Stoke were officially relegated last night, ending their 10-year stay in England's top-flight.
The club had tried to repair a bad start made while the team were under the management of Mark Hughes when they appointed Paul Lambert 10 games ago, but they've managed to send themselves down to the Championship before near season-long 20th placed West Brom regardless.
Pete Smith of The Stoke Sentinal joined Off The Ball to discuss just what happened to the club in recent years, and he believes a lot of the problems lay with the decision to release both Jon Walters and Glenn Whelan last summer while trying to replace them with players Smith described as gambles.
"When they signed players it's always been a gamble. Imbula was a gamble, Jese was a gamble because he was coming off the back of 12 months at PSG that were rotten, but we knew there was talent there".
"When you take so many gambles, and there's nobody there to...we're missing the Irish boys basically. We're missing Glenn Whelan and Jon Walters to pull rank and demand order in the changing room. Instead we've got all these players which could have gone either way, or are probably influencing each other in the wrong way".
The £18 million Kevin Wimmer is currently training with the youth side and had to be put on a 'special diet' at the turn of the year due to his weight. The £12 million Saido Berahino hasn't scored a goal for the club, and his most newsworthy contribution in two years was showing up to one game a full day before the fixture was due to take place.
Smith says that the squad was being filled with more technical talent at the deficit of a professional attitude both on the pitch and in the dressing room, something Walters and Whelan helped to bring during their time there.
"These players took Stoke up through the glass ceiling. You look at Walters, he was Stoke DNA personified. Hard working, give it all, the stamina, and the character; powerful.
"Where do you go when you try to replace Jon Walters to make the step up? Because Jon Walters is Jon Walters, and there's no elite version of him. Without trying to badmouth him, it's a compliment.
"They tried to replace him with someone like Jese, or Choupo-Mouting, who probably have more flair, but it's come back to bit them on the bum".
Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!
Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.
