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Can anyone put their finger on the problem - never mind the solution - at Stoke City?

Relegated with little more than a whimper after a good 12 months of decay under Mark Hughes, a prospective promotion campaign ending with 16th place, and two managers, and now bottom of the Championship with one point from the first six games.

Not even the most hopeless pessimist, maybe not even their worst enemy, could have conceived such a miserable start.

But how has it come to this? If we try and reduce it to one word, that word would be PLAYERS.

Because by starting with the players we can branch out and explore all four corners of the football club.

It starts at the very top and FINANCE.

Have the owners provided enough money to obtain and keep the best possible players at Stoke City?

They would argue they have and point to the number of expensive signings made by Gary Rowett 12 months ago, the most in the Championship, and the dozen signings made on the watch of his successor Nathan Jones.

Many of the 10 summer signings were free agents, but they would point to the considerable wages deployed to lure them here.

Given the comings and the not-so-many goings at Stoke, plus the salaries still being partially paid to those out on loan, the club’s wage bill must be the highest in the Championship and possibly by some margin.

The vagaries of Financial Fair Play also ensure that even wealthy owners must tighten their belt, whether they like it or not, once their club has left the money-spinning roller coaster of the Premier League and this has undoubtedly impacted on Stoke this summer.

There is still wriggle room on the negotiation of individual contracts, however, and the size of those contracts over the past two or three years have been eye-watering.

And the subsequent loss incurred by the removal of those players must have torn gaping holes through the club’s balance sheet.

Whether the club’s hierarchy is guilty of dishing out over-generous contracts with clauses destined to come back and bite them is something outsiders can only speculate upon.

(Image: Leanne Bagnall)

The knock-down sale of Xherdan Shaqiri to Liverpool - for around £13m - was a rare example of such information leaking out and was subsequently defended by Stoke because such a relegation clause was necessary to persuade him to come to the Potteries in the first place.

RECRUITMENT of players - whoever’s fingerprint is on particular purchases - has been little short of abysmal in recent years.

This is not a matter of debate, but a matter of fact.

The balance between good and bad signings hasn’t so much tipped towards the latter as capsized, with the inevitable result of relegation and a subsequent struggle to make any kind of impression in the second tier.

Mark Cartwright is about to vacate the club after nearly seven years overseeing the recruitment process.

A victim of changes to that process, say the club, a victim of too many poor acquisitions, say his critics.

Only he and an inner circle will know how many of the four or five names put in front of a manager ahead of each purchase was unfit for purpose and should have been known to be unfit for purpose.

Which brings us onto MANAGEMENT and/or COACHING.

In some cases, perhaps, the signings were sound at the time and good players became bad players at Stoke City.

(Image: EMPICS Sport)

It happens. Poor management of a player, or poor individual and collective coaching, can soon dampen the euphoria accompanying their arrival.

The current manager knows questions will be asked about whether he sanctioned the signing of the right players for his diamond system - or whether that particular system was too much too soon for just about any group of players.

Many are now questioning the wisdom of signing as many as 10 new players this summer and, to be fair, many of those raising such concerns were probably among those calling for that kind of overhaul of the rotten apples at the end of last season.

Either way, the net result is a bloated squad.

No fewer than 23 players have played some part in the first six Championship fixtures; with Bruno Martins Indi, Adam Davies and Badou Ndiaye still to come.

There are simply too many options once results and/or performances have left the manager seeking alternatives in personnel and system.

Six changes for the Leeds league game and five changes from that starting 11 to the Birmingham line up is surely leaving too much blood on the carpet.

Only Sam Clucas has not suffered the indignity of being dropped this season and so, on top of the lack of continuity and stability, you do worry about the number of sore heads in that dressing room.

(Image: Leanne Bagnall)

However, whatever criticism fans are directing at the manager, owners, chief executive, recruitment, diet and the route taken to away games, the PLAYERS themselves know they cannot escape blame.

Individual errors in front of both goals have cost them games when average performances would surely have gleaned the odd league point.

Questions will be raised about their work-rate after such an horrendous start to their season, but the questions surrounding their confidence and competence appear far more relevant.

Which in turn has further weakened the mental fragility bedevelling the team for far longer than the past month while spirit, too, has inevitably taken a hit and left us watching the anaemic response to falling behind to Leeds and Birmingham in their last two league games.

Fingers will be pointed in various directions and with varying degrees of intensity to try and explain this unfolding crisis at Stoke City Football Club.

As for the solution, unless results change rapidly, that, rightly or wrongly, usually involves the head of only one man.

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