Stoke City must have real Bolton Wanderers envy - did they make big Steven Schumacher mistake? | OneFootball

Former Stoke City boss Steven Schumacher has just guided Bolton Wanderers back to the Championship

For a tenth consecutive season, Stoke City have finished in the bottom half of whichever league they have played in, having gone through as many as nine permanent bosses in that period.

Stoke City are cursed, or at least that's what it appears to look like.

But when you scratch beneath the surface, their demise from Premier League regulars to Championship dwellers, and subsequent stagnation, becomes clear.

Mark Hughes, Paul Lambert, Gary Rowett, Nathan Jones, Michael O'Neill, Alex Neil, Steven Schumacher, Narcis Pelach, and now Mark Robins, together have spent over £100 million on incomings over the past decade, together have failed to break into the top half during that time, with Robins now facing the threat of being sacked, as previously exclusively revealed by Football League World.

Schumacher's dismissal for Pelach after a mere four games into the 2024/25 season was puzzling at the time, given he had just overseen the summer transfer window and was being replaced by a relative unknown.

Pelach would win just three of his 19 games in charge and was dismissed after just three months. Meanwhile, Schumacher joined Bolton Wanderers in League One in January 2025 and has just created history with the Trotters, much to the likely dismay of the Potters hierarchy.

Steven Schumacher has just guided Bolton Wanderers back to the Championship, whilst Stoke City continue to stagnate

In his first half-season in charge of Bolton, Schumacher guided the club to 8th, ten points behind Leyton Orient in 6th, but there remained a degree of optimism that he was the right man for the job.

The former midfielder had previously guided Plymouth Argyle to the third-tier title in 2023 with 101 points before making the jump to Stoke, and was tasked with doing similar in Greater Manchester.

Following Bolton's 4-1 victory over Stockport County at Wembley on Sunday, the Trotters will be playing Championship football for the first time in seven years courtesy of Schumacher, who will no doubt be relishing the opportunity to get one over his former employers.

Indeed, he would help Stoke to safety in the 2023/24 season under difficult circumstances, and after overseeing the following summer window, he was even surprised by his dismissal, winning two and losing two of the club's opening four league games.

The 42-year-old would reveal that, even weeks later, he had still not learned the reasoning for his sacking, saying: "I don’t understand and I still haven’t had a full explanation on why I lost my job.

"Jon Walters said he’d sit and explain stuff to me in a couple of weeks when things have died down, but as of this moment we still haven’t had that chat.

"In leaving Plymouth I knew I was going into a different type of environment and I understood the risks in going to Stoke City.

"I know when some managers get sacked, they need that time out to have a breather but I haven’t come out of it thinking I need a break, if anything, it’s given me a bit more fuel and fire in my belly."

A fire in his belly, he has had, as Schumacher will be keen to get stuck into this upcoming summer window to shape his Bolton squad for next season, where he will be desperate to prove that his former employers made the wrong decision in his dismissal.

It looked certain that the Potters were going to have their best season in a decade this time around, challenging both Coventry City and Middlesbrough in the automatic positions for much of the early stages.

However, with only Sheffield Wednesday picking up fewer points in the final 30 games of the season, Stoke slipped to 17th, and the status quo resumed.

Whether Robins is the man to break the cycle remains to be seen. Though with Portsmouth boss John Mousinho having been touted for the role in case of Robins' departure, a huge degree of uncertainty and misdirection continues to cloud the Potteries, as Stoke lurch from one disappointment to another.

Steven Schumacher will feel as though he has a point to prove to Stoke City after Bolton Wanderers success

Schumacher's latest success is just another indication of his capability at this level, and next season he will be hoping to firmly establish himself as a Championship manager with Bolton, having not really been given the opportunity by Stoke.

Previous sporting director, Ricky Martin, was the man who earmarked Schumacher's appointment, but after eight weeks, he was out the door, and Walters was in.

Walters made haste in stamping his authority on the club by dismissing Schumacher and bringing in Pelach, a decision that has since been met with a huge degree of scrutiny.

In truth, as long as Stoke have no clear plan or direction to go in, almost every manager/head coach is doomed to fail at the club, and Schumacher was a mere victim of that volatility.

Schumacher will want to get one over his former employers at the earliest opportunity, and with each of Rowett, Jones, and Neil coming back to haunt them after their dismissals, only a fool would back against Schumacher to do the same.