Stoke City sack manager Michael O'Neill after poor start to Championship season

25.08.2022, 13:07 skysports.com

Stoke City have sacked manager Michael O'Neill after a poor start to the Championship season. Stoke have won just one of their first five Championship games, leaving them one place outside of the bottom three after targeting promotion in pre-season. They were beaten 1-0 at home to Sunderland on Saturday and, earlier this month, they were knocked out of the Carabao Cup first round by League One Morecambe on penalties. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Following that latest defeat to Sunderland, O'Neill - who joined the club in November 2019 when they were bottom of the Championship after working as Northern Ireland manager - had called for "perspective" around Stoke's start to the campaign. "We're five games into the season, there's a lot of football to be played and I think it's about keeping it in perspective as well and that's what we'll try to do," he said. "This is quite a new squad of players and we've lost five or six players to injury who would push to be in our starting 11 so we're not really where we can be at this minute of time. "I think we've got a really good team in our dressing room, but that's easy for me to say because we haven't shown that." Stoke finished 14th in O'Neill's two full seasons in charge after he led them away from the relegation zone and up to 15th in 2019/20. Championship Table Championship fixtures Get Sky Sports Get NOW TV - save more than 25% Live football on Sky Sports this week Latest Championship news Sky Sports' Paul Gilmour: "Stoke had multiple issues when O'Neill took charge in November 2019, including inflated wages and, as a result, senior players lacking in motivation and refusing to move on because of their contract situations. "O'Neill, with a degree in sports directorship and experience of running the entire football operation during his spell as Northern Ireland boss, had significant input into the rebuild. "Over time he helped stabilise the club by helping to reduce the wage bill from £40m to £20m, he restructured the medical and sports science departments and brought in more young players. "Many of them became assets to Stoke - Nathan Collins joined Burnley for £12m. "The next step was to get Stoke back into the Premier League and there had been gradual improvement season on season from where they started. "However, a poor run of results at the beginning of the current campaign led to fan pressure and ultimately the decision was taken by the club." Another Saturday, another chance to win £250,000 for free. Entries by 3pm Saturday.