Stoke trying 'to improve every part of club'

Former Republic of Ireland international Jon Walters scored 62 goals in 269 appearances as a player for Stoke from 2010 to 2017

Stoke City technical director Jon Walters is helping head coach Narcis Pelach lead a top to bottom reset of the club to pave the way for future progress.

Walters has been in post since April, five months before Pelach arrived from Norwich City, and he told BBC Radio Stoke they are trying to change the mindset after six and half seasons in the Championship.

The former Stoke, Bolton and Ipswich forward said of his job: "Every day just rolls into the next, it's literally 24 hours, non-stop, it's the challenge of something new every day, you're firefighting for a lot of it, dealing with problems, that's the role, trying to bring people together.

"The club's not finished above a certain level for a number of years, you see now the head coach has that drive and that mindset and that push.

"I'm here with him first thing in the morning and normally we're still here at half eight, nine o'clock at night, me and him just having a chat, he doesn't want to leave before me and I'm saying the same to him, how can we improve every part of the club, what are we doing, how can he help Ryan and the 21s, (and) because my son's in the academy, I go and watch them train and help those coaches get what we're doing with the first team.

"It's (about) surrounding yourself with good people and trying to lead it, not micro-manage it."

Stoke will start work on a new training complex next week and are open to bringing in new faces in January if the right players are available.

"You're always looking to add quality, you're always looking to improve, but it's got to be the right person for Stoke, the right person that fits into what we're doing, fits into the mentality we're trying to create here," Walters added.

"To have that shift from where the club's been over the past number of years, that's a difficult thing to do, and players you bring in have to match that."