Mark Robins knows Stoke City problems and how to fix them
Mark Robins knows Stoke City problems and how to fix them
Mark Robins gets his first chance to take a deep breath and reflect on a frantic first 10 weeks in charge at Stoke City as he heads into an international break, knowing there are challenges to meet, believing he knows what they are and confident he can do it.
Robins was appointed manager on New Year’s Day, watching that afternoon as caretaker Ryan Shawcross oversaw a draw at Burnley. He has since had 15 games and one transfer window to get to really know the squad, certainly get to know the treatment room and understand how things work at a new club after spending the best part of eight years at a rival.
The priority has always been the here and now and trying to haul Stoke up the Championship table and away from danger. Not far behind that has been trying to work out what to do to make sure that the club doesn’t get into this position again.
Both are tricky. The first hasn’t been helped by injuries to key players, often long-term injuries that still need managing when players are back. The second has beaten eight men over the last seven or eight years, including the fella in the opposition dug out yesterday, Alex Neil.
The first step, on that score, has been to identify what things to work on in the first place – and a big one on the to-do list is the appointment of a new head of recruitment and making sure that Stoke give themselves as much chance as possible to get their transfer business right this summer.
Whatever happens from now until May it will be a huge few months beyond that. Stoke have five players on loan and eight first teamers coming to the end of their contracts, plus at least three who might want to leave in search of game time and a couple of assets which have value to try to meet the financial blackhole left by Neil and his technical director Ricky Martin.
Robins said: “There are certain areas that we need improvement with and on and those were identified really early, to be fair. There are key things for change with different elements but they do come down the line and they do take a bit of time. The first one is to try to get a new head of recruitment to head up that department because we’ve got a big window coming up. Summer windows are always the biggest of the lot so can we get that right? There’s a load of work going on on that front.
“That’s for the future. For now, changes or tweaks to little things in game and during training continue to happen and happen on a daily basis depending on what happens with individuals. That always moves but also it’s embedding all the things we talk about and make sure they become habits around the place. There are those things to do and things are never straightforward.”
Straightforward or not, Robins comes across as confident that he can find solutions.
“Absolutely,” he said. “Challenges are there to be met and if you’ve got a challenge or if you’ve identified something that has to be put right, put it right – but you’ve got to do it in different ways. Then you’ve got to take people with you and you’ve got to understand how something works, how the institution operates.
“There are all those things to navigate and that’s still something I’m learning about but really what we’ve got to do is move, as we’re trying to, to mend things that need mending at the right times, appropriate times.”
There are still eight matches remaining this season, however, and Robins has belief in the current squad to get the club over the safety line.
He said: “I think we’re capable of doing a lot more. The league position isn’t somewhere we should be but injuries impact and everyone needs to understand that injuries impact a squad. I’ve called it a perfect storm before now and it felt that way, that everything was conspiring against us and all the things can go wrong, go wrong. You have to make the best of the hand you’re dealt but you need everyone pulling together and understand what it takes to keep people on the ground, keep people on the training ground, keep people pushing.
“Then on top of that, it’s how hard you can push each individual because you need to push them beyond a level to get any growth. We’ve got to have that understanding and when we can move with that – and pre-season is obviously a big thing for that – things get a little bit better, a little bit quicker and you get stronger.
“But, again, getting to the bottom of why you get injuries and how you can push them and if you are pushing them hard enough or not hard enough at all is important. The games do that generally for you but to be able to cope with the games you have to be in a really good place in the first place. There is a balance there.
“I think they’re good enough, they’re really capable players – you can see it – it’s just how I feel and what I see. I’m seeing some good things and some not so good things but things that can be rectified and you can put things right.”
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