With his appointment as manager of Stoke City, Mark Robins is beginning, or at least joining, another construction project.
As Coventry City was on the verge of being demoted to League Two due to ownership disputes and the prospect of spending a few seasons without a quality home field, Robins rushed into a massive challenge at his previous club.
The challenges at Stoke are entirely different and present throughout the Championship: attempting to compete against teams with Premier League money while adhering to the EFL’s financial fair play regulations.
Robins maintains that it is difficult but doable, saying, “You have to try to do that, without doubt.” “You’ve got to recruit well, develop well, and try to retain as much as that when you can do to make it stronger each season.”
“I use the phrase incremental all the time. The majority of teams lack the funds to declare that they will attempt to purchase the championship, and I don’t believe it’s really a good idea either, so it’s a gradual improvement every year.
Nevertheless, having desperate owners who are prohibited from making investments is annoying.
“I think that’s probably true, but you can also do things in a more sustainable way,” he remarked. Although I’ve never experienced it, you can reinvest and spread the word when you develop and sell players for a substantial sum.
Academy players are also very significant, and you must have that pathway at certain moments so that they can see it.
When Robins puts his feet under the table at the bet365 Stadium, that will be his strategy, but he won’t lose sight of the present.
He said: “I know in my mind what I want to do but I don’t want to set targets or levels. We’ve got more or less half a season to go and we can do whatever want to do but we have to start picking up really good performances on a consistent basis which will then evolve into results and winning games.
The challenge that you have every season changes because of the teams, you have six new ones coming into the Championship and you have to try to hit the ground running but everyone is in the same boat.
“You have to build in the Championship, you have to build momentum, certainly if you’re not going out and spending.
“Leeds United’s squad is brilliant, it’s brilliant. They can hurt you, they can hurt anyone on the day because of the level of the player. The budget is big and the expectation is there.
This is their second season down and they need to go back up. I think they’ve strengthened and they’re a really good team who play really attractive football, really attacking football, managed really well, coached really well.
“You want to be able to compete with those. It’s very difficult to be able to compete with those when they are like they are but you can pick points up, you can beat them.
We picked four last season, beat them at home and drew away but this season we lost 3-0. They can hurt you. I think with the other teams in there, each season they are trying to get better and better because they all want to get to the promised land.”
Robins will work with Stoke’s recruitment department and sporting director Jon Walters as Stoke navigate the transfer market.
He said: “I did before at Coventry but then started to not be as involved. Here I’d like a say and to be able to say yes or no but I don’t necessarily need to tread on people’s toes.
I’d like to be able to say I want this player and there’s an avenue to do that. There’s nobody here who is saying you must do this or that.
That’s not the way anyone works and certainly everyone I have come across here is a team player. I’m happy to be that also and I have been, I’m collaborative. I work in collaboration with people when we need to.
“This is a great challenge, a big challenge but a great challenge and one I’m really looking forward to.”
