After Stoke City got promoted to the Premier League, Tony Pulis has revealed some important advice that Sir Alex Ferguson gave him. This conversation would assist the Potters stay in the top division for ten years.
After gaining automatic promotion in May 2008, Stoke was the clear favorite to return to the Championship quickly. However, their chances didn’t get much better when Sir Alex stated, “Tony, I’ve seen your team, I think you’re going to struggle!”
However, the former Manchester United manager also provided Pulis, who was set to start his first season as a top-flight manager, with some significant advice. He disclosed the conversation when appearing as a guest on Footy and William Hill Accumulators’ podcast, No Tippy Tappy Football.
“When we got promoted at Stoke, I called Sir Alex Ferguson up. He told me, ‘Your best chance is making the Britannia a place no-one wants to go. If any of the top teams go there and praise you, you’re not doing it right’.
‘If you’ve got the best players in the world, then building from the back is fine, but the majority of teams don’t. The bottom line is football is about winning and if you don’t win football matches you aren’t going to be in the job very long. You need to find out what your strengths are and play to them. Don’t worry about what others do’.
Pulis added: “I never forgot what he said, and as a result we narrowed the pitch in, grew the grass and brought Rory Delap into play. We found a way to win and it worked.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been at a football stadium where the crowd and team were so together – we used to play the top teams and the place used to light up.”
The Rory Delap long throw became a key weapon for Stoke during their early days in the top-flight, and most teams struggled to combat it.
Pulis added: “The story about Rory is that we got promoted and I didn’t even know he had a long throw. Right at the beginning of the season, the lads were having a bet about who could throw it the furthest and Rory threw it off the pitch!
He was a javelin thrower as a schoolboy, and we spent quite a lot of time working on him throwing the ball flat towards the near post. It was fantastic for us.”