Latest Stoke City opinion from StokeonTrentLive as our regular forum of supporters reflect on the appointment of Narcis Pelach as the club’s new head coach.

So Narcis Pelach is the latest man tasked with dragging Stoke City out of the doldrums, the sixth man in the dugout at the bet365 Stadium in the last six seasons since the club suffered relegation in May 2018.

His appointment was confirmed yesterday as the Stoke hierarchy moved quickly to replace Steven Schumacher, who was sacked a couple of days before.

Gary Rowett was the man first appointed to lead Stoke back to the top-flight at the first time of asking, and was handed plenty of parachute payments cash to help accomplish the task. When he failed, Stoke first went down the “young, coming man” route by giving the job to Nathan Jones, who never got close to replicating his success with Luton Town in the Potteries.

Then came Michael O’Neill, the tried and trusted Northern Ireland manager who finally looked like he might crack the “impossible job” until the wheels fell off after much tinkering with the Stoke squad to keep within EFL player spending rules.

Again the axe fell, with Tried and Trusted Mk II in the shape of former Norwich, Preston and Sunderland boss Alex Neil, ushered in. Lots of new players arrived, lots of backroom staff and key personnel were shipped out. Result? Another manager exit.

Then came a shift in strategy. Schumacher, a young and thrusting fledgling boss with a promotion on his CV at Plymouth, became head coach rather than manager, working with a sporting director in club legend Jon Walters. The scouser kept Stoke up last season and was five games into this season when his efforts were not deemed sufficient to keep his job.