Stoke City

Stoke City
	Stoke City
Basic data
Surname	Stoke City Football Club
Seat	Stoke-on-Trent , England
founding	1863
owner	bet365
president	Peter Coates
Website	stokecityfc.com
First soccer team
Head coach	Michael O'Neill
Venue	bet365 stadium
Places	30,089
league	EFL Championship
2019/20	15th place
home	Away

Stoke City (officially: Stoke City Football Club ) is an English football club from Stoke-on-Trent . The club, which was only called Stoke Football Club until 1928 , is one of the oldest surviving professional football clubs in the world; it was founded in 1863 or 1868. On May 4, 2008, the club secured participation in the top English league for the first time in 23 years and played ten seasons in the Premier League . For the 2018/19 season , Stoke City returned to second class .

society

The team owes its nickname "The Potters" (German: The Potters) to the city's corresponding branch of industry. The team jerseys are traditionally red and white striped lengthways. The club is currently owned by Kidsgrove Road Limited, a subsidiary of Bet365 ; the association is chaired by Peter Coates . The club had previously been owned by Stoke Holding between 1999 and 2006, which was controlled by a consortium of Icelandic businesspeople. The takeover by Coates was ultimately successful on May 22, 2006.

In 1997 the club left its traditional Victoria Ground stadium and moved to the newly built Britannia Stadium (today: bet365 Stadium) with around 28,000 seats. In the Victoria Ground, in which the club had played since 1878, Stoke City set up on March 29, 1937 against Arsenal FC with 51,373 spectators, its attendance record that still exists today.

Around 20 years before the rise in 2008, Stoke City had participated in the top English league in the 1984/85 season and set a negative record with only 17 points scored, which would only be undercut 21 years later. The Potters' greatest success was their victory in the League Cup in 1972, when they defeated Chelsea 2-1 in the final . Stoke City also won the Football League Trophy twice (1992 and 2000).

history

The first years (1863-1887)

Former students of the Charterhouse School founded the Stoke Ramblers, a football club in 1863 , which they used for leisure activities alongside their apprenticeship at the North Staffordshire Railway in Stoke-on-Trent . The first documented game took place five years later on October 17, 1868 at the original Victoria Cricket Club venue. Opponent was a club called EW May XV , and the game between the teams of 15 players each ended in a 1-1 draw. Founding member and team captain Henry Almond scored the first goal in the club's history. The Ramblers played four more games in 1868. This included the first win with a 2-0 win against a team from Newcastle-under-Lyme . In order to cope with the steadily growing number of spectators, the club moved into its new sporting home at Sweetings Field in 1875, which was not far from the Victoria Cricket Ground. At this point in time, the encounters only had the character of a friendly game. This was to change from 1877 with the establishment of the Staffordshire Football Association and a new cup competition. Stoke was already victorious in the first edition of this new “County Cup” and defeated Talke Rangers 1-0 in the final. One round earlier, the club had beaten a team called Mow Cop 26-0 and thus achieved the highest victory in a competitive game - this record is still valid today. In the following year Stoke successfully defended the trophy and established itself as the most prestigious club in the area at the time.

In 1878 the Stoke Ramblers merged with the Stoke Victoria Athletic Club and officially called themselves Stoke Football Club from then on . The venue at Sweetings Field was no longer used, and so the team moved to the place of the Athletic Club, which only a little later became known as the Victoria Ground . It was also at this time that the traditional red and white striped jerseys were used for the first time. Three years later, the new FC Stoke took part in the newly launched Birmingham Association Cup , but lost 8-0 to Aston Villa in the first round . In the 1882/83 season, the club moved into the final of the Staffordshire Senior Cup , in which West Bromwich Albion proved to be the better team in the 3-2 defeat. Stoke first took part in the 1883/84 season in the FA Cup , which has been held nationwide since 1871 .

