Another Big Signing For Stoke City FC....Subject To Work Permit !!

Stoke announced this morning the signing of 6'4" midfielder Seyi Olofinjana.The 28 years old Nigerian international comes to us from Wolves.He is thought to have agreed a 4 year deal with the club at a transfer fee in the region of £3m!

Potters ' Royal ' Acquisition ..Dave Kitson To Stoke...Club Record Fee

Stoke City FC have concluded a deal which sees Reading striker Dave Kitson move to the Potteries for a club record £5.5m.


Interviewed by Sky Sports Stoke Manager Tony Pulis seemed pretty pleased,said he had hoped to have one or two more signings by now, but stated his determination not to do anything which would undermine the excellent team spirit which had been built up over the past two years.

Wondered myself whether perhaps this was, in part, a coded message to Scott Carson who joined WBA yesterday.The sort of wages he was looking for, if paid,could well have unsettled other players at the Brit.

Scott Carson...Potters Off

Shame...would have been a really good signing,as a real measure of Stoke's Premiership intentions,and its potential for attracting other players in.

That said as I see it the club has shown both that it will not get suckered into any auctions over player price or personal terms,and that they would not be happy to wait for players doing a 'Drogba' (ie I'll sign for you if I don't find anything better in the next couple of weeks!!)

Sky Announce First Batch Of Live Matches.....

.....running up to November 30th they are going to cover Stoke City FC LIVE three times, against Everton, Tottenham, and Sunderland....all three games AT HOME.

The Everton game moves to Sunday 14th September at 1.30pm,Tottenham to Sunday19th October at 4.00pm. The Sunderland game is as scheduled 28th October,kick off 8.00pm.

Hopefully Setanta will give us some away games.

Phew...That Was Close...

As a lot of people noticed Gordon Banks and Stoke City FC got a mention at the end of Prime Ministers Questions yesterday.

In recent times much of what the PM, Gordon Brown, has touched has not worked out....so much so that his apparent hexing of events and prospects has seen him labelled by many as a 'Jonah'.

Yesterday he actually congratulated us on promotion....but FORTUNATELY did notgo further by wishing us well/success in the upcoming Premiership season.

Just Been Clearing The Attic Out!! Disaster....

Amazing what you find you stored away.....why did I save it? A very good question.The much missed Green 'Un ( Sentinel any plans to bring it back for the Prem??)September 26th 1998 had the front page headline you can see ...



Almost 10 years on you pick up the Sentinel and some doomster is predicting disaster for the coming season.Let's put things in perspective.

Perhaps these people weren't around back then when we were experiencing the real thing !!Who is that striker in the picture? None other than Bermudan Kyle Lightbourne...not exactly a prolific scorer,much mocked,but that day Man of the Match....but he didn't score !! Always threatened to but he seldom did.(A Chris Kamara acquisition, £500,000 if I remember correctly...its a good job our Tone is better at spotting the right man at the right price to do the job).

And we were in the old Division 2,albeit at that time top of the table - with 24 points in the bag from 10 games...We had some good players but they were about to leave...Thorne,Kavanagh, Siggurdson...Today we have good players coming in....believe and be patient...it will happen and soon.

Oops...nearly forgot....if we're talking real disasters...both the Vale and Crewe were above us in DIV 1 !!

Prem Routemap!

...no doubt with Sky and Setanta diversions (hopefully with plenty of them away!) for good measure.

Pattern Familiar?

We may be in the Prem,but there are parallels with this time last year in the Championship.

Stoke's relatively successful 2006-2007 team was broken up, but there was no panic rush to acquire new players,and probably waste money in the process.We all know what happened next...an even better team emerged by stages (and within budget!!) through canny signings....and the promised land was duly reached,promotion to the Premiership, amidst much euphoria and wildly enjoyable celebration.

This time last year we were regarded as relegation fodder.Same again now from many commentators.So be it.Last year season ticket sales rose...this year they have rocketed to in excess of a magnificent 17,000.

Again Mr.Pulis is on holiday...well deserved in my opinion....but in his absence(although I'm sure the phone lines are buzzing between them)Messrs Scholes and Rudge are keeping things moving along,once again playing their cards close to their chest,especially with regard to players actually attracting our attention (rather than the media suggested shopping list,packed as it is with other people's wage expensive castoffs,has beens,failures).

