Shock 2001 transfer was catalyst for eventual Premier League breakthrough
Younger football fans will mostly remember Stoke City as a Premier League team under the guidance of Tony Pulis and Mark Hughes but the Potters did not get there by chance after so many years lounging around the lower leagues in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Stoke were relegated to the Third Division of English football for only the second time in the club’s history in 1990 and bounced between there and the second tier for the next few years before they went down once again to the third tier in 1998, and then lost out in the play-offs for two consecutive seasons from 1999 to 2001.
Something special was needed to fire the Potters back up, and it was the shock signing of former Netherlands and Ajax winger Peter Hoekstra in July 2001 that set Gudjon Thordason’s side on course back to the second tier, which in turn eventually saw them go on to reach the Premier League not long after.
Hoekstra fuelled Stoke’s success during his time at the club, and beyond, with some star turns that saw him achieve cult-hero status at the Britannia Stadium before his early retirement in 2004.
