'We really needed a striker and we signed one... then I was sacked. I found that mental'

STEVEN Schumacher has opened up on his time at and exit from Stoke City in the most comprehensive interview since he left the club almost a year ago.

- Peter Smith

Schumacher was parachuted into a mini crisis at Stoke in December 2023 after a huge reset overseen by Alex Neil and Ricky Martin had started to go south. He had enjoyed success at Plymouth Argyle and admits now that this job was too much of an opportunity to turn down, having brushed aside interest from Swansea and Millwall the previous summer.

It proved to be a turbulent time. He immediately brought in Luke Cundle, who had been on loan with him at Argyle, and revealed now that he tried to get Finn Azaz too, who ended up going to Middlesbrough. Niall Ennis, another Plymouth old boy signed from Blackburn as well, and through ups and downs and dramatic off-field exits, Stoke stayed up.

There was a rebuild last summer and Stoke signed 10 senior players but Schumacher had wanted to bring in three more from Plymouth plus Cundle and he suggests that he “wasn’t on the same page” as sporting director Jon Walters, who had replaced Martin in the spring before Stoke found form to survive.

And five league matches into the new term, he was given his notice.

Now in charge at Bolton Wanderers, he has opened up on the experience for the Inside The Game podcast, saying: “We had the lowest budget (at Argyle). We had a really low budget in League One, like £4m, and people were then spending more in League One than we had in the Championship. It was a really small budget and we were favourites to go down.