Just three wins from his 12 games in charge in all competitions has seen the mood turn sour once again for Stoke fans, who are languishing in 19th in the Championship table, and just three points above the dreaded drop zone.

Vital victories against Rotherham United, Birmingham City and QPR are all that have kept the former Stevenage player from buying his side a one-way ticket to the drop zone, something that would have seen unimaginable for a side that was something of a Premier League regular a decade ago.

Steven Schumacher’s contract situation

The Coates family – who bought the club for a reported fee of £1.7 million back in 2006 – offered Schumacher a three-and-a-half-year deal when he joined the club back in December, with the hope that he could be the man to fire them back up the table.

The Plymouth Herald reported that the former Argyle boss’s new deal was worth in excess of £1 million a year up until it expires at the end of the 2026/27 season.

The same paper also revealed that Argyle received a ’substantial six-figure sum’ to allow Schumacher to make the move to Staffordshire, meaning he has already cost the club a lot of money, which so far has not been justified.

Stoke City bosses who have faced the sack

With the Potters already on their sixth manager since Paul Lambert was in charge in 2018, the club is not one renowned for giving their managers the time to turn things around – if the results aren’t coming they are quickly shown the door.

A quick search on Transfermarkt shows a stint of two wins in 15 matches quickly saw Lambert being shown the door before Gary Rowett’s similarly unconvincing spell garnered just nine wins from 29 games in charge.

Nathan Jones’ spell in charge is just as badly remembered around the Potteries – leaving with a 15.79% winning record – before Michael O’Neill steadied the ship between 2019 and 2022.

But once O’Neill was out the door after a slow start to last season, normal service was resumed with Alex Neil given just over 15 months in charge before Schumacher took over at the end of 2023.

The signs were there for the young manager to see before he made the move to the Potteries, but he decided to persist with the move; he has inherited a squad that has so much potential, but for one reason or another can’t make it click on the field.

Fellow Championship side Sunderland have shown that if a manager doesn’t fit you need to pull the plug earlier doors – just as they did with Michael Beale earlier this week after just 12 games in charge – and if things don’t improve rapidly, you wouldn’t be surprised to see Stoke do the same.