Steven Schumacher pictured in 2024 managing Stoke City (Image: PA)
Steven Schumacher pictured in 2024 managing Stoke City (Image: PA)
STOKE City have finished no higher than 14th since dropping out of the Premier League in 2018 and Steven Schumacher believes the squad at Mark Robins’ disposal is well placed to alter that statistic.
In September 2024, Stoke were 13th in the Championship table when they announced that Schumacher’s nine-month tenure had come to an end, having won two of their first five games.
The decision, claimed sporting director – and former Wanderer – Jonathan Walters, was to "serve the long-term interests" of the club.
Stoke finished 18th that year, sacking Schumacher’s replacement Narcis Pelach after just 19 games in charge, and despite starting brightly last term, slumped to 17th by the end.
Schumacher stepped back into League One and led Bolton to promotion via the play-offs in his first full season.
On Saturday he will face his former employers for the first time, the away end packed with a capacity 4,600 travelling supporters, but he insists there is no lingering bitterness as he reflected on the only minor bump in his coaching career to date.
“I think it’s all experience,” he told The Bolton News. “It was a decision I chose to take when I left Argyle, I went there to Stoke and it didn’t work out. It was one of them – part and parcel of football.
“What I will say – and you touched on it there with the fans – but they were great with me. That is probably the best thing about the club, something I can relate to, they have sold out the away end and they travel so well, similar to our fans up and down the country supporting their team.
“There are no issues with the fans, or anything like that from my point of view. It didn’t work out but I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, and I am sat in this chair wearing this badge because of what happened at Stoke and I wouldn't be here if it didn't. So, yeah, I don't look back on it with any sort of regret, it was part and parcel of my journey.”
Wanderers and Stoke were founder members of the Football League and have been locking horns for nearly 140 years.
In recent history the two clubs have met in an FA Cup semi-final and on an ill-fated afternoon in the Potteries in 2012 where Bolton dropped out of the Premier League.
Mark Robins brings his side to the Toughsheet in good form, having taken 13 points from the last 15 available, and Schumacher believes his former club could be ready to challenge for promotion once again.
“There are loads of reasons why it hasn’t happened and people have talked about it for years, as I know, given their opinions of why that's happened, what's happened, but that's the situation that they're in.
“Our focus and my focus right now is on this team, and they have got a good chance of trying to do something about that because of the players that they've signed this season, they're playing well, they're in, I think they are seventh in the league.
“They had a good start last year as well, I believe, they were right up there in the top three and four for a long time, but they didn't manage to stay there. But I think they will have a decent chance this time around.”