The training guru | Pelach appoints new support staff at Stoke City

Written by Training Ground Guru — September 19, 2024

New Stoke City manager Narcis Pelach has named his new support staff, with Dean Whitehead, Paul Clements and Harrison Glew joining him at the Championship club.

The 36-year-old Catalan has joined the Potters on a three-year contract after 16 months as first-team coach at Norwich City. At the time of his appointment, Pelach was described as “one of the most respected and sought-after managers around” by Stoke City sporting director Jon Walters.

Your assistants at Bet365 will be:

• Dean Whitehead (Assistant): Played for Stoke from 2009 to 2013. Knows Pelach from their time together at Huddersfield Town, where Whitehead coached the Under-17s in 2018/19. Joins from Barnsley, where he was first-team coach.
• Pablo Clements (Goalkeeping coach): Also worked at Huddersfield, from 2015 to 2024, latterly as head of goalkeeping. Followed Pelach to Norwich City in July.
• Harrison Glew (Analyst): He also worked with Pelach at Huddersfield and Norwich. He was a performance analyst for the Terriers from 2020 to 2023 and at Norwich from October 2023.

Schumacher has expressed “surprise” at being sacked as Stoke manager after just nine months in charge.

In a statement released via the LMA, he said: “It was a huge shock to me and my family to be told that I had lost my job at Stoke City. The coaching staff and I have worked tirelessly over the past nine months, and to have our journey at the club cut short is a huge disappointment.

“Our aim last season was to keep the club in the Championship. We achieved what we set out to do and the way we finished the season gave me great confidence that we could achieve this season’s objectives.

“We have won seven of our last ten competitive matches and we started this season by winning four of the first seven games. In my opinion, after an encouraging start, we were only going to get better and I believe that the team we have put together for this season will continue to do very well.”

Four staff members left the club along with Schumacher:

• Mark Hughes (Assistant): He was a youth player for Everton under the head coach and worked on his coaching staff at Plymouth Argyle.
• Chris Cohen (First Team Coach): The former Nottingham Forest player was previously on the staff of Lincoln, Luton and Southampton before joining Stoke in June 2024.
• Peter Cavanagh (First team coach): Coached at Liverpool, Everton and Manchester City academies before joining Schumacher at Plymouth and then Stoke.
• Elliot Turner (Head of Performance): Joined Stoke from Plymouth alongside Schumacher in January 2024.