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Barcelona, Sidibe and Narcis Pelach's brilliant Stoke City 'dream' for 2025
Narcis Pelach managed to enjoy a change in surroundings and switch off from football for a period during this international break - but Stoke City is firmly at the forefront of his mind again.
"I went to Girona and Barcelona of course, to spend time with the family," he explains. "It was good to switch off, from football, which is not easy. I ended up working, but I did have two or three days without football and being close to the family."
Stoke are preparing for the resumption of domestic football and the small matter of a three-game week with which it coincides. First up, it's a trip to the Championship's bottom club Queens Park Rangers, who have won once in 15 league games and that came back in August. Pelach has been able to welcome all of his internationals back into training this week as the Potters look to keep their own promising form going.
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One international, who is currently on the fringes of Stoke's first-team squad, is Sol Sidibe, who captained England under 18s against Poland out in Spain during this most recent break, the final one of 2024. The son of Stoke favourite Mamady Sidibe has been in and around the first-team squad this season and teed up Million Manhoef's winner at Plymouth earlier in the season.
Sidibe made his first appearance in six weeks, when he came off the bench in the 1-1 draw with Millwall prior to this break and, with his latest international escapade in mind, Pelach is both pleased with the midfielder's progress while acknowledging that the teenager remains in need of further developing. He is, however, unmistakably excited by Sidibe's potential.
"It's a great reward because he is a very, very clever player," Pelach said of Sidibe's England captaincy. "I was really surprised when I first met him about his capability to think and to understand ideas and, as well, the way he expressed his ideas. It's rare for a player of his age and he's a lovely guy as well. He's not getting all the minutes that maybe he would want, but sometimes you help young players by doing what I'm doing.
"I'm not gonna rush anything with him. It doesn't mean that I don't like him. I like him a lot, but I'm very demanding with him as well, and I want to put him to play when I feel that he is very, very, very ready.
"I don't like to put young players to play when they are not ready, then they fail, and then you have to do steps backwards. I like to be very responsible, very conscious and sometimes the best for his development is not to play all the minutes. So he's getting coached, he's seen lots of videos, he's getting a lot of information.
"He's playing for the under 18s of England, being the captain. The other day he came on for us, such an important game against Millwall. He did really well and I'm very pleased with the minutes that I saw from him, but we're going to be building - but I'm not going to be rushing anything because it's not the best for him.
"The first thing that I'm going to be looking for with a player like him - very, very young, they are not even 20 - my mentality is to look after him first before the team and I feel that for him now this is this process. The more that he does, the more that he will get as well.
"Of course he will be very important for Stoke City and hopefully he can be a great player for us in the future, which I am very positive about what he can get - but it doesn't mean that I'm not going to push him. I'm going to demand, and I'm going to push as I'm doing, and I think we're in the right direction."
This break, Stoke provided an update on the planned redevelopment of their Clayton Wood training ground, work which has now begun and is pencilled in to be completed by next Christmas. For Pelach, and his staff, it's an exciting prospect as Stoke look to upgrade their facilities in order to give the coaching team and squad everything they need to discover success on the pitch - now, Pelach wants to ensure he is there to enjoy it!
"This is a dream to fight for," he smiled. "I told my staff, we need to find a way to be the staff who can be there when the new building is there. It's exciting and it makes you want to work for it. Hopefully, in one year's time, we are here! Hopefully we are the staff who can be working in this new building and new training ground. It's something exciting.
"Everything about Stoke City is exciting, hopefully we can build something together, but for being there in that moment we need to fight today and this is the way I see it. We need to get the results now and not just the results, but the style of play. It's to get the methodology in place, the philosophy in place.
"We want it to be solid, so that it's solid for eight months and then we can start a pre-season in a great place to go and fight, but we have to, of course, do well this season if we want to be there in that moment."
