'People will speculate' - EFL pundit sends warning to Mark Robins about Stoke City job
Championship pundit Don Goodman believes the pressure is on both Stoke City's hierarchy and Mark Robins for this appointment to work.
Goodman claims that Stoke will be under extra scrutiny following the short-lived experiment with Narcis Pelach while Robins, fresh from dragging Coventry up from League Two to fight for a place in the Premier League, has to prove he can succeed without old sidekick Adi Viveash.
"Stoke City are in a difficult spot at the moment," said Goodman in an interview for Plejmo.com. "They've got really good owners, and in Jon Walters a sporting director who has Stoke City running through his veins. In sacking Narcis Pelach, they've admitted to making a mistake. It was a really poor appointment and the pressure is well and truly on.
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"I'm really keen to see how things play out at Stoke. On face value, Mark Robins looks like a really safe appointment. But we must acknowledge that things went wrong at Coventry this season after Doug King made it clear that a fallout between Adi Viveash and Mark Robins was the reason that the long-standing assistant left in the summer. Viveash was hugely influential on the training ground and in making tactical decisions.
"It clearly didn't work with the new coaching team that came in at Coventry and now there's no Viveash at Stoke. I hope it goes well for Mark and that Paul Nevin and James Rowberry are positive appointments because, if not, people will speculate whether he can have real success without Viveash at his side.
"Stoke have had problems at both ends of the pitch. They were giving away so many chances and conceded two goals in each of Pelach's last six games which meant they would have to score three goals in order to win games. Three consecutive clean sheets is encouraging, however, the problem is that they also struggle to score goals.
"I'm just curious how it will all play out because Mark Robins was a brilliant manager for Coventry and I hope it goes well for him."
