Stoke City arrange pre-season friendly against Genoa at home

Stoke City’s new manager Mark Hughes

Stoke City have arranged a high profile pre-season friendly with Italian side Genoa on August 10 at the Brittania Stadium in what will be new manager Mark Hughes’ first taste of the atmosphere at the intimidating arena.

“We were approached by a number of European clubs about the possibility of playing at the Britannia Stadium once we made it clear we would be staging a pre-season game at home,” chief executive Tony Scholes was quoted as saying at the club’s official website.

“Mark Hughes felt that Genoa would provide the right test at this stage of our build up.”

The friendly against Genoa is set to take place a week before Stoke open their Premier League campaign against Liverpool at Anfield. The Italians, who finished 17th for the past two seasons in the Serie A, are certainly not a bad outfit themselves having a good pedigree in Italian domestic football. No doubt it is certainly a good way to prepare for the new season before a tough opening day trip for Mark Hughes.

Not many people have openly greeted Mark Hughes’ appointment as the new Stoke City manager yet the former Welsh national team boss is sure to give the 2013-14 Premier League season a new dimension as far as the Potters are concerned. Tony Pulis had been a popular figure among many of the Stoke faithful but with his robust approach the club had a very one-dimensional footballing approach that brought reasonable success at the Brittania Stadium yet not an enduring one some would suspect.

Mark Hughes is immensely experienced with his high profile stints at Manchester City, Fulham, QPR and Blackburn Rovers and the Stoke hierarchy certainly felt that the time is right to bring in a man who plays a more tactically attacking football compared to Pulis’ more defensive and physical approach.

Hughes might not be an outstanding football manager at par with the very best in English football, yet the 49-year-old is a strict disciplinarian with an astute football brain having been a legendary figure at Manchester United during his playing days. Tony Pulis had provided Stoke with the stability required to survive in the Premier League for a long time but now it is Mark Hughes’ duty to take the club to a new level and make it a younger outfit having succeeded last season’s oldest Premier league squad.

Furthermore, the nightmarish stint with QPR is fresh in the former Welsh international’s mind and he would like to rectify the mistakes committed last season at Loftus Road. As Stoke look to cut the number of older players for next season, Hughes knows it would not be wise to go for too many newcomers at inflated prices and the pressure would be sky high as a poor start to the season would not be tolerated at a demanding Brittania Stadium.

Mark Bowen, close friend of Mark Hughes and assistant manager at Stoke, has hailed his good pal’s qualities both as a person and a football manager having been involved together with the beautiful game for a very long time.

In an interview with Sky Sports, Bowen recalls their association at the very top of the game at Wales, Blackburn, QPR, Manchester City and Fulham and feels that Hughes will take Stoke to a new level.

“First and foremost, Mark is a friend. We’ve known each other since we were 12 or 13 years old, a very long time,” said Bowen.

“What qualities does he bring to the job? He’s an excellent tactician and coach; he knows what he wants but at the same time, I wouldn’t call him a person who adopts a ‘my way or the highway’ approach.

“He’s very much open to different opinions. If somebody brings something to the table that he likes, he will take it on board.

“We’ve spoken to one or two of the players. Jonathan Walters popped into the building the other day and we spoke to him and we got a really good reaction from him.

“We work on intensity and demand things on the training ground but good pros always embrace it – it’s only the ones who are not such good pros who react badly to it. We demand high standards from the players all the time.”

The Potters fly off to the United States to prepare for the new season before returning to England and taking on Wrexham at the Racecourse Ground on August 4.