The FA Cup was never really a priority for Stoke City, but nonetheless, defeat in the competition’s third round to lower league opposition proved to be the end for Mark Hughes. The defeat to Coventry City was illustrative of how the Potters have lost their way of late. They are a team struggling for form and for an identity.
Now, they must look for Hughes’ replacement, posing something of an existential question of the club. Do they simply appoint someone to avoid relegation from the Premier League, with Stoke currently in the bottom three and just four points off the foot of the table? Or do they continue what Hughes started and overhaul their character as a club, imposing a more attractive style of play?
Ryan Giggs has been linked with the vacancy. So has Gary Rowett, with Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill almost mentioned. But maybe another O’Neill - Martin - would be the best option for Stoke right now. There aren’t many proven options out there at the moment, but the Republic of Ireland boss appears to boast the best credentials of all the candidates.
Of course, there are some in the Irish game who have poured scorn on O’Neill’s achievements as manager of their national team. They failed to qualify for the World Cup, with many criticising O’Neill and assistant manager Roy Keane for their conservative style of play. This is despite qualifying for, and making the last 16 of, Euro 2016.
This under-appreciation is a common thread throughout O’Neill’s career. The 65-year-old has succeeded at every club he has taken charge of, with the exception of Sunderland - and O’Neill could hardly be blamed for the structural problems that has seen the Black Cats go through 12 managers in just under 10 years. And yet there are still plenty who doubt him.
At Leicester City, O’Neill won the League Cup twice in four years - an astonishing achievement for the Foxes in the days before Claudio Ranieri. At Celtic, he won a Treble and took the Glasgow club to the final of the UEFA Cup in 2003. O’Neill also took Aston Villa, now languishing in the Championship, to an eighth place Premier League finish. Over the course of a 22- year top-level coaching career, he has been consistently successful.
Stoke City may harbour a grand ambition to leave behind their toxic reputation as direct, long ball merchants, but the time to make progress on that isn’t now. They have greater things to worry about. They must find a way to survive before they can thrive. O’Neill is the ideal candidate to give them a platform upon which to build. The Irishman is not the long-term solution, but he is a solution.
He deserves one last chance to polish his reputation, to remove some of the unjustified blemishes that have started to appear on his record. Are Stoke really going to take a chance on someone like Giggs, or even Rowett, when they are presently placed in the bottom three? That would be reckless.
Instead, they need someone who can make the most of what they have, someone who can organise a backline. O’Neill might not be the man to turn Stoke into a distinctly continental, modern outfit, but he is the man to fix many of the problems that have dogged them so far this season. And on the flip side, Stoke might be the place for O’Neill to counter a lot of what is unfairly held against him.
