The Stoke City fans drinking in the Tavern are getting the shots in, to try and forget about their disappointing season last time out.
Stoke are an interesting candidate for relegation next season.
Back when Stoke pulled off one of the signings of the season in 2015 when Xherdan Shaqiri joined the club from Inter Milan, everyone was under the impression that they would go from strength to strength in the league and potentially grow into a top five team before too long. Unfortunately for their fans, that didn’t happen.
In fact, since Shaqiri joined the club, Stoke have only fallen down the table finishing ninth in his first season, and 13th last season.
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Should they fall much further next season then they will find themselves in a relegation scrap and fighting to stay up.
Despite a relatively strong side, our landlord still thinks Stoke will have to fight for their place in the top flight next season, he even thinks they may get relegated.
On that note, here are three reasons why Stoke City have a real chance of relegation next season.
They have no true goal scorer
Stoke’s top scorer in the Premier League last season was Peter Crouch who scored seven league goals.
A 36-year-old being your top scorer? For a team who should be, at the very least, finishing mid table that just isn’t good enough.
Stoke need to sign an out and out forward, a striker who can guarantee them 15-20 goals a season because without that, they will just find themselves continuing to fall down the table.
They underperformed last season
If last season is anything to go by, this coming season will be another disappointment for Stoke City.
As previously mentioned, a lot of people, our landlord included, thought that Stoke would start fighting their way up to the European spots of the Premier League table however it was quite the opposite.
Given the players they have, Shaqiri, Arnautovic and Allen to name a few, they should have done much better and they may suffer a similar fate next season.
If Shawcross leaves, their defence crumbles
Ryan Shawcross has been linked with a move away from Stoke plenty of times over the years and could easily decide to jump ship this summer.
Despite nothing more than that coming from these rumours so far, if Mark Hughes can’t tie his captain down to a new deal, then his defence will fall apart.
Shawcross is Stoke’s best defender by quite some way and it has been that way for a while. Should he leave, Stoke could be in big trouble defensively.
What do you think Stoke fans? Let us know down below.
