing in the play-offs he is being tipped by the betting and the Daily Mirror’s football correspondent. John Percy at the Telegraph reports that Stoke hope to agree compensation with Derby within ‘the next 48 hrs’. Derby would want more compensation now as Rowett signed a new contract in January after rumours Stoke wanted him to replace Mark Hughes.

Mick McCarthy has expressed interest in the job via his representatives and he could yet be in the frame. A lot depends on who Peter and John Coates decide is best placed to try and get us promoted at the first attempt.

Elsewhere former players Dean Whitehaed and Clint Hill both announced they are retiring from football, whilst Steve Sidwell has left Brighton. The Telegraph has also reported that the club have told Stephen Ireland via email that his contract won’t be renewed, although there is nothing on the official website as yet. The club have yet to announce their retained players list.

Save Hagbourne Fields

Taylor Wimpeys application is now open for comment at on SODC’s website. Comments have to be submitted by the 23rd May and please visit the Facebook page for ideas on your comments over the proposed plans.

The plan is for 900+ houses to be built on fields between Didcot and East Hagbourne village which would destroy fields and natural habitats further, plus increase the risk of flooding and more transport congestion, pressure on local services, etc. There is already a Didcot Garden Town plan in place and this proposal is not part of this.

No news on the manager and Dom Telford impresses on loan

Still no news on the manager’s position as Paul Lambert currently remains in charge. With David Moyes’ contract now expired with West Ham there are some rumours we may be after him as our next manager.

Jack Butland may possibly stay next season. Speaking on Sunday to the club website he said: “I would love nothing more than to see this Club back in the Premier League. If I’m a part of that, brilliant, if I’m not, and things go different ways, then that is what happens – but at the moment it is extremely difficult to talk about it.” Be great if he did, although realistically he is likely to be off to a Premier League club in the summer.

18 year old Lasse Sorenson made his senior debut at the 2-1 win at Swansea and certainly impressed. Along with Tom Edwards and Tyrese Campbell we should see these as regulars in the match day squad next season. Another who may be in contention is 21 year old Dom Telford who scored 14 goals in six games whilst playing under Chris Hargreaves’ development squad during his season long loan at Bristol Rovers. Add in Josh Tymon, Julien N’Goy, Thibaud Verlinden and Harry Souter we do have youngsters who could well make the jump to regular first team football.

New Championship season starts on the weekend of 3^rd-5^th August and the fixtures are released on June 21^st.

Dean Whitehead retires and Lambert’s future in the balance

Dean Whitehead has announced he is retiring from playing at the age of 36. Whitehead played 158 times for Stoke between 2009 and 2013, will next season manage the under-17’s at his current club Huddersfield.

Darren Fletcher has said he would be up for staying at Stoke next season, although that will depend on who is in charge as he has not featured much under Paul Lambert. He has one year left of a two year contract he signed when joined a free transfer last summer.

Lambert will learn his fate after our final game of this season away at Swansea. Personally I hope we part ways with him as despite shoring up the defence, his record of one win since he joined in January is very poor and he doesn’t inspire me to think we can be in a chance of promotion if he stays. The Daily Telegraph broke the story that there was a clause in Lambert’s contract where either he or the club could walks away from the contract after this season finished. Mixed messages from the club as to whether he is staying and don’t be surprised if he is given a chance by the club to lead Stoke in the Championship next season. Graham Potter, a former player who was interested in the job in January, is a leading contender for the Swansea job.

Big summer ahead for Stoke City…

Zouma, Stafylidis and Jese loans end and they will return to their respective clubs, whilst we will have returning loanees Imbula, Bojan and Muniesa. Of those if we are relegated I am sure we will look to loan or sell Imbula. Jacob Haugaard, Glen Johnson and Charlie Adam are all out of contract in the summer, plus Stephen Ireland’s short term contract expires in June. That will be seven out of the squad for starters – can’t see us offering contracts to any of these four.

Then if/when we are relegated we will lose Shaqiri, Joe Allen and Jack Butland plus looks like Badou Ndiaye will be off and Ramadan Sobhi.

Does leave a big rebuilding job for whoever is in charge come the summer (I do think Paul Lambert will be kept on) and hopefully the likes of Grant, Shawcross, Martins Indi, Cameron, Diouf and Bauer will stay, plus Crouch and even Darren Fletcher could prove better at Championship level. That leaves the flops like Berahino and Wimmer to deal with as well, plus Afellay will surely be on his way given recent events. The positive is the decent batch of younger players we have including Tyrese Campbell, Tom Edwards and Sorenson.

Whatever league we end up in next season it will require a massive squad overhaul and rebuilding, which has been long overdue and one of the reasons why we have struggled this season with an unbalanced squad.

Gibraltar 1-0 Latvia

Gibraltar had only their second win since becoming a UEFA nation – and their first win since being accepted as a FIFA nation – with the one nil win over Latvia. The win will move them off the bottom of the FIFA rankings where they are currently joint 206^th i.e. bottom. Notts County’s Liam Walker scored the late winner. They start their European Championship qualifying campaign against Macedonia on September 6^th.