Pulis left sweating on international hangover

Like a lot of domestic managers, Tony Pulis is notoriously wary of international fixtures, and it’s an inevitable consequence of Stoke’s success over the past two seasons that the demands of national teams on the side’s key players become more pressing.

Obviously he doesn’t begrudge his players the success and recognition they deserve, and has said as much, but he has also been known to fret about whether players return “fresh enough” from their international duties.

Pulis was perhaps grateful that Senegal – the home nation of Abdoullaye Faye, Amady Faye and Salif Diao - didn’t make it to the World Cup’s qualifying phase, and nor will the side compete in next year’s African Cup of Nations.

But this week saw Denmark’s Thomas Sorensen, Turkey’s Sanil Tuncay, and the Republic of Ireland’s Liam Lawrence and Glenn Whelan all pressed into the service of their country.

This no doubt gave Pulis a couple of sleepless nights; with Whelan’s calf injury sustained in the Republic of Irelands 2-2 draw with Italy only exacerbating his insomnia.

But if Stoke are to continue scaling the Premiership table, the team will need more investment to add to the £40 million already ploughed in by chairman Peter Coates, and this will mean more international players.

But internationals can be a good thing, especially for middle-lower table teams like Stoke for whom a bad run of two or three league results could start a sharp slide into relegation trouble.

They break up that run of form, and give the players a chance to play the game with a new perspective.

Whelan, for example, although he picked up a niggling injury – which may be cleared up by Saturday’s kick off against West Ham – scored a magnificent free kicked goal against Italy.

He can surely only take confidence from this. In cricketing terms, it helps him get his eye in, and against a defence of Zambrotta, Chiellini, Legrottaglie and Grosso too.

Liam Lawrence also put in a performance to catch the eye of Giovanni Trappatoni in that fixture, though he was relegated to the bench for the Republic’s goalless draw against Montenegro last night.

Second in their group, Ireland will now go into the play-offs for a place at the World Cup in the summer.

A clean sheet for Thomas Sorensen against Sweden was enough to see his Danish side securely through to the finals as group winners, in spite of slipping to a 1-0 defeat to Hungary last night.

Turkey and Sanil Tuncay, however, are out of the competition, having lost 2-0 to Belgium. But given that Pulis says the Turkish captain is only being kept out of Stoke’s starting eleven, because of his low fitness levels he can only have been pleased to see him coming through the two games unscathed.

Granted international fixtures can wreak havoc with a side’s training schedule and see critical players picking up injuries, but it’s something that managers at the top level have to live with. Tony Pulis had better start looking on the bright side.