I have no doubt there will be interesting developments ahead and in good time,as indeed there were last year.

So we start out at Bolton....August 16th....can't wait.

Close Season

Taking a break from the blog to get ready for the big one....Stoke in the Prem 2008 -2009 !!Back soon....(all regular links will continue to update as usual).

Pottermouth Strikes Again....What A Star!!!

This man's a genius...... Stokies' Poet Laureat!

Link To Pottermouth Sequel

Promotion Salute From Block 31 Stokies On The Big Day !!!!!

WE DID IT !!!!We're Back !!! May 4th 2008....After 23 Years Away From The Top Flight.

Block 31 celebrates....











And Absent Friends..Almunecar Chapter...."Watch out Man U ...here come the rip roaring Potters!!"

Savour The Moment.........It's Sooo Good To Be A Stokie !!

The papers are full of US...Sentinel Specials are US.....Sky Sports News is US.....Midlands Today is US ....Radio Stoke runs a fabulous special.....the City turns out for us....Dicko not only plays football,the lad sings too (unexpurgated Delilah's on live TV!!).Pottermouth masterminds a celebratory version of his famously influential Battlecry.....we're up to the Prem and everybody knows it.

And to paraphrase Peter Coates,this evening...."a BILLION people worldwide will know about US every weekend from August"!!!

SURELY NOT A BETTER TIME TO BE A STOKIE......

Daily Mirror.....

It's worth noting that as far as I can see, the Mirror jounalist is the only one to really focus on the first seriously ill judged fans incursion onto the pitch (see stoke 0-0 Leicester) ....suggesting that there might be repercussions for Stoke.
The whole tone of his report was disparaging.

What Mr. Nixon seems to have overlooked(or not seen the need to mention)was that (a) there were no stoppages - certainly not 4 minutes worth - in the second half (b) in any case at least 3 minutes of that had been played- how do we know?As the few fans were cleared from the pitch those of us in the centre of The Seddon Stand saw Delap ask ref Mike Dean (who had a splendid match throughout,showed excellent understanding of this crowd exhuberance,and considerable commonsense in handling it - commonsense singularly lacking in Mr.Nixon's piece)how long,Dean clearly mouthed 1 minute (which he duly played ).
In none of the reportage elsewhere has Manager Holloway expressed anything more than disappointment with his own team's inconsistency which he felt has cost them their place in the Championship.

Alan Nixon's efforts to rain on our parade are an unfortunate journalistic exercise in negativity(" the whole match a shambolic non event"...etc) and in complete contrast to the superb generosity of the reportage elsewhere.

Go....Arrrrn Stoke!

More Stokie Promotion 'n' Premiership Stuff Than You Can Shake A Stick At !!

(On A Brilliant Bank Holiday Morning)


Try These Links to NATIONAL PAPERS
Daily Telegraph Slideshow (first 7 pics)

No kidding, Stoke join the Premier League (Times Online)

No Kidding, Stoke Join The ELITE!!
Potters Wheel Turns Back To The Top Flight (Independent)

Indie Full Report Stoke City 0 Leicester City 0....more Potters Wheel...
SportIndex(Telegraph)
Stoke reach Premier League as Leicester flop (Telegraph Report)

Many Happy Returns For Stoke

Stoke fans go potty after promotion but Holloway is devastated as Leicester go down

Stoke promoted to Premier League as West Brom go up as Champs (Mirror)

Stoke 0-0 Leicester (Mirror Report)

£60million Pottery Winners (Daily Express)
Happy Pulis Is A Wizard Potter (The Sun)
Pulis Expects Full Houses (Sporting Life)
Potters Promoted,Foxes Down (Sporting Life)

LOCAL PAPERS

Check out the LINKS above left....2 good articles on the Sentinel site already...

The Oatcake Pro Board is really lively just as you'd expect...SMUDGE HAS STARTED A THREAD ENCOURAGING ALL STOKIES TO POST THEIR LEICESTER PHOTOS TO IT
RADIO STOKE have done us proud.....CLICK for Image Galleries

Click for Audio Interviews (3 of them)

THE LONG WAIT IS OVER...... Stoke City FC 0 Leicester City 0

YES we finally made it to the Prem !!

Can't write anymore at the moment....TOO EXCITED!!!!Sooooo HAPPY!