Stoke City were prepared to be patient to bring in Max Porter as new assistant manager.
Porter has arrived this month to join Mark Robins’s coaching set-up and fill a vacancy created when Paul Nevin left in January.
He has been Arsenal under-21s boss, tasked not only with bringing through players for their first team but also to set up shadow sides to take on the first team in training, replicating the tactics and shape of Premier League and Champions League opposition.
Sporting director Jon Walters said: “We knew we had a hole to fill and we had discussions with Mark and John (Coates) about what we need. You’re trying to build a coaching staff so you ask if need a specialist in a certain area, does it need real drive and energy and does that bring something else to the group? Tactically are they really astute? What level have they been working at? Do they really want to come to the football club? Have they got that drive and desire to come and really push on?
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“That process started a long time ago. Myself and Mark will speak about lots of different people. Lots of people get spoken to during that time. Mark has contacts, different people have contacts and Mark will meet people as well and he can say, ‘I really want to go for him, he’s what we want to go for.’ Ultimately he’s the line manager and he knows what he needs in his staff.
“That process started when Paul left but you’re also in a season and people are in jobs and you’ve got to be careful how you go about it.
“Max is quite pivotal to what Arsenal do. I knew he worked with the first team very close to every day setting up the under-21s for that. I know he’s really astute in his coaching and what a ridiculous level of detail they work with for Mikel Arteta. I know how highly he is thought of. I knew him because he was on my pro licence course so I knew his personality.
“Then the process has to start and Mark has to meet people, see people and have an idea in his head about what he wants to build with his coaching staff. That’s what we decided to go for. Arsenal weren’t going to let him out early – they’ve won the Premier League. Then it becomes a race against time to get it done quickly and what comes into it is that Max has got a family and kids he’s got to get into schools and a house. It becomes liaison officer, admin team and trying to get him settled.
“Max suits what we need. He has the coaching style and energy that Mark feels he needs in his group.”
Nevin had been Stoke’s in-possession coach last season while fellow assistant James Rowberry had been in charge of out-of-possession. They will continue that kind of approach.
Walters said: “Every club has their way of doing it and most clubs have coaches that will be responsible for in or out of possession. I know there was a big thing made about it last year but I’d say 99 per cent of clubs are set up in the same way.
“In-possession coaches take that part of sessions, you’ll have people who are responsible for set plays and re-starts in matches.
“So it’ll be similar. Someone will be responsible for in possession and someone will be responsible for outside. You need those clear roles but in possession affects out of possession. Everything affects each other part of the game. Where you have a problem as a club is if you’re working in silos and you say, ‘I’ll deal with this, you deal with that.’ The coaches and manager need to be aligned.
“The manager has to have a certain style that should align your club then coaches who can carry that out as well as the manager doing a bit of coaching.”
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The Sentinel's Stoke City writer, Pete Smith
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