A near-miss at Coventry and a Pulis relative - meet the men tasked with reviving Stoke City
When Mark Robins takes his place in the Stoke City dugout for the first time, he will have plenty of experience alongside him in new assistants Paul Nevin and James Rowberry.
Their appointment was confirmed alongside that of the new Potters boss, who will formally take charge for Saturday’s clash with Plymouth Argyle at the bet365 Stadium. And Stoke sporting director Jon Walters said: “We are delighted to welcome Mark, Paul and James to the Stoke City family.”
London-born Nevin is standing down as interim England under-20s manager, where he was undefeated in six matches, to take the job with Robins. StokeonTrentLive understands he made the shortlist to replace Robins as Coventry manager before Doug King plumped for Frank Lampard.
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Nevin was an assistant to former England boss Gareth Southgate for three years until August 2024 - his second spell working alongside the newly-ennobled Three Lions boss after a six-game spell in 2018 and 2019 which ended with England claiming third place in the UEFA Nations League.
He has also been an assistant manager at West Ham and Brighton, working under David Moyes and Chris Hughton respectively.
Nevin began his coaching career at Fulham, where he spent eight years in roles including academy and reserve team manager, before moving abroad to work in New Zealand and the Middle East.
Most of his playing career was spent at Yeovil Town, where he made 48 appearances over two seasons before retiring from football at the age of 24 due to injury.
According to the website transfermarkt.co.uk, his preferred formation is an attacking 4-3-3.
The 39-year-old Rowberry already has a couple of intriguing Stoke City links - he is related to former manager Tony Pulis by marriage and is a mentor of current interim boss Ryan Shawcross.
In discussing today’s game at Burnley, when he will be interim boss again, Shacross said: “I’ve got a number of people who I consider as mentors, including Alex Morris and James Rowberry, who works for the Welsh FA, who I can speak to really regularly. Then I’ve got previous coaches like Warren Joyce, who I had at Royal Antwerp, and Tony Pulis, and you can bounce ideas off them.”
A former Newport County manager, Rowberry will carry out his duties at Stoke alongside working under Craig Bellamy with Wales, but has left his role as head of elite coach education at the Football Association of Wales.
He was first-team coach at Cardiff before taking over at Newport following the departure of Michael Flynn in 2021. After promising early signs of success, his hometown club hit a poor run of form that ultimately saw him leave after less than a year in charge.
In commenting on Robins' appointment, the writer and broadcaster Henry Winter said on X: "Good luck to Mark Robins at Stoke City. Good manager - experienced and knows the division well", before adding in reference to Nevin and Rowberry "also smart appointments by Stoke".