The professionalization of the association now strode quickly ahead, especially as the threat of competing British Football Association ( British Football Association ), the Football Association ( FA ) in 1885 to legalize professional football "forced" As part of this took Stoke in August 1885 the status of a professional association of. In terms of sport, the breakthrough on a national level was still a long time coming: after a defeat in the replay against Crewe Alexandra , the club said goodbye to the FA Cup round of the 1885/86 season. Only the following year the team was able to celebrate their first victory in the FA Cup, which was also very clear with a 10-0 win against Caernarfon Wanderers at the Victoria Ground.

The Football League (1887-1918)

Stoke FC was one of the twelve founding members of the Football League in 1888 . The club was represented by Harry Lockett. During a meeting in London, he played a key role in the founding process of the world's first national football league (Lockett became the first league secretary; in order to be able to concentrate fully on this task, he resigned from his duties at Stoke in August 1890). From the beginning of the first game against West Bromwich Albion on September 8, 1888, FC Stoke fought in the first two league seasons for the sporting existence and finished both in the season 1888/89 and in the subsequent season the last place in the table. The then formally operated application for membership in the Football League (“re-election”) failed after the second season. The club was then replaced by Sunderland FC . Stoke instead spent the 1890/91 season in the Football Alliance and won the championship there. For the 1891/92 season, the Football League expanded the number of participating teams from 12 to 14. This also benefited FC Stoke, which played in the Football League in the remaining years of the late 19th century (from the 1892/93 season after the introduction of a second-class league in the " Football League First Division "). In 1897, Stoke signed Horace Austerberry . He became the club's first coach two years later and moved into the FA Cup semi-finals with his team in the 1898/99 season.

Around the turn of the century, the club's financial problems increased, which meant that professional football could no longer be sustained in the city. After relegation to the Second Division in the previous year, FC Stoke left the Football League Association in 1908 and moved to the regional " Birmingham & District League ". A year later, the club even had a second team play in the western division of the Southern League , which was able to take first place in the first year. Stoke FC played in both league systems until 1915 before a return to the Football League was approved. The outbreak of World War I , which suspended official play in the Football League for four years, initially prevented this. It was not until August 1919 that FC Stoke returned to the Second Division of the Football League. In order not to get completely out of practice, the team had participated in various games of the lower class Lancashire League during wartime .

New beginning at Victoria Ground (1919-1930)

In 1919, Stoke FC bought back the Victoria Ground Stadium, and the Butler Street grandstand increased the capacity to 50,000. After the restart of the Football League game operations, FC Stoke succeeded in the 1921/22 season under coach Arthur Shallcross the rise to the first class, which was followed only a year later by direct relegation to the Second Division. Shallcross had already drawn his conclusions in March 1923 and had resigned from his office. His successor Tom Mather should not be able to return to the top English division. Instead, the club even rose to the third-rate Third Division North after the end of the 1925/26 season . However, the stay there was only very short and Stoke immediately returned with the third division championship title in the second division. When the city of Stoke-on-Trent was granted town charter in 1925 , the Stoke Football Club also changed its official name to "Stoke City Football Club" in 1928.

The First Matthews Era (1930-1947)

In March 1932, the 17-year-old Stanley Matthews made his debut, arguably the most famous football player in the ranks of Stoke City, against FC Bury . By the end of the decade, the young talent had become an England international who was considered by many experts to be the best player of his generation. With his first international match in 1934, he also became Stoke's first English selection player in 30 years. In the 1932/33 season, the club succeeded in the second division championship, with Matthews still had relatively little contributed to promotion with 15 games.

