REPEATING Plymouth’s sensational 101-point promotion may be fanciful thinking, but Steven Schumacher will be aiming to put the same excitement into Bolton’s sizeable fanbase as he did with the fabled Green Army.
Few could have imagined how successful the former Everton, Bradford City and Bury midfielder’s move into management would be when he took over the top job at Home Park following Ryan Lowe’s move to Preston North End.
As assistant manager Schumacher had helped take Plymouth out of League Two but when Lowe moved back up to the North West in December 2021, he stayed put to create an exciting young side that hardly took a backward step.
After missing out on the play-offs on the last weekend of his first season in charge, Schumacher’s second season took the whole division by surprise.
Steven Schumacher holds the League One trophy with Plymouth captain Joe Edwards (Image: PA)
Promoted as champions ahead of the mega-budgets of Ipswich Town and Sheffield Wednesday – not to mention 20 points clear of Bolton – a watchable side with the likes of Finn Azaz, Lewis Gibson, Bali Mumba, Adam Randell and Morgan Whittaker rattled out 31 wins, securing a century of points for only the second time in the club’s history.
Indeed, the only real down-note for the team or manager during 2023 came at Wembley, when Wanderers got their Papa Johns Trophy final performance just right to lift the silverware.
Plymouth were a stable 16th in the Championship when Schumacher was offered the chance to take over at Stoke City, then sitting three places beneath them in the table.
And though the Pilgrims’ locals reluctantly accepted the young manager’s ambition, along with his desire to move back nearer to his native Merseyside, the timing of the move shortly before the winter transfer window left a few folk fearing a backslide in the club’s fortunes.
Plymouth did flirt with relegation that season and continue to do so now in a division of considerably higher resources. But Schumacher may look back now at his decision to leave the stability of his job in Devon at that stage as an unwise choice.
Hailed as "one of the most exciting young coaches in the country" by Stoke City chairman John Coates on his arrival in December 2023, Schumacher inherited a side that had been hovering in lower mid-table for some time under Alex Neil. Improving fortunes did not happen overnight.
It took until mid-February to get a win at home and they briefly dipped into the bottom three during early March.
Form improved enough to pull clear eventually, with a three-game winning burst bumping them up to 17th and raising hopes that a summer rebuild could improve the outlook.
Schumacher undertook a big squad overhaul, moving 19 players out and bringing 10 in, reducing the average age considerably. And when the new campaign began with a 1-0 win against Coventry City, things appeared to be looking up. But Schumacher’s time with Stoke came to a premature and rather surprising end just five games in, with the club announcing he had parted ways on September 16 following a 1-0 defeat at Oxford United.
Ian Evatt shares a word with Steven Schumacher during a pre-season friendly (Image: Harry McGuire)
At the time the Potters were 13th in the table with two wins from their first five, and they had also beaten Middlesbrough 5-0 in the League Cup.
Since then, Stoke have won just four of their last 24 games in the Championship and currently sit 20th in the table, two points above the relegation zone. They sacked Catalan Narcis Pelach after just three months and appointed Mark Robins as their seventh permanent boss in seven years at the start of January.
Schumacher has admitted the decision to move him on after just 32 games in charge had come as a shock.
Interviewed by the EFL podcast in October, he outlined the type of team he was trying to create.
“When I got the job and I went for the interview, I spoke to John Coates about trying to change the profile of the players that Stoke have brought in over the last few years because I felt that by doing that would give it a chance to change the outcome,” he said.
“So we went for younger players, tried to play a team who could play with energy and give 100 per cent in every single game, whether it be win, lose or draw, the fans could see that the lads were given everything. That was the direction that we wanted to go in.”
Plymouth's fans display a banner of support to Schumacher (Image: PA)
Schumacher has been linked with a few Championship clubs since he left the Potteries including Cardiff City and his former stomping ground at Plymouth after Wayne Rooney’s departure but he was almost instantly installed as the favourite to succeed Ian Evatt at Bolton, and arrives looking to respond to the first setback in his time in management.
“I haven't come out of it thinking I need a break,” he said of his time at Stoke. “I feel as though if anything, it's given me a little bit more fuel, a bit more fire in my belly. I want be a manager in the Premier League, my dream job is the Everton job.
“So, this is going to give me more fuel to say ’Right, I've got some people to prove wrong now, and actually, it's my first sort of bump in the road in all my coaching career. I suppose you could say a lot about my character about how I bounce back. But I'm ready whenever the right opportunity comes up.”
Wanderers will hope the opportunity to revive their season is the right one, and Schumacher will also look at the loyalty and financial backing which was offered to his predecessor, Evatt, and feel he may have a better chance of long-term success than he has in either of his two previous posts.
The decision to change managers at this point offers roughly a week before the winter transfer window closes on February 3, during which time the new manager may have to make some snap decisions if he is to add his own flavour to the squad.
Perhaps most importantly, though, he will have watched the team galvanise under the interim stewardship of Julian Darby, Andy Tutte and Andy Taylor, and feel he does not have quite the same slow turning circle to negotiate as he had at Stoke.
Fans are prepped for a new, exciting era. Is Schumacher the man to provide one?
