Departed Stoke City boss Tony Pulis was unsettled during the season as the club shook up its management structure.

The Daily Mail says behind the scenes, Pulis is known to have been unsettled by an extensive restructuring of the scouting and academy systems, and he lost allies in director of football John Rudge, coach Sam Ellis and chief scout Lindsay Parsons, who was dismissed this month for criticising the team's style of play.

He has always enjoyed a close relationship with Coates but the chairman came to the conclusion his manager had taken the club as far as he could.