Stoke City Reportedly Cut Ties With Pulis

Tony Pulis and Stoke City have parted ways after the manager's seven year spell at the Britannia Stadium, a growing number of reports suggest.

The 55-year-old manager, who was appointed in 2006, is understood to have left the club Tuesday afternoon following talks with chairman Peter Coates on Tuesday.

While not always the most popular club in English football, Pulis has maintained Stoke's Premier League status since their promotion to the top flight in 2008, managing to keep the club clear of any serious relegation worries on many occasions since.

But in the closing stages of the 2012/13 campaign, Stoke fans expressed concern with the direction - or lack of one - the club was heading in, despite eventually finishing the campaign in 13<sup>th, an improvement on last season.

Pulis managed Stoke in his first spell at the Britannia between 2002 and 2005, but was hastily brought back to the club in 2006 from Plymouth Argyle when Coates completed his take over.

Since winning promotion through a second place finish in the 2007/08 Championship campaign, Stoke have never finished lower than 14<sup>th in their five seasons in the top flight.

Stoke found themselves in the headlines for all the wrong reasons last Friday when Kenwyne Jones and Glenn Whelan were embroiled in one of the season's more bizarre incidents that sees the duo faced with an internal disciplinary hearing.

Striker Jones found a pig's head - which was subsequently snapped and posted on Twitter by midfielder Brek Shea - wrapped in clothes inside his locker at the club's training facilities. Believing the Irish international be the culprit, the former Southampton and Sunderland man reacted by smashing to windscreen of Whelan's car.

Although Jones has since apologised for the incident, the negative press clouding around the club is unlikely to have helped the disintegrating relationship between the club and Pulis.