Sunderland given Premier League transfer lesson amid spending spree – ‘I’ve been told’…
Ex-Stoke City manager Tony Pulis has insisted, “you don’t have to spend hundreds of millions to stay in the Premier League.”
The 67-year-old former boss was the master at getting the best of his players in a structure that meant his teams were extremely difficult to play against.
He was twice manager of the club, across 10 years overall, and was regarded as an excellent tactician who worked on a tight budget in keeping the club in the top division, with work ethic and team spirit his go-to mantra.
Speaking to Fruity King, Pulis believes selecting the right players is key as clubs like Sunderland, Leeds United and Burnley aim to stay up next season.
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Pulis said: “I’ve been told that Sunderland might go and keep spending and I think all three promoted teams need to do that.
“But, what is important is that the manager has the system that he wants to play and the players coming in have to be better than the players that he had last year – but they have to suit the system because that is how you get results.
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“It won’t be the individual players, it will be if the team is solid enough to keep some clean sheets and be solid enough then to go forward, create chances and score goals. It’ll be interesting to see how that pans out over the next month or so before the season starts.”
Investing in the right players is the one key element as far as Pulis is concerned.
“If you’re smart enough and invest in the right players, you don’t have to spend hundreds of millions to stay up in the Premier League,” he told Fruity King.
“Whether they’re Premier League players who can’t break into the first team or whether they’re players that you can take out of the Championship that you know will step up, you’ve got to be really smart with it.
“It amazes me when teams just throw money at players individually but collectively they are a mess, that makes no sense whatsoever to me.
“If you haven’t got the right characters, if you haven’t got the right structure, if you haven’t got everybody pointing in the right direction, you are not going to be successful.
“You talk about Liverpool, you talk about Man City, you’ve won the league year after year. All their players have got tremendous attitudes off the ball as well as on the ball.
“They’re good footballers, they’re better footballers than most of the players around them and that quality is there. But those players work hard as well. Those players gel together, work together and perform together as a team.”
Pulis believes the fans will have a big part to play and being a one-club city can work to the Mackems advantage. It’s one of the reasons he believes teenage sensation Chris Rigg will stay this summer.
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