Stoke City:Tony Pulis frustrated by Charlie Adam's Scotland duties

STOKE manager Tony Pulis admits to being deeply frustrated over Charlie Adam's bizarre start to life at the Britannia Stadium.

Pulis is in the curious position of having seen his new midfielder play in a game, but has not yet worked with him in training.

Adam was a first-half substitute at Wigan shortly after his £4m move from Liverpool, and subsequently impressed in the 2-2 draw.

But then he immediately departed for international duty with Scotland for their World Cup qualifiers against Serbia last Saturday and Macedonia last night.

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"He only watched us in training the day before the Wigan match," says Pulis, "and then he was off to play for Scotland straight after.

"So he hasn't even worked with us yet and that is really, really frustrating with him being a new signing.

"I know these players are top professionals who can quickly adapt, but they are also playing against top professionals, so you want time with them on the training pitch to prepare.

"Hopefully, Charlie will come back to us fit and healthy on Thursday after his international commitments.

"But I am sure I am not the only manager bemoaning the fact he has so many players away."

Pulis, who has five frontline players away this week, was also critical of Ireland's friendly against Oman at Fulham's Craven Cottage last night.

"These games are just there to make money for the football associations involved," he added.

"Marc Wilson is away with Ireland, and as his club manager you are just keeping your fingers crossed he comes back in one piece from a meaningless friendly."

Meanwhile, Pulis would only say that Roy Hodgson was in charge of picking the England squad after comments that appear to end Peter Crouch's international prospects for the foreseeable future.

Hodgson justified Crouch's recent omission from England's back-to-back World Cup qualifiers, despite a dearth of strikers, because the Stoke frontman refused to go on a standby list for the Euro 2012 finals.

Hodgson, who revealed he once tried to take him to Fulham, explained: "He was on a stand-by list, but he made it clear that unless he was in the squad he didn't want to be considered.

"I'm not going to bring him in to fill up the bench.

"The day Crouch gets into an England squad is when I think he should be in the original 23-man squad."

STOKE are still waiting to see whether Leeds boss Neil Warnock will follow up his recent interest in signing midfielder Michael Tonge on loan.

Striker Mama Sidibe, like Tonge, omitted from Stoke's official 25-strong Premier League squad list, is attracting the attention of Millwall manager Kenny Jackett.

STOKE'S home Premier League game against Newcastle United has been put back 24 hours to Wednesday, November 28, because Alan Pardew's men have Europa League commitments.