Good afternoon to all supporters and followers of Stoke City.

I am writing to you today with a great buzz and excitement for the coming season, after over-seeing training and returing from our camp in the United States. I fully believe that myself and my staff have built a squad capable of returning to the Barclays Premier League at the first time of asking.

This club belongs in the top-flight, without a doubt. It has history, its own culture. After working here for 3 months I now see that this club is more than just football on a Saturday afternoon, it is more like a religion, and I'm proud to be involved.

As most of you will know, I brought in Kevin Davies as my assistant manager early into my tenure, and he approached me before pre-season to see if he could play a prominent role in the build-up to the new season.

I was more than happy to help Kev develop as a coach and manager, and so I allowed him to become manager for pre-season. He picked the team, and he picked the tactics, and he was a joy to have in charge.

He leaned on me for advice regarding results but of course pre-season is about developing fitness levels, letting the team gel into a style of play that myself and 'Davo' want them to play in the season.

The Sky Bet Championship sometimes does not allow beautiful football, as you'll be punished for it - it's probably the most difficult division in the game to escape.

I was very pleased with Kevin and the amount of knowledge and commitment he has shown since joining in May.

Below are the results from our pre-season campaign.


Let's rock the Subaru Stadium loud and proud this season, be the 12th man.

Yours Truly,
Roberto Martinez
Manager: Stoke City Football Club

The preseason looked shaky but you'll be fine. I love those kits as well. Just brilliant.

coyb20: Thanks mate

yes you will come good i am sure of it

Hello again. Your manager, Roberto Martinez here.

As a Championship season is such a long one, I have decided to do a less-in-depth August-December review, and that will be the update following this one.

This update though, is to give you a brief run-down of the business I have done at the club since taking over in terms of transfer activity.

Transfers In | £26,000,000

We have recruited massively this season, and with the congested fixture list weighing heavy on my mind I have decided to build a squad, over-compensating for a medical crisis.

The signings of Matt Jarvis from West Ham United and Rickie Lambert from Southampton, I feel, will be the two signings of the year from any Championship club.

I tried to sign Rickie while I was at Everton and the sum was going to be around £7,000,000 - so to get him a couple of seasons later, still fit as a fiddle and hot in front of goal at £750,000 is a big move for the club. Jarvo will offer great success in our system down the left-hand side, as a direct 4-5-1 is likely the way we'll go.

Transfers OUT | £59,000,000

All of these players that left the club, I had a replacement in line who could fit into the position just as well, if not better.

Perhaps the only departure where that wasn't the case was Steven N'Zonzi, who went to Premier League club Watford for £10,000,000. However, he was determined to leave Stoke and made it clear he would do anything to force a move away. I don't need that attitude around the group. I'd rather have five committed very average footballers than one ego-maniac brilliant footballer.

Attacking midfielder Dan Rotariu to AS Roma for £20,000,000 may well cause us some problems, but again with the style of place I'm implementing here he wouldn't have fit - we have more than enough cover for this position and we won't be using a direct AM(C) anyway.

Robbie Kruse, Asmir Begovic and Juan Agduelo were the other big money departures.

In Summary

On the whole, this has been a quietly successful window for the club both in terms of finance and on the pitch. I am now really looking forward to the new season and will bring you the August-December review very soon indeed.

lot of experienced players signed, should set you up well for the coming season

great transfers also cant believe the turn over of transfers

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Hi guys,

Just a quick note to let you know that this story has not finished and it WILL return.

However, I am well ahead of this story in terms of the save, but my motivation to write the Martinez story slowly diminished.

Instead, I have been writing a (so far) fairly popular Mourinho story. That can be found by clicking the word 'Mourinho' in the last sentence.

Alternatively, you can find it at the bottom of the article where both of my running stories are documented.

It is a completely different approach for me, as I am writing in the first person, as the character Jose Mourinho. People seem to be enjoying it and I'm certainly enjoying writing it.

I hope I've not disappointed anyone.

This story will be back,
Hunter.

wishing you luck with the mourinho story and will be still following this story

Can't wait for this to return mate, it's awesome!