Stoke City: Steven Schumacher makes worrying Jon Walters sacking claim | OneFootball

The now Bolton boss has opened up on his time at the bet365 Stadium.

Steven Schumacher has opened up on his exit from Stoke City and the disagreements he had with sporting director Jon Walters.

It came as a shock to many when news broke that Schumacher was leaving the bet365 Stadium, and not of his own accord, just over a month into last season. The reason for the decision: Walters just said that a switch up was needed at that point.

Stoke were 13th in the Championship at the time. Following Schumacher's dismissal, they never reached a higher point in the table.

City went on to appoint Narcis Pelach as his replacement, who lasted 19 games, and then former Coventry City boss Mark Robins, who is still in charge today.

Steven Schumacher tells all on poor Jonathan Walter relationship at Stoke

Walters, one of the key decision-makers at the club when Schumacher, who is now in charge of Bolton Wanderers in League One, was relieved of his duties. He got his position at the club on an initial interim basis in February 2024, following technical director Ricky Martin's departure, before he was given the position permanently in April.

Schumacher, in an interview on the Inside The Game podcast, revealed that him and the Irishman never really clicked.

"The director of football that appointed me [Martin], he was sacked eight weeks after I got there, and the new director of football [Walters] came in that I never really trusted," said the 39-year-old. "[He] didn't really trust me, [and we] didn't really get on all that well.

"I always had it in the back of my mind, even though he never said it, if he gets an opportunity, he'll bring his own person in. I just felt that, and when you feel that, when you've got that sense that somebody hasn't got your backing, it's difficult. And that's what happened.

"My brief from the owner, John Coates, when I went there, was to keep us in the Championship, because there was a real [risk]. They were below Argyle when I went there, and there was a real risk that they were going to be in trouble.

"We had an upturn in results in the first eight, nine games. Then we struggled a little bit. We had five, six games where we didn't win. And then we finished the season, the last eight, nine games where we won six out of eight, or whatever it was. Did really well, played well, scored some goals, went into the next season with more optimism.

"We won four out of seven. We played two cup games away, beat Middlesbrough five-nil away. We'd won two in the league, and lost three in the league. That was kind of where we were at at the time.

"And I went in after the international break. I signed Tom Cannon. I needed a striker. Signed one on Deadline Day. Went into the international break. He played one game for me, at Oxford, and then I got the sack, which was just mental for me. I just couldn't get my head around it, but it is what it is."

A difference in vision is what the Bolton boss put his Stoke demise down to, and he raised a question about Walters' suitability to make the call that he did given he was so new to his role and had never held a similar position beforehand.

"I think it was just a different idea. So, I wanted to recruit a type of profile and a type of player with a younger age group who hadn't been in the Premier League, who was on a different career trajectory. That was what I said in the job interview to John Coates. That's how I saw it, it's what I'd done at Plymouth. I wanted a player style that looked like this.

"When we got to the recruitment, I always felt that the players that I was suggesting, the players I was putting forward to the department, I didn't think it was ever getting followed through. And then I would get offered other players, and you just get a sense that you're on the same page or you're not, and I just felt that we kind of weren't.

"I just didn't have full trust that what I was asking for, he was trying to carry out. That's just kind of how I felt. He might say different, but that's how I felt."

"And what it boiled down to, it came to the fact that we spoke about six weeks later after they sacked me, and we went and met and whatever. He just said 'Look, in my opinion, I just don't think you were good enough', and I was like, okay, well, that's your opinion. But he was only really new to his role, so what was he basing that evidence on?"

Ultimately, Schumacher believes that things have worked out for the better for him now that he's with Bolton. They have made an active start to the summer window, securing the services of five new players, and he's on a mission to reinstate them as League One promotion contenders.

"Everyone says there was a big falling out and there was a fight and an argument. There wasn't. It was just, it was a big shock. I just went in and I felt that the players were on board at what we were trying to do.

"They obviously just went in a different direction. They appointed somebody else who hadn't done it before [Pelach], a coach from Norwich [City], and he only lasted 19 games. He got sacked and they brought in Mark Robins.

"They said he wanted to go in a different direction. And I was like, well, I've kind of taken in a different direction than Alex Neil. Narcis came in and did whatever, it didn't last long, and then Mark Robins came in, which is different again, because it's not the young coach. It's not that type of profile.

"It was a weird time. I've spoken loads about it, obviously. It happened. And I didn't expect it to happen. I felt I was learning and developing and getting better, but they made their call.

"Now, again, in hindsight, and everything happens for a reason, I think I'm at a better club who are just in a different division at the moment anyway."

Stoke must have regrets over poor Steven Schumacher sacking

Hindsight can be a cruel mistress sometimes, and you could certainly argue, by design or sheer luck, Stoke now have a good manager in Robins, but the choice to part ways with Schumacher can certainly be looked at as a baffling one.

The transfer window had barely been shut for three weeks and, after all the money they spent on building a team to suit him, they pulled the plug. It's really hard to justify from a Stoke