Red Bull hit the headlines this week when they binned No.2 driver Liam Lawson after just two races of the current Formula 1 season.
His replacement, Yuki Tsunoda, will be lead driver Max Verstappen’s sixth different understudy since 2016.
None of them have performed, which begs two questions.
One, is it really the drivers that are the problem? And two, is Red Bull secretly run by the same people who run Stoke City?
Shake-up
The Potters love a shake-up.
Five permanent managers in the last six years.
Two sporting directors in the last three.
Ian Torrance, who was appointed this week, is Stoke’s third different head of recruitment in less than 12 months.
And, much like Red Bull, all of that churn hasn’t made any difference to performance.
Because it isn’t the people who are wrong -it’s the constant knee-jerk reactions to adversity.
“Most clubs have to be smart with money,” a former Championship manager told me.
“But the owners at Stoke are so rich that they can pay people off willy-nilly and go ‘Let’s get another one’.
“They can never build anything, and that’s their biggest problem.”
Torrance, we’re told, is part of a long-term plan, with a brief to define Stoke’s identity and sign players accordingly.
But we’ve heard it all before.
Unless he – and everyone else at the bet365 – is trusted and backed through the tough times, Stoke will not improve.
Cardiff City
Omer Riza is proud of his Cardiff City troops
Championship
OLIVER’S SET FOR BIG STEP
