Stoke City are taking a big gamble on Norwich City man: View | OneFootball

Pelach has emerged as a front-runner for the Potters' vacant head-coach position, but he is unproven as the main man in the dugout

Stoke City sent shockwaves through English football by sacking head-coach Steven Schumacher this morning after he had spent nine months in charge of the club.

Schumacher was relieved of his duties by sporting director Jon Walters just five games into the new campaign, with two wins and three losses ultimately leading to his dismissal as he became the fifth Potters boss to be sacked in the last six years.

The decision to sack the 40-year-old has come as a shock to many Stoke fans, after he built credit for his job in keeping the club afloat in the Championship last campaign, but Walters and co. have seen fit to allow him to leave and are now looking to swiftly bring in a replacement.

Stoke are seemingly moving quickly to replace the former Plymouth boss, and current Norwich City assistant coach Narcis Pelach has been reported as the Potters' first-choice to take the reins at the bet365 Stadium in the wake of his departure.

This appointment is massive for the Potters' short and long-term future in the second-tier, and so 36-year-old Pelach is a shock name to potentially take charge of the club, as he is unproven as a head-coach as yet in his career, so his potential arrival would undoubtedly be a massive gamble for Stoke's chiefs to take at this moment in time.

Pelach has little experience as a number one in the dugout

Stoke will not have taken the decision to relieve Schumacher of his duties lightly, and the early concrete links to Pelach show that they are certain that he is the man to take the club forward and finally taste some success in the second-tier, but apprehension is understandable given his lack of experience as a head-coach so far in his career after retirement.

The Girona-born coach is a former player, after he turned out for numerous lower-league Spanish sides before his retirement from football in May 2016, when he was just 25-years-old.

After joining fourth-tier outfit Figueres as a player in 2014, he soon started working as a coach of their Juvenil B, and then A team, before he was given his first chance as boss when he became the manager of their first team after his 2016 retirement.

He later became boss of Girona's feeder club, Peralada, in 2018, and held his position there for a year before he became assistant to Juan Carlos Unzué at Girona in 2019, and then left just four months later after he was fired.

It is clear due to his rapid rise that he is highly rated as a coach, and his first experience in England came as he was appointed as Carlos Corberán's assistant at Huddersfield in July 2020, and he went on to take charge of the Terriers twice on an interim basis after the sackings of Danny Schofield in 2022 and Mark Fotheringham in 2023.

The Spainard was reportedly interviewed by Blackpool for their vacant head coach position last May, but instead chose to join Norwich as David Wagner's assistant, as the Canaries then made the play-offs last season but lost out to Leeds, and has since been working under Johannes Hoff Thorup, who was appointed as boss before this campaign after previously being in charge of Nordsjælland.

Despite his inexperience, his appointment would certainly seem to make sense given Stoke's current coaching structure, which sees the head-coach given less control over backroom proceedings and recruitment as they report to director Walters, but more control over the team and the tactics they wish to implement on the pitch.

Regardless, it seems like a huge risk to replace a young, relatively proven head-coach that has just had a summer window and pre-season to implement his tactics, with another young, unproven coach that is coming into a job that many would regard as a poisoned chalice due to its recent history of failures.

Pelach has to buck the trend of failed appointments if he becomes Stoke head-coach

It is clear that there have been deep-rooted issues with Stoke's managerial hotseat over recent years, with a demise that began while Mark Hughes was in charge of the club in the top-flight back in 2016.

Hughes was appointed in 2013 after iconic boss Tony Pulis departed the Potteries, and he improved Stoke for three years before his time at the club went sour and Stoke experienced a downfall that eventually led to his sacking in January 2018, with Paul Lambert then appointed but unable to stop his side succumbing to relegation.

Gary Rowett, a proven Championship manager, was then brought in with the task of taking the Potters back to the Premier League, but he failed to deliver and was replaced by upcoming Luton Town boss Nathan Jones after just eight months in charge.

Jones' time at the bet365 Stadium turned out to be a disaster as he won just six of his 38 games at the helm, and he was sacked and replaced by veteran boss Michael O'Neill, who managed to steady the Potters' ship in his two-and-a-half years in charge, but was then relieved of his duties in August 2022 after a poor start to the new season, in a similar decision to that of the present day.

Stoke again went down the proven Championship manager route as Alex Neil was poached from Sunderland, but he again struggled to consistently improve Stoke's performances in his 18 months in the dugout and was replaced by Schumacher in December of last year, only for the former Plymouth man to last less than ten months despite some positive signs at the end of the 2023/24 season.

The Potters have not finished above 14th place in the second-tier since relegation in 2018, and so it is clear that not one manager or head-coach has succeeded at a club that expected to bounce back to the Premier League at the first time of asking six years ago.

Pelach is clearly a well-rated young coach, and has glowing reviews from across the EFL, but his potential appointment would be another roll of the dice in a long line of different types of appointments made by the Potters in recent years.

It is clear to see that the Spainard must achieve almost instant success as Stoke head-coach if he is brought in, because if not, he could be another boss that is bidding his farewells before long, and the club would be back at square one in the Championship wilderness once again.