The rise triggered a real boom phase and the average attendance exceeded the 23,000 mark, which in turn meant a larger transfer budget for coach Tom Mather . The core of the up-and-coming team, however, were made up of local young players such as Matthews, Tommy Sale and Freddie Steele . Mather ended his 12-year coaching era at Stoke City in May 1935 and joined Newcastle United . A short time later, a successor was determined with Bob McGrory , who had previously served the club as a player for 14 years. After the rise, Stoke City consolidated in the English elite class and finished fourth in the 1935/36 season with nine points behind the champions Sunderland . This was followed by two midfield positions in the following two seasons. It succeeded with a 10: 3 win in February 1937 against West Bromwich Albion, the club's highest victory in a championship game. Freddie Steele appeared as a five-time goalscorer. The record home crowd of 51,373 spectators at the game against Arsenal FC in April 1937 also fell during this time. Steele's 33 league goals to this day represent the all-time record for a Stoke City player in one season. Football had grown so prominently in the city that 3,000 people were gathering at Kings Hall for a chat when rumors surfaced, Matthews wanted to leave the club to give his career a further development boost. Matthews stayed and Stoke City finished the 1938/39 season in fifth place.

With the outbreak of World War II , championship operations were interrupted for six years, and so the last successful phase at Stoke City came to an abrupt end. In one of the first post-war games, the club experienced a tragedy in 1946 when 33 supporters died in the Bolton Wanderers' sixth round of the FA Cup during the Bolton Disaster and a further 520 spectators were injured. In addition to the players Matthews, Sale and Steele, who are in the performance zenith, Neil Franklin made another discovery from his own youth, who was regarded by many in the center-half position in the center of defense as the best English player at the time. With these players, Stoke City developed into a serious title contender in the 1946/47 season , but missed this chance on the last day of the game. One win would have been enough for the English championship, but the 2-1 loss to Sheffield United instead made Liverpool FC their first post-war champions. Even before the third last match day, the now 32-year-old Stanley Matthews had left the club for Blackpool FC for a transfer fee of 11,500 pounds and thus initiated the future sporting downturn.

Sporting downturn and missed goals (1948–1960)

In the two seasons 1947/48 and 1948/49 , the title fight with rank 15 and 11 was far out of reach, and the 1950s should continue the negative trend. After relegation could just be averted in the 1951/52 season , the penultimate place in the 1952/53 season - 20 years after the promotion to the first division - meant the return to the second division. As early as February 1952, Bob McGrory had given up coaching at Stoke City 17 years after taking office. Successor Frank Taylor stabilized the team performance in the second division, but without being able to bring about the desired promotion. Stoke City missed the return to the First Division in the 1954/55 season only because of a narrow 2-point difference to the two promoted Birmingham City and Luton Town . After the team with a 17th place in the final table in the 1959/60 season again clearly failed to achieve higher goals, the club management dismissed Taylor in June 1960.

The Waddington Years (1960-1977)

At the beginning of the 1960s, attendance at the Victoria Ground had reached a new low and the average was less than 10,000 for the first time in 40 years. However, the promotion of Tony Waddington to head coaching in June 1960 ushered in a turnaround. Waddington had worked on the Stoke City coaching staff since 1952 and had been assistant coaching since 1957. An improvement did not initially set in and Waddington concluded with Stoke City his first season in 1960/61 in 18th place in the Second Division. The attendance figures remained low - a game against Preston North End in 1961 saw only 8,409 visitors. This changed fundamentally when Waddington landed a coup with the engagement of 46-year-old Stanley Matthews - 14 years after his departure - which quickly paid off. 35,974 spectators awaited the return of the former star player, and amid a new atmosphere of optimism, the team with Matthews made it to eighth place in the 1961/62 season. Only a year later, the longed-for promotion to the First Division succeeded by winning the second division championship. The sporting soaring had not yet come to an end: in the 1963/64 season, the team immediately achieved a secure placement in the midfield of the First Division. Star player Matthews remained very influential even in footballing old age and led the team in 1964 in the final of the League Cup , which was lost to Leicester City on a return match .

In addition to Matthews, Waddington also relied on experience with other players. Dennis Viollet , Jackie Mudie , Roy Vernon , Maurice Setters and Jimmy McIlroy were all seasoned forces. Matthews had now even celebrated his 50th birthday before he finally said goodbye to active sport in February 1965 with his 701st championship game against Fulham FC . In 1967, the club signed Gordon Banks from Leicester City, a 1966 world champion who was also regarded as one of the world's best goalkeepers, for £ 52,000 .

