User:Dave101/Tony Pulis

Tony Pulis (born January 16, 1958 in Newport) is a Welsh former football player and is currently managing Stoke City. Pulis obtained his FA coaching badge at the age of 19, followed by his UEFA 'A' licence aged 21 - making him one of the youngest professional players ever to have obtained the qualification.

Pulis took his first steps into management at Bounemouth, where he was a player/coach and then Harry Redknapp's assistant. He then took control when Redknapp left the club. His most signficant achievement to date wass guiding Gillingham to second place in the Third Division which lead to promotion.

Pulis has a reputation within the game for achieving solid results on small budgets and also maintains the proud record of never being relegated as a manager. He is sometimes criticised for having an overly negative and direct style of play, however Pulis has defended his approach.

Bournemouth
Pulis began his managerial career at Bournemouth, where he spent two seasons (1992/93 and 1993/94).

Gillingham
He then moved to Gillingham, whom he managed for a further four seasons, turning a team that had struggled at the very bottom of the Football League into a promotion winning one in his first season, and laying the foundations for the club's eventual elevation to the First Division for the first time in their history. After the 1999 Play-Off Final, which saw the Gills defeated by Manchester City, he was controversially sacked by the club amidst claims of gross misconduct. He later brought a £400,000 court case against Gillingham for unpaid bonuses, which was settled out of court in 2001 for £75,000.

Bristol City
Pulis was appointed manager of Bristol City for the 1999/2000 season.

Portsmouth
In January 2000, he left Bristol City to become manager of Portsmouth. Unfortunately he was not a success at Fratton Park, lasting only 10 months in the job.

Stoke City
He was then out of work for two years, before the resignation of Stoke's manager Steve Cotterill early into the 2002/03 season led to Pulis being given the job that November, where he remained until parting company with the club on June 28, 2005. He was sacked for "failing to exploit the foreign transfer market" by then Stoke chairman Gunnar Gislason.

His son Anthony Pulis joined his father at Stoke City during the 2004/2005 season.

Plymouth Argyle
After taking over as manager at Championship side Plymouth Argyle, Pulis managed to turn around a floundering team, to one that with the right investment could challenge for a top half/play off place in 2006-07. The turn-around coincided with the loan of West Ham United central defender Elliott Ward and the club improved even further with the permanent singing of Lilian Nalis from Sheffield United F.C. Plymouth Argyle ended the season 14th in the Championship table.

Second spell at Stoke City
In May 2006 he was the subject of an approach from former club Stoke, who had recently parted company with manager Johan Boskamp, following Peter Coates' takeover of the club. Plymouth reportedly turned down this approach. However, on June 14, 2006 it was announced that Pulis would indeed be returning as manager of Stoke City.

Pulis bolstered his squad for the 2006-07 with the permanent additions of Danny Higginbotham, Ricardo Fuller and Vincent Pericard. His most notable coup was the loan signing of Lee Hendrie from Aston Villa. Hendrie's arrival (along with the loan signings of Salif Diao, Andy Griffin and Rory Delap ) coincided with a change of form for the Potters following a poor start to the a season. Stoke went as high as 4th in the table prior to the January transfer window.