There are few players that epitomise what it means to play for Stoke City better than Glenn Whelan.
The Potters were in the midst of a push for promotion to the Premier League in January 2008, when Pulis moved to bolster his midfield ranks and bring in Whelan, then aged 24, in a deal worth around £500,000 from fellow Championship side Sheffield Wednesday, after he had proved his worth in two-a-half second-tier seasons with the Owls.
Whelan never looked back in a Stoke shirt from that point onwards, as he helped the club reach the top-flight and went on to feature over 330 times in nine years before eventually departing in 2017 to join Aston Villa.
He summed up the Potters’ grit and determination during his time at the club, with a reputation for being a tough-tackling enforcer on the pitch, and Stoke have arguably failed to replace his tenacity and consistency in the middle of the park ever since he left over seven years ago.
Glenn Whelan became a Stoke legend in nine years at the club
Stoke had been building for a challenge at promotion in the years leading up to Whelan’s arrival, and he made 14 appearances in his first half-season as he helped push Pulis’ side over the line to secure a first return to the top-flight since 1985.
He suffered setbacks, though, in his first full season at the club after he was dropped from the starting eleven in the early stages of the campaign and was linked with a move away in the January window, but he then forced his way back into Pulis’ first team and became an important player in Stoke’s successful fight for survival before he scored a huge late equaliser against Aston Villa in March 2009 as Stoke eventually stayed up comfortably.
Whelan signed a new long-term contract in September of the same year as a result of his increased importance to the club, and remained a constant in the starting eleven as the Potters consistently won against the odds and began to make their mark on the top-flight, with yet another iconic away goal coming at White Hart Lane as he bagged a late winner against Spurs in October.
He saw his starts become limited in the league in 2010/11 as Dean Whitehead and Rory Delap were preferred from the off, but played a key role in Stoke’s memorable FA Cup run as he started in six of their seven cup outings, but the Potters were ousted by Manchester City in the final with him being taken off 84 minutes.
A distinguished Republic of Ireland international, Whelan eventually went on to become Stoke’s most capped international player in 2012, and remained a part of both sides throughout his time in the Potteries, with 43 appearances in 2011/12 and 34 more in 2012/13.
Mark Hughes’ 2013 appointment saw Whelan move to a more defensive midfield role as he approached 30-years-old, and he initially struggled to make an impression on his new boss, but again battled back to become a key part of his midfield as Stoke recorded a ninth-placed finish – he later described the campaign as “(his) best season” and gave thanks to both Hughes and Pulis.
He made 26 league starts in 2014/15 and was hailed as an “unsung hero” by teammates, despite numerous new additions to Hughes’ midfield, and then arguably put in his most influential campaign in his Potters’ career in 2015/16 with 37 starts in the top-flight as he continued to add resolve and backbone to a now star-studded Stoke team.
That season was as good as it got for the club though, and his lessening influence seemed to coincide with a loss of form throughout the team, as he made just five starts in the final 14 games of 2016/17 and the Potters began to struggle with a 13th-placed finish that season their lowest in four years.
| Glenn Whelan Stoke statistics | |
|---|---|
| Appearances | 337 |
| Goals | 8 |
| Assists | 22 |
| Stats as per Transfermarkt | |
He departed that summer, and brought his nine-year affiliation with the Potters to an end as he joined Villa, with Stoke then relegated back to the Championship just a year after he left, which he believes can be attributed to the loss of him and some other important figures in the dressing room.
“Myself, Phil Bardsley, Jon Walters – we all knew the club, loved the club but were all allowed to leave at the same time. It’s easy for me to say now but if you go back, then I don’t think Stoke would let that many players go at the same time,” he told the Mirror in 2022.
“I didn’t want to leave. I was more than happy to stay but a deal was accepted behind my back from Aston Villa.
“I had another year left on my contract but I wasn’t going to hang around where I’m not wanted. The only thing that disappointed me was nobody really spoke to me from the club. If someone had said beforehand ‘this is the way we’re going’ then I would have shook their hand and that would have been that. That’s the type of guy I am.
“It’s a fantastic club and I loved my time there. More than anything, we had a good group away from the training ground. We socialised together and stuck together, rather than just turning up for training and going home. We achieved so much that it’s nice to look back on.”
Stoke have never truly replaced Whelan
The Potters have struggled since Whelan’s departure and their 2018 relegation, and while his influence may have been slightly lessening as his time at the club came to an end, they never managed to replace him while he was still playing there, and definitely haven’t since he left.
The likes of Giannelli Imbula, Joe Allen and Badou Ndiaye were all signed with Whelan still at Stoke or the club still in the top-flight, but none managed to come close to eclipsing his achievements in red and white despite being brought in for sizeable fees.
Numerous defensive midfield players were brought in in the first few years of the Potters being back in the second-tier, such as Ryan Woods, Jordan Cousins and John Obi-Mikel, but again, none worked out at the club and were able to replicate anything near Whelan’s influence and rapport with the supporters.
Then-manager Alex Neil saw enforcer Ben Pearson as “a Glenn Whelan-type player that Stoke have probably needed” upon his arrival in January 2023, but the former Preston man has failed to live up to those expectations, and is still at the club but will struggle to find a place in a packed midfield when he returns from a long-term injury soon.
Jordan Thompson, who is Stoke’s current longest-serving player and has made over 150 appearances for the club, is probably the closest player to Whelan that fans have seen since his departure in terms of playstyle and tenacity, but even then, he is no match for the Irishman’s quality that saw him become a regular in the Premier League for numerous seasons.
Stoke are still searching for their Whelan replacement seven years on from him leaving for Villa, and that, more than anything, sums up just how important he was to the club in his nine years there.
