Walters defends Stoke manager Robins after exit rumors

Stoke City sporting director Jonathan Walters has denied speculation that manager Mark Robins was on the verge of leaving the club. Rumors have swirled about Robins' future following a run of just one point in their last six games, which saw them finish 17th in the Championship last season. However, Walters called for stability and assured that the 56-year-old former Coventry City manager will lead the team into the new season. "Rumors will always exist in football, but internally we know what's going on and the process we're following in terms of recruitment, in terms of personnel, everything that involves," he told BBC Radio Stoke. "You can't keep responding to rumors. Mark is here, Mark is going to start the season. This club, over time, has been led to change everything. There comes a time when you have to offer stability to a football club, stability to the players, stability to everyone and say 'actually, we are building something, we are trying to do something'." When he was appointed in January 2025, Robins became the club's seventh permanent manager since their relegation from the Premier League in 2018. Unlike many teams who are relegated, and despite a healthy budget, the Potters have failed to challenge for promotion in either season since their descent, having achieved a best finish of 14th. Hopes were high last October when they finished second after 14 games, but a series of injuries compromised their good start, with the Potters winning just three of their last 20 meetings. “Everyone’s expectations rose at the beginning of the year,” Walters said. "We were exceeding expectations a little, but losing so many players so quickly, in just a few weeks, and not through muscle injuries, was the biggest blow. We had two shoulder injuries in a week, a knee, an ankle, operations one after the other. People were just adapting, we were just getting started. It will affect you and we just haven't recovered from it. Even with all this interruption from injuries during the middle of the season, Walters emphasized that the end of the campaign still fell short of expectations and made his ambitions clear. "We are not going to beat ourselves up. We can talk about injuries and other reasons why you struggle at certain times, but we didn't finish the season well enough," he said. "We knew things weren't good at certain times and the club's expectations are not to finish 13th. The club's expectations this year are that we have to be close to the play-off places, we have to be. With the team we're building, with what we've been able to bring, we have to be there. This is the expectation that needs to be set.