Andy Tillson - Pottering On

Andy Tillson has again been approached by some of Europes biggest clubs this month. This time French side Lyon, Spaniards Atletico Madrid and perhaps his biggest offer to date Italian Champions Juventus.

All 3 are managerless having sacked the previous managers, all for poor performances this season. Lyon and Atletico Madrid are currently way out of the European qualifying frame and are both out of their respective cups. Juventus is a slightly different story, they failed to reach the knock-out rounds of the Champions League after they finished bottom of their group.

It’s believed that all 3 have agreed the same terms that AC Milan and Atheltic Bilbao had. This is paying Stoke £2m in compensation fees if Tillson accepts an offer and all 3 will have to travel to Stoke to meet with Tillson.

Chairman Peter Coates has stuck to his word and doesn’t seem to want to stand in Tillson’s way of moving up in the managerial world.

The race to appoint highly rated Stoke City manager Andy Tillson has hotted up. Liverpool and Valencia have now entered the running, both agreeing to meet Stoke's demands. They join Juventus, Atletico Madrid and Lyon. Tillson has already rejected job offers from AC Milan and Atheltic Bilbao because he wanted to remain with Stoke and complete what he has set out to do.

It's believed that all of these clubs feel that they can prize the manager away with the lure of higher wages and the promise of more money to spend. This isn't expected to make Tillson's head turn after the similar offers were made by AC Milan and Athletic Bilbao.

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I think Tilson will stay at the Potters, but it would be a whole new twist if he didn't o.O

Tillson should stay at the Potters! #Tillson2Stay

It's hard to decide, some of those clubs are huge opportunities and some, with where I have Stoke, are a step down or side ways at most.

Andy Tillson recently spoke with 5 clubs about their vacant managerial positions. The clubs being Juventus, Liverpool, Atletico Madrid, Lyon and Valencia. Tillson declined to even talk with 3 of the clubs, those clubs were Liverpool, Lyon and Valencia but decided to listen to what Juventus and Atletico Madrid had to offer.

Tillson had supposedly rejected Liverpool, Lyon and Valencia due to their poor offers and he stated that he felt the position he had Stoke in now and the clubs good financial situation meant moves to any of these clubs spelled a side ways move. A controversial opinion because all of the clubs are seen as bigger clubs than Stoke.

Tillson had his head turned by the initial prospect of joining either Atletico Madrid or back-to-back Serie A Champions Juventus. He decided that he would meet the clubs representatives in Stoke and enter talks to see what they had to offer. Talks broke down with Atletico Madrid within the first hour after the club decided that Tillson would be working with a smaller budget than he started with at Stoke.

Juventus' talks went on for a few hours. Juventus had said all the right things, offered him good wages, a good transfer budget and a good wage budget. He was happy with the playing squad he had to work with for December before he could add his own signings. However it came to light that despite talks going well Tillson had decided to reject the offer from Juventus.

Tillson spoke with us for sometime and revealed his reason for rejecting the offer from Juventus was because he has fallen in love with Stoke. The team this season has finally come into their own and began performing above the standard he had expected. Tillson believes that he can take Stoke into Europe and he wants his first taste of European football as the manager of Stoke.

He went onto say that he owes Stoke a lot, when the team was going through a rough patch they stuck by him, the Chairman supported him and the fans showed their love for him. He feels he owes them a lot, if they did decided to let him go his career could be very, very different right now.

So, Tillson will remain with Stoke for now. We are looking forward to see what comes from the rest of their season.

Results

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Stoke had an unreal month, going unbeaten over 8 games. Stoke were playing in the form of their lives as Stoke fired themselves into 3rd place and are slowly but surely building a gap between them and 5th. The month saw all of the players involved come together and work well as a team, like a well oiled machine,

Table

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Stoke City's Player of the Month - Abel Hernández

Abel went on to score 6 goals over the month and assisted 4. His contribution this month really showed and it's obvious to see how well he has settled over the last two months.