In mid-1967, Stoke City already took part with Banks as Cleveland Stokers in the championship of the then official soccer association of the USA , the United Soccer Association , and finished second among six participants in the Eastern Division. Stoke also competed here with red and white striped jerseys and played the home games at Cleveland Stadium .

Banks helped the team to further stability in the First Division. The development reached its peak for the time being with winning the League Cup: 97,852 spectators at Wembley Stadium saw Stokes 2-1 against the big favorites Chelsea FC on March 4, 1972. Stoke City also performed well in the FA Cup and took off in the season 1970/71 as well as in the subsequent game round into the semi-finals. Both times the team failed only in the replay at Arsenal .

Waddington struggled with the retirement of George Eastham and Peter Dobing after winning the title and responded by signing Alan Hudson from Chelsea for £ 240,000 in the spring of 1974 . A short time later, Geoff Salmons of Sheffield United followed for £ 160,000, and Peter Shilton of Leicester City for £ 325,000 - at the time the record sum for a goalkeeper. With these new players, the team fought for the championship title in the 1974/75 season , but finished in fifth place after a few weak games at the end of the season - four points behind the new English champions Derby County . In the 1970s, Stoke City also acted for the first time in European club competitions. The club qualified for the 1972/73 UEFA Cup competition , but lost to 1. FC Kaiserslautern in the first round . Two years later, the fifth place in the table in the First Division meant moving into the UEFA Cup , where again the first round meant the end of the line. There was no defeat against Ajax Amsterdam , but they fell victim to the away goals rule after a 1-1 home and 0-0 away game .

In January 1976, a storm damaged the roof of the Butler stand grandstand so badly that the club first had to play its subsequent home game against Middlesbrough FC in Vale Park , the venue of local rivals Port Vale . Much more serious, however, were the repair costs of 250,000 pounds, which put the club in financial difficulties. The sale of Alan Hudson, Mike Pejic and Jimmy Greenhoff for a total of 440,000 pounds provided economic relief, but the team so fleeced could no longer prevent relegation in the 1976/77 season . After 17 years, a 0-1 home defeat in March 1977 finally brought the "Waddington Years" to an end.

Between first and third class (1977-2000)

Shortly before relegation to the Second Division, George Eastham Waddington's former assistant took over as coach in the same month. However, Eastham only stayed ten months and resigned in January 1978. The club's misery reached its low point a short time later with the FA Cup defeat against the amateur club Blyth Spartans. With Alan Durban , the club's management engaged the former coach of Shrewsbury Town in February 1978 and in his first full season 1978/79 Durban achieved promotion to the First Division with third place. The team established themselves in the highest English league for two years before Durban left the club in 1981 for Sunderland FC .

Richie Barker took over from Durban's successor in 1981. In preparation for the new 1982/83 season, he signed Mickey Thomas from Brighton & Hove Albion . and Mark Chamberlain of Port Vale. The transfer fee for Thomas was £ 200,000, but after two years Stoke City sold him to Chelsea for only £ 75,000. Winger Chamberlain, signed for £ 135,000, however, proved to be an enduring success. During his time in Stoke, he was also called up to the national team eight times. However, Barker's era came to an early end during the second coaching season 1983/84, and Bill Asprey ensured that veteran Alan Hudson returned to Stoke City as the new athletic director . This decision paid off in the short term, as with a significant increase in performance in the second half of the relegation in the 1983/84 season could be averted on the last day of the game. The following season 1984/85 showed that this was only a delay : Stoke City set a new negative record for an English first division team with only 17 points and only three wins this season since the introduction of the 3-point rule. This point yield was undercut by Sunderland FC only 21 years later. Asprey left the club in April 1985 for health reasons. Mick Mills was to exercise the role of player- coach from the 1985/86 season . In his four-year tenure, Mills first led the team into midfield in the second division. In the 1986/87 season, the team occupied fourth place and ensured, among other things, a spectacular 7-2 win against Leeds United , before some weaker appearances made for the fall in 8th place. In the next two years Stoke City had no chance in the battle for the top spots. After an equally weak start to the 1989/90 season, despite investment in transfers of one million pounds, the club's management dismissed Mills.

