Stoke City owners believe they should've sacked Mark Hughes earlier.

On Tuesday owners Peter and John Coates admitted that "significant errors were made in the transfer market".

The Coates suggested that these errors contributed to the squad becoming "unbalanced" and that a "major overhaul" is required ahead of next season.

A club statement said: "When things go wrong, it is inevitable that a great deal of soul searching goes on.

"You ask yourself the question, what should we have done differently? What mistakes did we make?

"It is important that we ask these questions in order that we learn and improve. Hindsight is a wonderful vantage point, however it is clear that significant errors were made in the transfer market.

"Unfortunately the squad became unbalanced and perhaps we lost some of the core values that have served us so well and are so crucial when you have a bad spell. It is absolutely clear that a major overhaul is required.

"We need to regain our identity and focus and the summer will be spent doing this.

"It is right that supporters will question whether we should have made a managerial change sooner. As a family we are inherently loyal people and this loyalty has served us well in business.

"However, this does not mean that we always make the correct call and again with hindsight, we perhaps should have made an earlier change."