Tony Pulis

With Stoke amongst the favourites for relegation upon their return to the top flight after a 23-year absence, Stoke went on to comfortably survive and finished in 12th position.

Anthony Richard Pulis (born 16 January 1958) is a Welsh football manager and former footballer who last managed Sheffield Wednesday.

Pulis obtained his FA coaching badge at age 19, followed by his UEFA 'A' licence aged 21 – making him one of the youngest professional players ever to have obtained the qualification.

His son, Anthony, was a professional footballer and played at Stoke.

Pulis had a 17-year career as a defender where he played for Bristol Rovers, Newport County, AFC Bournemouth and Gillingham.

He also had a short spell in Hong Kong with Happy Valley.

Pulis took his first steps into management at Bournemouth, where he was a player/coach and then Harry Redknapp's assistant.

He then took control when Redknapp left the club.

Pulis made 85 league appearances for the Pirates before leaving to join Hong Kong club Happy Valley AA in 1982.

The club finished second in the Hong Kong First Division League and won the Hong Kong Senior Challenge Shield in his eight-month stint with the club.

He then returned to Rovers the following year and made a further 45 league appearances before moving to his home town club Newport County in 1984.

At Newport, Pulis became a popular member of the squad and his former County teammate David Giles believes Pulis was always destined for top-level management.

With County struggling financially, Harry Redknapp signed Pulis at AFC Bournemouth, spending three years at Dean Court before joining Gillingham in 1989 for £10,000 on a three-year deal.

Gillingham manager Damien Richardson had envisaged utilising Pulis as a sweeper but his time in Kent was blighted by an injury suffered in a pre-season friendly against West Ham, limiting him to just 16 appearances.

After contemplating a career outside of football and studying for a small business qualification Pulis returned to Bournemouth a year later for a fee of £15,000 to take up a player/coach role.

He made 16 appearances, scoring one goal, while in this role.

Pulis was promoted to the position of manager in 1992, following Harry Redknapp's decision to leave the club for Premier League side West Ham United.

He then went on to Gillingham before leaving in 1999 after a dispute with chairman Paul Scally.

Pulis then had unsuccessful spells at Bristol City and Portsmouth before being appointed manager of Stoke City in 2002.

He guided Stoke through a tough 2002–03 season avoiding relegation to the Second Division on the final day of the season.

He spent two more seasons with Stoke before being sacked by Stoke's Icelandic board for "failing to exploit the foreign market".

He spent the 2005–06 season at Plymouth Argyle before returning to Stoke along with Peter Coates.

After narrowly missing out on a play-off spot in the 2006–07 season he guided Stoke to the Premier League in the 2007–08 season by finishing runners-up in the Championship.

Pulis made history during the 2010–11 season as he guided Stoke to their first FA Cup Final after beating Bolton Wanderers 5–0 in the semi-final.

The Potters, however, lost the final 1–0 to Manchester City, but had the consolation of qualifying for European football.

In the UEFA Europa League, Stoke lost 2–0 on aggregate in the round of 32 to Spanish giants Valencia.

The 2012–13 season saw Stoke make little progress and Pulis left the club by mutual consent on 21 May 2013.

Pulis returned to management on 23 November 2013 joining Crystal Palace on a two-and-a-half-year contract.

He guided Palace away from relegation, to their highest Premier League finish of 11th in 2013–14, which earned him the Premier League Manager of the Season award.

He left the club, however, shortly before the start of the subsequent season.

He joined West Bromwich Albion in January 2015, a post he held until November 2017.

Pulis achieved a top half finish with West Brom in the 2016–17 season, finishing 10th, but the club made a poor start to the following season, culminating in his sacking.

On Boxing Day 2017, Pulis was appointed manager of Middlesbrough, a post he held until May 2019.

Pulis spent two seasons at Bournemouth, both seasons saw the "Cherries" finish in 17th position before moving on.

During his time at the club Pulis spent less than £400,000 on transfers, but recouped nearly £2.7 million in player sales.

Among his purchases was Steve Fletcher, signed from Hartlepool United for £30,000, who would go on to make a record 728 appearances for the Dorset side across two spells.

On 13 November 2020, Pulis returned to management when he was named manager of Sheffield Wednesday; however, on 28 December, he was sacked after 10 games in charge.

Pulis began his career at Bristol Rovers where he joined their school of football excellence in Eastville from Newport YMCA.

Pulis cites his time at Eastville as an excellent grounding with his Rovers teammate and friend Ian Holloway also making it in football management.

"We learned our trade at a football club with really, really good people who had old fashioned values, I truly believe that it's because of the way we were brought up back then that we have managed to go on and achieve what we have done in the game. The basic principles were drilled into us, both on and off the pitch. Nothing was given to us and we had to work very, very hard for everything we got."