Tony Pulis: 'I'm big and ugly enough to say I've made mistakes'

There is not a moment's hesitation when Tony Pulis is asked about the strength of his relationship with Peter Coates, the Stoke City chairman. "If I was sacked tomorrow, the one thing I would hope and pray for is that I would never lose my friendship with him or the Coates family," the Stoke manager says. "They're such a wonderful family, very honest and very true to their word. I have tremendous respect for everything they have done. And Peter is more than just a chairman; he's a very good friend as well." Pulis, it should be pointed out, is not about to lose his job and, in any case, his close alliance with Coates ought to allow him to breathe more easily at a time when he is enduring his toughest period since he returned to the Britannia Stadium in 2006 for a second spell in charge. At least that is the theory. The reality is that Pulis has never taken anything for granted – "complacency is such a disastrous word," he says at one point during the interview – and, in his eyes, the rapport that he enjoys with Coates and the chairman's son and daughter, John and Denise, who run Bet365, the family business that has pumped upwards of £50m into Stoke, has only ever increased the load on his shoulders. "John, Peter's son, is a football nut – they named their son Stan, after Stanley Matthews. When you have got that ingrained in the people that you are working with, it most possibly brings more pressure, because I am so desperate not to let them down as a family, because I know how hard they've worked to put this club where it is," Pulis says. "For that reason, it's a bigger burden than managing other clubs, because of the friendship that has been born over what we've achieved over the five and a half years." During that time, Stoke have won promotion from the Championship, finished 12th, 11th and 13th in the Premier League, reached the first FA Cup final in their history and qualified for Europe for the first time in 37 years. Coates has described Pulis as "Stoke's best ever manager", yet the Welshman knows that some fans want more. "You can't manage the expectations," Pulis says. "I think what you have to do at times is say: 'Have a look at what you had five and a half years ago and have a look at what you have got now.' People like picking the roses but they never get time to smell them." Now would be a good time for some perspective. Stoke, on the face of it, are on the slide. They have lost their past four Premier League matches, conceding 14 goals in the process, and host Blackburn Rovers on Saturday desperate to find a remedy for the alarming slump that has provided them with an unwelcome reality check at a time when they are on the verge of qualifying for the knockout stage of the Europa League. It was not the scenario Stoke supporters envisaged after a summer of heavy investment that included a reported £20m splurge on Peter Crouch, Wilson Palacios and Cameron Jerome on deadline day. "It was £18m," Pulis points out. "and I think if you look at it, no disrespect, we have paid for five players [this summer] what Liverpool have paid for [Jordan] Henderson. We've got [Matthew] Upson, [Jonathan] Woodgate, Jerome, Palacios and Crouch. They bought Henderson. We're in the same league. Or supposed to be." Although the last remark was delivered with a chuckle, Pulis would be the first to admit that there has been little to laugh about in recent weeks. He was furious after the 5-0 defeat against Bolton Wanderers , which he described as being "in the bottom three or four performances in my eight and a half years at this football club", and any hopes that the players had got that result out of their system during the international break were extinguished when Stoke lost 3-2 at home to Queens Park Rangers last Saturday . City are looking vulnerable for the first time since a bad run around Christmas in the season after they won promotion to the Premier League in 2008. The Britannia Stadium has witnessed three successive defeats, Rory Delap's long throw-ins no longer seem to be causing such consternation, and the up-and-at-them approach that has served Stoke so well has been combated by opponents working every bit as hard, prompting doubts to surface about whether their gameplan is starting to unravel. Pulis, however, has a more simple explanation for the downturn in domestic results. He points to the demands of playing on Thursday nights in Europe, which he admits he underestimated, and abject defending as the principal reasons for their poor form. "We've gone through the goals that we've conceded, and it's our own fault," he says. "It's not teams ripping us to bits. [Luis] Suárez scored a goal against us the other week , where he cut inside and nutmegged Shotts [Ryan Shotton], but apart from that you can't pick a goal that we couldn't have stopped. It has been individual mistakes that have cost us. "I also think there's got to be more understanding from myself in respect of what we're trying to get out of the players. And after the Bolton game, maybe I've looked at it with the view that to ask the players to play three games a week shouldn't be too much. But then when you speak to other managers who have got much more experience than me, and they tell you what they've gone through, they've all said that [Europe] takes a hell of a lot out of the lads, especially your first go at it, because it's so new." Pulis feels that Stoke have been particularly unfortunate with the amount of travelling. "I saw an article with [Kenny] Dalglish the other day, where he is moaning about having to go down to London 48 hours before a game. Yet we'd just been to Timbuktu and back," he adds. "We've played in Kiev, Split, Tel Aviv, we've got to go to Turkey. I think we've covered something like 15,000 miles and we've played 22 games already." With another nine fixtures to come in December alone, Pulis says he is thinking of no more than "staying in the Premier League again", especially as he is determined "to give Europe our best shot". Trying to compete in both competitions has caused clubs problems in the past, and although Pulis has considerable strength in depth, he knows just how hard it can be to integrate new and higher-profile players into a club where success has been built on a team ethos. "We're trying to get better individuals, players who are technically better, but still keep that DNA," he says. "That's what we're all about, so we want better players that will work as hard as the rest of the group and join in with the dressing room. That isn't easy. And if you find one that doesn't completely conform to what you want to do and doesn't join in, you move them on. And I'm big enough and ugly enough to hold my hand up and say I've made mistakes at times in that area." Pulis accepts that Stoke "can't keep paying out the big fees", and for that reason there is a renewed effort to develop homegrown talent, which the manager has vowed to support despite his long-standing reservations about academies. "I think the academy is a giving organisation. They give and give, and when you ask the kids to give something back it can be very difficult because you've given them everything. I have my own views on it and Peter knows that, but I have promised Peter I will put my heart and soul into backing it." His more immediate focus is getting the first team back on track against Blackburn and trying to ensure that the club continues to move in an upward trajectory under his management. "I think most probably that is my biggest challenge," Pulis says, "because I think everybody accepts there's a level that you can go to, and I think getting to the FA Cup final last year and retaining Premier League status was absolutely amazing. Now people want you to do even better." Every 90 minutes, Barclays Ticket Office is offering fans the chance to win free tickets to Barclays Premier League matches. Visit barclaysticketoffice.com