Getting Nostalgic For Nicky Mohan

The thing I have found hardest to cope with since we got into the Premier League is a slightly odd one.

It’s not about the teams we have played, the ticket prices, the players we face each week, it’s something rather more prosaic than that.

It’s this: All of a sudden people who aren’t Stoke supporters care about us, and moreover, they think they can have an opinion on what we do.

I work for a group of companies that makes its money from Football mainly and not surprisingly most of the people that work with me are keen on the sport. A lot go to matches each week so aren’t totally uninformed, but still.

The situation is made worse by the fact we have Sky Sports News on at work. This is a good thing. I am sat here now watching Martin Johnson being interviewed, and it’s not a bad thing to look at Natalie Sawyer, let’s be honest. But it presents its own problems. It is particularly annoying when we have lost and you have to watch all five Bolton goals going in again and again, and even if you aren’t looking at the screen there’s always somebody who thinks it’s funny to go “look at this Andy” just as we concede.

Take today for example Luke Young is in the goal of the week section and, although I have been in meetings a lot today I must have seen it 10 times.

With this comes the added problem that because everyone has now heard of our players and this is the first time, really, we have been on a losing streak in years, everyone, all the Birmingham, Villa, Coventry, Man Utd, Liverpool and (spit!) Arsenal supporters in the office think they know what’s wrong.

I have heard them all recently: “you have no plan B,” “you have been sussed out,” “you shouldn’t have signed Crouch,” “you get nothing from Delap’s throws anymore,” “why don’t you keep a settled defence?” “Your full-backs are awful,” “how can you afford to leave Palacios on the bench?” “Glen Whelan is your best midfielder.”

And do you know what? Most of the time they are right (ok not about the Glen Whelan thing) but because they aren’t Stoke supporters, even though I  might think that they are right, or at the very least have a point, I find myself defending my club from ridiculous standpoints.

On Saturday last week I was saying to my brother on the way home: “Rory was awful today, I wouldn’t pick him next week.” But at work on the Monday I heard myself saying “Rory is great player still” Now, Rory has been one of our best players of the last five years, of course he has, but if I was talking to a Stoke supporter I would say something entirely different.

So why don’t I allow non Stoke supporters to have an opinion on my club? Precisely because they ARE non Stoke supporters, that’s why! I have 30 odd years of my life invested in this football club, they wouldn’t know the first thing about us if we hadn’t gone up in 2008.

So I have taken to consoling myself with a thought when they have their opinions: They might know Ryan Shawcross and say he was this or that because of his tackle on Aaron Ramsey, but they wouldn’t have a clue who Nicky Mohan was.

And when you get nostalgic for Nicky Mohan, you really do know we are having a bad run.