Former England and Everton manager Sam Allardyce has hailed Michael O’Neill’s achievements at Stoke City in managing to turn the club around and start winning games again and climbing the Championship table.

It looked a daunting task for the former Northern Ireland manager when he took over at Stoke last term with the Potters inside the bottom three after an awful start to the campaign under Nathan Jones.

However, O’Neill steadied the ship and managed to ease them towards safety last season, before building his squad over the summer and then getting them off to a strong start this campaign.

The Potters secured another important three points edging out Middlesbrough 1-0 at the Bet365 Stadium on Saturday, a win which took O’Neill’s win percentage so far as Stoke manager up to 46% and that shows the winning mentality he has been able to implement around the club since he took charge.

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Speaking on EFL on Quest, Allardyce hailed O’Neill’s achievements at Stoke and suggested that he has managed to turn the club around where the likes of Gary Rowett and Jones struggled over the last couple of years.

He said: “It’s another very difficult to club to sort out after so many managers have come and past very quickly on not getting Stoke back in and around the play-offs or promoted back into the Premier League.

“And then Michael comes in at the most difficult time, bottom of the Championship digs them out of trouble and this season he’s high flying right up there in the top six there.

“Fantastic job, a 46%-win rate in a struggling club is a massive return by the way.”

The Verdict

O’Neill has performed exceptionally well for the Potters since he took over in challenging circumstances last season, and having taken the big risk in leaving Northern Ireland for who he had performed an exceptional job for, as he guiding them to the last 16 at Euro 2016, but he could now be on to some more success with Stoke.

Stoke are showing the resilience needed to really mount a top-six challenge and their win against Middlesbrough showed their ability to edge tight matches. That is something that will be vital for them if they are to continue to pick up wins and cement their place amongst the promotion contenders.

This season is the best chance so far the Potters have had to get back to the Premier League since their relegation, and if O’Neill continues his current win rate then there is every chance this will be the campaign where they are able to get themselves back up into the top-flight.