Mark Robins: Stoke City boss backed by sporting director Jonathan Walters

When he was appointed in January 2025, Robins became the club’s seventh permanent manager since relegation from the Premier League in 2018.

Unlike many sides to fall out of the top flight, and despite a healthy budget, the Potters have failed to challenge for promotion in any season since the drop, with a highest finish of 14th.

Hopes were high last October when they were second after 14 games, but a series of injuries undermined the bright start as the Potters won just three of their final 20 matches.

“Everyone’s expectations were raised at the start of the year,” Walters said.

“We were over-performing slightly, but to lose so many players so quickly, within a few weeks, and not through muscle injuries, that was the biggest blow. We had two shoulders in a week, a knee, an ankle, operations one after another.

“People were just settling in, we were just getting going. It’s going to hurt you and we just didn’t recover from that.”

Yet even with all that injury disruption during the middle of the campaign, Walters stressed the end to the campaign remained below par and has made ambitions plain.

“Let’s make no bones about it, you can talk about injuries and other things and the reasons why you struggle at certain times, [but] we didn’t finish the season good enough,” he said.

“We knew things weren’t good enough at certain times and the expectations of the football club are not to finish 13th.

“The expectations of the football club this year, [are] we’ve got to be up around the play-offs, we’ve got to be.

“With the squad we’re building, with what we’re able to bring in, we’ve got to be there. That’s the expectation that’s got to be set.”