'Do I think I've cared too much at times? Maybe that's the case...'

JOHN Coates came up against a quite frank question in an hour-long interview reflecting on his life as Stoke City owner: why does he bother?

- Peter Smith

SPEAKING OUT: Stoke City chairman John Coates has been addressing life as the leader of the club. Below: Midfielder Steven Nzonzi.

It is, he hinted, a question he was probably asking himself at the end of last season when Stoke had just secured their Championship status on the final day and brought down the curtain on another year in the wrong half of the wrong division.

He has seen major highs as a Stoke supporter and director over the last 19 years but the slog since relegation from the Premier League was feeling interminable. Stoke were on their ninth manager since the start of 2018, had cycled through hundreds of players and a few directors of football and heads of recruitment but the end result kept on being the same.

Coates has faced plenty of flak for that. Few would doubt he was a big Stoke fan himself but could easily see out his days sipping cool beers on a tropical beach. So, yes, why bother?

"It’s an obsession isn’t it?" he told host Rob Adcock on a new episode of the Potters Pod.

"There's no logic to it. You dream about your club doing well and then you get involved and it's an absolute labour of love and you feel like you've got the ability to make a positive difference.

"I suppose at the end of last season was the first time when you've tried everything, you've had experience of doing other stuff where you've had really positive impacts and we've had a great time in the Premier League but then seven seasons of not finishing above 14th and it’s not great and then last season, when we took it to the last game, it's hard.