Stoke City have ‘management issue’ as £350m John Coates cash injection explained

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Right now, Stoke City are flying in the league, but that hasn’t always been the case. Even with financial backing, the Potters have struggled, but why?

For the past seven seasons since they were relegated to the Championship, we’ve seen Stoke City languish in the bottom half of the table. The highest they’ve finished is 14th.

Before the 2025/26 Championship season began, most would have written Stoke off as being midtable fodder at best. They’d have been wrong.

After three wins from three, Mark Robins has his team at the top of the league table, for now at least. Is this finally the time that things start looking up for Stoke City? Given their financial backing, it certainly should be happening already.

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Stoke City’s financial position explained

We were intrigued to think about what could and should have been at Stoke over the last few years, considering the fact the Coates family are among the wealthiest owners in the entire EFL.

Speaking to our football finance expert Adam Williams, we dug deeper into just how much money is flowing through Stoke City, and the numbers are shocking.

Williams said: “Stoke City’s revenue at the last count was £32m, which was the third highest in the division besides the parachute payment clubs that season. They certainly have the resources to succeed.

“They’re reinvesting all of that money and then some. Their wage bill was £34m in 2023-24, the last financial year on record. Again, there were only one or two clubs without parachute payments with bigger payrolls than Stoke’s. Amortisation – which is how clubs account for transfer fees over a set period – was about £6m, which was also towards the top end of the division.

“So if you look at the raw numbers, I think it’s pretty incontrovertible that they should be doing far better than they have since they were relegated in 2017-18. Clearly, it’s about how the resources are allocated. It’s a management issue.”

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Stoke City should be challenging at the top of the table

Of course, the Championship season is long, and Stoke City may well fall away despite a promising start to the campaign. But, in reality, they should be challenging for promotion.

Williams added: “The owners have perhaps slowed down their direct funding of the club a little in recent years. Since 2021, there hasn’t been much external financing. That’s probably because they have sunk £350m into the club already through loans, share capital and the sale of the stadium for FFP purposes. Most significantly, they have also waived over £120m of debt owed to them.

“The £12m they injected through equity last year to pay for the upgrades to the training ground was their first direct cash injection in three seasons, I believe. That said, when you zoom out on the graph, it’s hard to question the commitment of the owners financially given how much they have invested in the club.

“They have the resources to be challenging for promotion, certainly. But they have been closer to relegation in recent seasons. That’s a skill issue as far as management are concerned, as opposed to a financial one, where I don’t think you can have many complaints about the owners.”

Stoke City’s summer signings have got the fans happy and excited, and rightly so. Now, it’s down to Mark Robins and co. to ensure the Potters live up to their newfound expectations and repay the faith shown by the Coates family.