Steven Schumacher makes shock revelation about his Stoke City sacking | OneFootball

Stoke City made the surprise decision to sack head coach Steven Schumacher last month.

Former Stoke City head coach Steven Schumacher has revealed that he still does not know why he was sacked by the club last month.

Schumacher made the move from Plymouth Argyle to take over at Stoke in December, and he successfully kept the club in the Championship last season after a strong end to the campaign.

The 40-year-old was allowed to rebuild his squad this summer, bringing in 10 new signings, but after the Potters won two and lost three of their first five league games of the season, the board decided to make a change.

In a statement released shortly after his departure, Schumacher said that the news of his dismissal came as a "huge shock", but according to journalist Alan Nixon, Stoke had been considering replacing him for some time, and the club reportedly sounded out two managers about the possibility of taking over before the summer window.

Norwich City first-team coach Narcis Pelach was appointed as Schumacher's successor, and the Spaniard lost both of his first two games in charge, but he picked up his first win with an emphatic 6-1 victory over Portsmouth at the bet365 Stadium on Wednesday night, which moved his side up to 15th in the table.

Steven Schumacher opens up on Stoke City sacking

Schumacher admitted that almost three weeks on from his exit from Stoke, sporting director Jon Walters has still not explained the reasons for his sacking, and he said he would like to understand the club's decision in order to learn lessons to take into his next job.

"On the day, I spoke to John Coates and to Jon Walters," Schumacher told BBC 5 Live Sport.

"John Coates obviously gave me the news that they were going to go in a different direction and Jon Walters said he would sit and explain stuff to me in a couple of weeks when things had died down, which I didn't quite agree with on the day.

"I wish he'd just told me on the day and I could have dealt with it.

"As of yet, as of now, Jon has text me, and I said, yeah, I would like to meet up, but as of this moment, we still haven't had that chat.

"So I'm sure at some point, it might come, it might not, I don't know.

"But I would like to know because for my career, I'd like to figure out where it all went wrong in their eyes and then whether I agree with it or not is a different matter, but at least I'd like to know."

After years of underachievement under the likes of Gary Rowett, Nathan Jones, Michael O'Neill and Alex Neil, it looked as though Schumacher had finally got Stoke heading in the right direction, so the news of his sacking came as a huge surprise to many.

It had been an inconsistent start to the season for the Potters, but there were clear signs of progress under Schumacher, and even if the decision to part company with him had been planned for a long time, it made little sense for the club to allow him to remain in charge throughout the summer transfer window and the first few weeks of the new campaign.

Schumacher was a popular figure among Stoke supporters, so the fact he has not even been told the reasons for his dismissal will not go down well with the fan base, and it does suggest a lack of respect from Walters.