Post by Macmoish on Mar 28, 2015 15:40:19 GMT
"....It is the first team and their results which create the tone for the rest of the club, but Mark has a big influence in every aspect.
“The message he gives out to the academy has been fantastic. He has invited young players to train regularly with the first team and it has been great to see the progress of lads such as Oliver Shenton.”
Stoke Sentinel
www.stokesentinel.co.uk/Stoke-City-Peter-Coates-says-Potters-Mark-Hughes/story-26244693-detail/story.html
Stoke City: Peter Coates says Potters are on the up under Mark Hughes
By PeteSmith | Posted: March 28, 2015
hughescoatesscholes
STAYING ON: Mark Hughes has extended the contract he signed in the summer of 2013.
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Stoke City chairman Peter Coates has welcomed the news manager Mark Hughes has agreed to extend his stay until 2019. Peter Smith reports...
KING of the bookmakers Peter Coates has no doubt Mark Hughes was a gamble worth taking as the manager looks forward to another four years at the helm.
Coates made the big call to end Tony Pulis’s spell at Stoke City in the summer of 2013 to bring in Hughes, whose stock had fallen after a tough time at QPR.
The chairman believes the results over the 21 months that have followed are vindication for that decision.
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“Every appointment is a risk, there are no certainties in football, but we looked at the situation very carefully and thought we were doing the right thing,” he said.
“We are in a results game and I think finishing in the top 10 of the Premier League for the first time last season was a real statement.
“You can pick out highlights, but I think that finish speaks for itself and hopefully we are on the road to do even better this season.
“It has been an unusual season with a lot of injuries to key players, but we have still given ourselves a strong footing. I’m very pleased. It’s very good news for the football club. I think our supporters are pleased with what he’s done too.”
Coates says Hughes’s new brief is to keep the club improving year on year.
He said: “He wants to get better and we want to get better and we will work together to make that happen.
“There is a feel-good factor at the club and we are already seeing that in the sales of season tickets.”
Chief executive Tony Scholes says Hughes’s influence has not been restricted to the Potters’ performances in the Premier League.
He said: “It is the first team and their results which create the tone for the rest of the club, but Mark has a big influence in every aspect.
“The message he gives out to the academy has been fantastic. He has invited young players to train regularly with the first team and it has been great to see the progress of lads such as Oliver Shenton.”
Hughes’s new deal has been well received by supporters.
Martin Smith, editor of the Oatcake fanzine, is glad to get the manager tied down until the summer of 2019.
He said: “When a manager is doing so well you are always a little worried at the back of your mind that someone will try to prise them away. Newcastle United and Everton might have been giving Hughes admiring glances. It is brilliant news that he will be staying. When you look at our results and the quality of football we have been playing, what he has achieved is magnificent.
“The away wins at Manchester City and Tottenham were superb and so was the feeling at the end of last season when the players came over to celebrate with the fans, knowing we had finished in the top half.”
Hughes was Coates’s 11th managerial appointment as the club’s major shareholder – and the first time he had appointed a boss in the Premier League.
Smith added: “I thought it was the right time to make a change. That is not to diminish the work Tony Pulis did for us but every rose must bloom and die.
“As it turns out, the break has been good for both of us because his stock has probably never been higher.
“We have been incredibly lucky since Peter Coates came back to the club in 2006. He has made two appointments and he got them both nailed on.
“It is remarkable to see so many teams chop and change and how often it goes wrong that Coates had been able to get two so right. It’s fantastic.”
Read more: www.stokesentinel.co.uk/Stoke-City-Peter-Coates-says-Potters-Mark-Hughes/story-26244693-detail/story.html#ixzz3VhB0t5Mt
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