“Would be wrong to sack him now” – Stoke City fan pundit issues honest Michael O’Neill verdict

This article is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk’ series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

After meandering their way to a 14th place finish in the Championship in 2021, Stoke City would have been hoping to push on under the guidance of manager Michael O’Neill this season.

However, despite showing glimpses of promise during the opening stages of the campaign, a lack of form since the turn of the year has resulted in the Potters slipping down the second-tier standings.

Stoke have won just two of their last 10 league games and are now 11 points adrift of the play-off places.

Seemingly set for another year in the Championship, it will be intriguing to see whether Stoke decide to stick by O’Neill whose current deal at the bet365 Stadium is set to run until 2023.

Whereas O’Neill has overseen some encouraging performances since his appointment in 2019, the Potters have not made any progress at this level in the current term and thus it is hardly a surprise that the pressure is starting to build on the 52-year-old.

Making reference to O’Neill, FLW’s Stoke City fan pundit Ben Rowley has admitted that while he believes that it will be wrong to sack him at the present moment, he has suggested that next season will be crucial for the Northern Irishman in terms of his future at the club.

Speaking to FLW about the Stoke boss, Rowley said: “There’s two sides to this.

“I think off the pitch he has helped improve the club dramatically, it’s much less toxic and there’s a better culture of players at the club.

“On the pitch though, there are lots of mitigating circumstances, injuries, decisions, luck, whatever