Stoke City: Pulis faces dilemma over Shawcross return
STOKE boss Tony Pulis admits he is in two minds about whether to recall Ryan Shawcross for City's Premier League clash with Tottenham on Saturday following the end of his three-match ban.
Pulis is certain the 22-year-old centre-half has overcome the emotional trauma that followed the challenge which left Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey with a double leg break.
But Pulis admits he is tempted to keep the young England prospect, pictured below, under wraps and keep faith with the back four who kept a clean sheet against high-flying Aston Villa last Saturday.
"Ryan is fine as far as the Arsenal business is concerned," Pulis insisted. "He's got an old head on young shoulders and dealt with it pretty well.
"He's also been well looked after by everyone here at the club and I'm sure the Arsenal thing has gone now.
"But I must admit I'm undecided at the moment about what defence to play against Spurs.
"There's a hell of a lot of strong competition in there at the minute and it's given me a problem, but a nice problem."
Shawcross's only public appearance since his tearful red card against Arsenal on February 27 was his inclusion on the subs' bench for England's friendly with Egypt at Wembley four days later.
And any hope of his making the World Cup finals this summer will surely depend on his quickly regaining a berth at the heart of Stoke's defence.
He has also been the most consistent of Stoke's centre-halves this season, playing in all but one of the Potters' nine Premier League clean sheets this term, only missing the 0-0 with Villa because of his ban.
His 25 games at centre-half this season are also more than Abdoulaye Faye (23), Robert Huth (23) and Danny Higginbotham (17).
Pulis has thanked fans, from both Stoke and Arsenal, for helping Shawcross get over the Ramsey incident.
"He's had at least 300 emails from Arsenal fans," said Pulis. "Everyone has rallied around, and I know the call he had from Sir Alex Ferguson was helpful.
"They know he's an honest kid and there's no doubt about the reception he'll get on Saturday if he's playing."
STOKE fans have until 7.30pm today to buy their 2010/11 season tickets at early-bird prices and qualify for a draw to win World Cup Final tickets. The deadline for early-bird prices alone is March 24.
Reserves at Portsmouth: Page 51
4 Comments
by JD, Staffs
Wednesday, March 17 2010, 6:18PM
“Stan, sounds like you are another bitter Vale fan? Tony Pulis and Ryan already visited Ramsey to express their apologies in person. What more could they do?”
by Stan, Up north
Wednesday, March 17 2010, 4:22PM
“Quote from Pulis 'the Arsenal thing has gone now'. How disrespectful is that to Aaran Ramsey, no matter what the rights for wrongs of the incident to refer to it as 'that thing' is callous. I bet Ramsey wishes he could be so flippant as he faces a very long road to recovery.”
by Stan, Up North
Wednesday, March 17 2010, 3:35PM
“Quote from Pulis 'the Arsenal thing has gone now' - how disrespectful to Aaran Ramsey to call it 'the Arsenal thing' no matter what the rights or wrongs of the incident to refer to it in that way is callous. I bet Ramsey wishes he could be so flippant about it.”
by Jimmy Buffett, Meir
Wednesday, March 17 2010, 3:31PM
“Get Ryan back into the side as soon as possible, otherwise this discussion will come every game until he plays, it will be good for him, the club and hopefully the national team. Up the Potters”