With Alan Ball - world champion from 1966 - the club employed the fifth coach in ten years. In 1989, however, the appointment of Peter Coates as the new chairman of the association proved to be a far more sustainable person . Ball remained hapless in his first season in 1989/90 and was relegated from bottom of the table in the third division third division . Although Stoke had to compete in a third division for the first time in 63 years, Ball remained in office for the 1990/91 season. But when the team showed just as poor performance there, Ball left the club in February 1991 - in the end, Stoke City finished 15th, the lowest league placement in its history to date.

In May 1991 the Scot Lou Macari was appointed Ball's successor for the 1991/92 season, and a sporting improvement set in almost immediately: In 1992, Stoke narrowly missed promotion with fourth place, but ensured by winning the Football League Trophy ("Autoglass Trophy") after a 1-0 final win at Wembley against Stockport County for a respectable success ( Mark Stein scored the decisive goal). Macari succeeded a year later with his team promotion to the second division, which was now called "First Division" after the introduction of the Premier League . Again Stein, who had been signed by Oxford United for £ 100,000 , had 26 goals this season, a not inconsiderable portion of the stately 93 points that Stoke City could achieve. Macari finally moved to the famous Scottish club Celtic Glasgow in October 1993 , and Stein was also allowed to go to Chelsea for £ 1.5 million . The subsequent tenure of coach Joe Jordan lasted less than a year and the club signed Lou Macari again just 12 months after his departure. Although the re-engagement of the successful coach brought a certain euphoria to the club, the team did not get beyond a midfield position in the 1994/95 season. The 1995/96 season also began to be mixed, before the new striker Mike Sheron in particular made a significant improvement. Stoke City finished fourth, but then failed in the play-off semi-finals to Leicester City . To continue this trend, Stoke City loaned Mark Stein from Chelsea for the 1996/97 season, who was to form the front line of attack alongside Sheron. By Christmas time, the team also settled in fourth place, but lost more and more ground in a weak second half of the season and ended the season in twelfth place. For the club's record transfer fee of 2.5 million pounds, Sheron left the club for Queens Park Rangers . Macari also ended his second era at Stoke City and said goodbye during the game against West Bromwich Albion, with which the Potters also said goodbye to the venerable Victoria Ground .

The Britannia Stadium

For the 1997/98 season, Stoke City moved into the new Britannia Stadium, a 28,000-seat stadium with seating only, leaving the Victoria Ground after 99 years. Up until then, no other British club had had a football home in the same place for longer. With Chic Bates - Macari's former assistant - the team finally went into the premiere season. However, Bates acted haplessly, and so the team fell back from an initial play-off place in the relegation region. Above all, a clear 7-0 home defeat against Birmingham City left lasting marks. In January 1998, Bates was replaced by Chris Kamara , but the former Bradford City coach could no longer deduce the turnaround and gave up again in April. "Old Master" Alan Durban , who had coached Stoke City two decades earlier, looked after the team for the rest of the season and was relegated to rank 23 in the third division.

With Brian Little , a former Aston Villa sporting director took over the coaching post at Stoke City for the 1998/99 season , and by December 1998 the team was in the lead after a good start. However, there were form crises and the fall to eighth place, which meant that Little left the club again after a year. Even Gary Megson afterwards experienced only a temporary for four months short-term commitment. The decisive factor for this, however, were less sporting reasons; rather, the takeover of the association by the “Stoke Holding”, an Icelandic consortium, in the amount of 66 percent of the shares (6.6 million pounds) ensured that the Icelander Gudjon Thordarson was the first “non-British” in November 1999 took in the Stoke City coaching chair.

