TONY Pulis arrived at the Britannia Stadium in the midst of an eight-game losing streak which had left Stoke City anchored in the second tier relegation zone.

The 53-year-old will walk out at Anfield for his 400th match as manager this afternoon with the Potters eighth in the Premier League.

Such a landmark – and change of fortunes – was never on the horizon when Pulis was appointed on November 1, 2002 – and then only after George Burley's dramatic U-turn to turn the job down.

"It doesn't matter to me whether I am second, third, fourth or 10th choice. What matters is I want to come here and this is what I call a proper football club," Pulis said.

A 4-2 loss at Walsall was followed by five more defeats and three draws to leave City third bottom and six points adrift of safety.

"We lack one or two leaders to pull the other lads through," declared Pulis, who used 28 players that season to finally guarantee Division One survival on the very last day of the campaign.

In total, the manager has now got through 113 players, including seven who have only been granted one start: Sammy Bangoura, Patrick Berger, Michael Ricketts, Jay Bothroyd, Gareth Owen, Chris Clark and Brian Wilson.

He signed a 12-month rolling contract extension in April 2005, but was sacked two months later by the club's then Icelandic owners and replaced by Johan Boskamp, a member of the Netherlands' 1978 World Cup squad.

After a roller-coaster season under the Dutchman, Peter Coates reclaimed control of Stoke the following summer and quickly tempted Pulis back to Staffordshire from a spell at Plymouth Argyle.

On June 16, 2006 The Sentinel announced: "Tony Pulis breezed into the Britannia Stadium today promising to go for goals – and is poised to make Portsmouth striker Vincent Pericard his first signing."

An eighth-placed finish that season was followed by promotion to the top flight in the following year, three mid-table Premier League finishes and the club's first FA Cup final.

Since Tony Waddington's exit in 1977, the 14 permanent managers to follow other than Pulis averaged no more than 90 games in charge.

The Welshman became the club's fifth longest-serving manager in August 2010 when he overtook 318-game Frank Taylor.

Now he closing fast on the 421-game reign of Horace Austerberry, whose record stalled when the club went bust in 1908.

PETER SMITH