Brilliant set of results, the title chase is on!

Stoke City have announced the signing of Mohammed Diamé from Premier League side West Ham after they met his £3.5m release clause. Diamé will join up with the team immediately but won't play for at least a month, due to an injury he had picked up while at West Ham.

Diamé is an established international, playing 19 times for Senegal. The midfiedler has made 118 Premier League appearances since moving to Wigan in 2009. Since then he has gained the reputation of a tough tackling midfielder. During his time at Wigan he had turned the heads of Liverpool and Arsenal with his performances but decided to move to West Ham when his contract at Wigan ran out.

Whilst at West Ham his performances again gained him high interest from Europes top clubs but none followed up their interest, much to the pleasure of West Ham. That was until Stoke met Diamé's release clause a week ago and West Ham were obliged to let Diamé talk with Stoke.

Meanwhile Stoke have sold Brek Shea and Charlie Adam to Espanyol and Wolves respectively. Both left for £1.6m each. Shea had been having a tough time this season with Stoke with the arrival of Lerin Duarte and he fell out of the side. He was told he could leave on loan but decided to remain at Stoke and fight for a place. His chance never came with the form of Duarte and Etherington. He made 13 appearances over 2 seasons at Stoke with 0 coming in his second season.

Stoke already had an abundance of central midfielders with N'Zonzi, Carrick, Casarini, Yttergård Jenssen, Diskerud and Ness. Adam was still making appearances but not anywhere near enough to warrant his wages. He made just 8 appearances for Stoke this season in contrast he made 26 in Tillson's first season in charge.

awesome story so far abel hernandez and diame are complete bargains and some great results. good luck going for champions league this season

2013-05-02 13:07#97016 Hortensius : awesome story so far abel hernandez and diame are complete bargains and some great results. good luck going for champions league this season

Thank you.

Yeah, Palermo got relegated after the first season so Abel was really cheap. Diame had a release clause but I was really surprised no one else had activated, especially as he was in the BPL team of the year after the first season.

Thanks for reading!

Results

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Stoke have continued their impressive form and are now 13 games unbeaten in the Premier League. The month started off well knocking out League One side Sheffield United in the FA Cup. They continued their form going into the first league of the Capital One Cup Semi Final against Arsenal and defeated them in a hard fought game, the winning goal came from 45 yards out and was Carrick's first ever Stoke goal! A win against the Premier League champions Manchester United followed and then came retribution against Nottingham Forest after losing to them in the opening month.

Stoke then played Arsenal for the 5th time of Tillson's reign and recorded their 5th win against them in that time to put themselves in the final of the Capital One Cup. They will play Championship side Brighton in the final. They went on to record a draw in the FA Cup and will have to play Huddersfield again to decided who ventures forward. Finally came the game against West Ham, Diamé made his debut for Stoke and was involved from the outset. Setting up one and scoring another against the side he signed from

Table

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Stoke City's Player of the Month - Denis Stracqualursi

Denis scored 4 goals over the month and assisted 3 being ever present in wins over Manchester United and Arsenal.

Some great result there Gas! The wins against Arsenal and United are massive! Diame is good as f*ck! Good luck in the push to win the Premier League! If you are looking for a great playmaker I'd go for Isco and Herrera.

Mathias 'Zanka' Jørgensen has arrived in Stoke today to finalise his £5m move from PSV. The tough tackling, hard hitting center back was subject to a couple of bids from Stoke earlier in the window but with PSV firm on not selling him they opted to look elsewhere. Jørgensen was not happy about this and asked to be put on the transfer list, which PSV reluctantly did. Stoke came back in quickly with a bid which was duly accepted.

'Zanka' has previously played senior football for Danish giants FC Copenhagen where he played for 5 years before joining PSV in 2012 on a free transfer. He had played a total of 30 games over the course of 2 seasons. He has also played 13 times for Denmark's U21 side, scoring once and played for the senior side on 6 occasions.