Recent developments (since 2000)

In the 1999/2000 season Stoke City won the Football League Trophy for the second time, which at that time was officially known as the “Auto Windscreens Trophy” as part of the sponsorship. In April 2000 the team defeated Bristol City 2-1 in front of 75,057 spectators at Wembley Stadium . The big disappointment followed just a month later, when the defeat in the semi-finals of the promotion play-offs against FC Gillingham caused another year of third division football. The following year Stoke City again reached playoffs, but again to fail in the semifinals; this time at FC Walsall . Only the third attempt was ultimately successful for the Thordarson team. She finished fifth in the 2001/02 championship round and moved into the play-off games again. After beating Cardiff City in the semi-finals, the 2-0 triumph over Brentford FC at the Millennium Stadium ensured the return to the second-highest English division. Despite this success, club chairman Gunnar Gíslason dismissed coach Thordarson just five days after the final. Although the fans were up against this decision and loudly demanded the reinstatement of the promotion coach, Gislason remained tough and Thordarson never returned.

Steve Cotterill was the new sporting director before the start of the 2002/03 season. However, this remained only four months until he accepted an assistantship at Sunderland FC at the side of Howard Wilkinson in October 2002 . The long-time coach of Ipswich Town , George Burley, was to be hired as his successor, but he turned down the offer at the last minute. Instead, the club hired Tony Pulis a short time later . The Welshman kept the team away from the relegation ranks and secured relegation with a 1-0 win against Reading FC on the last day of the game. In the subsequent seasons 2003/04 and 2004/05 Pulis consolidated the team in 11th and 12th place in safe midfield, but regardless of this, a dispute with the club owners led to Pulis' dismissal at the end of the 2004/05 season. Just one day later, the club introduced the Dutchman Johan Boskamp as their new coach. With the purchase of Sambégou Bangoura for around one million pounds, he set a new internal club record and the signing of the Belgian international Carl Hoefkens turned out to be a stroke of luck - Hoefkens immediately became a crowd favorite and won the “ Fans' Player of the Year Award “. Despite the new players, the team's performance remained inconsistent, and so in the end only a midfield place in the second division, which has now been known as the " Football League Championship " since 2004 . The season was also overshadowed by a feud between Boskamp and football director John Rudge , which ultimately led to Boskamp's abandonment. At the same time, Peter Coates took over the management of Stoke City again.

On May 23, 2006, Coates completed the takeover procedure and put an end to the era of Gunnar Gislason. Coates installed the former coach Tony Pulis as the successor to Boskamp in June 2006. He and his old club just barely missed participation in the play-off games in the 2006/07 season with eighth place. In June 2007, Coates also bought the city-owned Britannia Stadium for approximately six million pounds . In the 2007/08 season, the club celebrated its greatest success in 23 years and on May 4, 2008 secured direct promotion and participation in the Premier League for the first time . In the 2010/11 FA Cup , Stoke City reached the final, which was lost to Manchester City 0-1. As Manchester City qualified for the Champions League , Stoke City was allowed to take part in the 2011/12 Europa League as a defeated cup finalist . There the team reached the round of 32, where they were eliminated against Valencia CF.

Finances

Stoke City is part of the Bet365 gambling company owned by Denise Coates , John Coates and Peter Coates . Sales were £ 58.98 million in the 2009/10 season, compared to expenses of £ 71.2 million.

Trivia

Since Stoke was last in the founding season of the Football League 1888/89, the team was given a wooden spoon as a consolation prize.
The ashes of Sir Stanley Matthews lie beneath the grass at Britannia Stadium .
In July 2017, Stoke City was the first English Premier League club to enter into a long-term cooperation with the German professional football club FC St. Pauli . The cooperation extends to the areas of sport, marketing, merchandising and media.