The Great Man is back at Stoke City as a coach

Ricardo Fuller says it is ‘an absolute honour’ to be back in a Stoke City tracksuit.

The mercurial striker who spearheaded Stoke’s promotion to the Premier League, then helped them stay there, has returned to the club to work in the academy, as coach but also getting a flavour of sports science and recruitment.

It is a popular appointment for a player who was so influential when he was in the changing room, tasked by Tony Pulis with delivering key pre-match team talks like before the 5-0 FA Cup semi-final win over Bolton at Wembley.

It is part of the Professional Player to Coach scheme, which is jointly run by the Premier League, EFL and Professional Footballers’ Association, to address the lack of opportunity for black, Asian and ethnic minority coaches – and he will work alongside some familiar faces at Clayton Wood, including fellow promotion winners Rory Delap, Mama Sidibe, Carl Dickinson, Danny Pugh and Liam Lawrence.

“It’s in partnership with the Premier League, EFL and the PFA about inclusion and equality to try to get more black and Asian and mixed heritage background into coaching, management but also sports science and different parts of the game,” Fuller, who turns 43 today, told Radio Stoke. “I will be working throughout the academy structure from under-9s to the 21s, with also insight into sports science and recruitment.

“When you look at Man Utd, Chelsea, Man City, Arsenal, what have they got in common? Lots of their ex-players who were successful are now part of their academy within the club. That’s proven a massive plus for them and I have no doubt it will prove a massive plus for Stoke City.”

About one in four Premier League players are non-white but the total number of black managers in the top flight since 1992 is barely into double figures. Fuller, who has managerial ambitions of his own, hopes that will change.

He said: “There are not enough black, Asian or mixed-heritage coaches, head coaches or managers in the game. If you look now there is Paul Ince, Vincent Kompany, Darren Moore at Sheffield Wednesday, and a few more. When you look at the ratio it’s about 0.1 per cent or whatever, which is very, very low.

“This initiative is to bring some kind of diversity and inclusiveness, with female coaches, female physios working in sports science and working in recruitment too.

“It’s a massive initiative and it’s also massive for me as an aspiring head coach and football manager to show what I can do, grasp this opportunity with both hands and make the best that I can be. The sky is the limit and beyond.”

The talk is of Fuller returning to Stoke but, in truth, he never really went away. He has been a regular in the stands since ending his professional career six-and-a-half years ago and, like all supporters, has been frustrated by the struggles in the Championship since relegation in 2018. He is sure things will improve under Alex Neil.

“The fitness has improved because it wasn’t at the level it should have been at the start of the season, which was ridiculous,” he said.

“The new manager has come in and he’s doing his bit, the team is creating chances. That’s what you want to do, create as many chances as you can in a game and score as many from those chances. Now it’s the matter of putting them in the back of the net.

“When you’re making an appointment of a manager you want to look at how successful they are in the league you’re in and he’s certainly capable. He’s done it before, won promotion at Norwich and was pretty successful at Preston, around the play-offs, and had a great start with Sunderland, getting promoted to the Championship and doing well until we took him away.

“He’s a pedigree manager, he’s been there and done it and he’s got the know-how. It’s a great appointment. It will take him time and he’ll need time, fans have to be patient.

“He is saying it how he sees it, which is a plus. You want managers that are honest and straight. If you want obedience you must first serve justice and he’s doing that He’s doing the right things at the moment, you can see what he has identified – the team looks fitter and look at the amount of chances we’ve created.

“I still think we’ve got a great squad and with him being the manager we’ll push up the table.”