Tony Pulis Interview: "Listen, I'm hoping Boro get promoted."
09.09.26, 08:00 Updated 08.09.26, 23:33
Joel Grainger
In answering a question from eflpublished on whether parachute payments have enabled relegated clubs to spend disproportionate sums of money, therefore distorting the competition, Tony Pulis made his thoughts on parachute payments abundantly clear:
“Does the league start level? It doesn’t start level, because of, as you’ve said, the clubs being relegated.”
The question arose as we’ve seen countless examples of clubs being relegated from the Premier League and spending record levels of money, whilst bringing in record levels of money.
For example, Burnley this summer. According to Transfermarkt, the Clarets have made £100m+ from player sales. Are those the finances of a club that needs extra support, or will those parachute payments only enable them to dominate on the transfer front?
Pulis does not dispute the fact it distorts the competition, but he also provides balance as to why he feels parachute payments continue to exist:
“The issue is that the clubs have given big contracts in the Premier League, and a lot of the clubs won’t have the clause in there that cuts it down if they drop out of the Premier League. Some will, some won’t. So, you have to balance off what the clubs have invested trying to stay in the Premier League.”
As the gap widens between the Championship and Premier League, clubs are spending increasingly more money to remain in the top flight. Ipswich Town have reportedly spent £150m+ on transfer fees upon promotion this season, and I dread to think how much on wages.
If they are relegated at the first time of asking, can they reasonably be expected to sustain themselves with a £100m hole in lost revenue? It’s a fine balancing act between maintaining the integrity of the competition and making sure clubs remain sustainable once they fall out of the Premier League.
The Independent Football Regulator confirmed in January that parachute payments will be examined as part of its State of the Game report, alongside distribution across the pyramid. A draft is due at the end of this year. Pulis welcomes a review to see how they can better protect all Championship clubs:
“There’s so much money now going into the Premier League, and so much money that the Premier League are making. I think there’s a real opportunity to sit down and talk to all the clubs in the Championship.” The Championship is a fabulous league, and it’s become almost a league that a lot of people prefer watching to the Premier League, because the competition is greater. So I think they have to protect that, and they have to look at ways to help all the clubs in the Championship a little bit more, maybe, than what they’re doing at the moment.”
Whilst primarily noted for his time in the Premier League with Stoke, Tony Pulis has experience in the EFL. The now 68-year-old has spent time with Bournemouth, Gillingham, Bristol City, Portsmouth, Stoke City, Plymouth Argyle, Middlesbrough and Sheffield Wednesday, all in the EFL. Pulis’ affection for Stoke was obvious. On Stoke he said:
“I’m hoping Stoke get in the top eight, which would be a great achievement for Mark (Robins). That shows that the club is turning round and going that way. There’s so many clubs that I’ve worked with and I still keep an eye on.”
One of those clubs is Middlesbrough, who came so close to re-achieving their Premier League status last season. Pulis left nothing to interpretation when stating that he’d like Boro to go one better this season:
“Listen, I’m hoping Boro get promoted.”
Middlesbrough have had a positive start to the campaign and currently sit 2nd in the table. A few weeks ago, I highlighted how Middlesbrough have seemingly provided Kim Hellberg with a transfer war chest.
Pulis was seemingly hopeful that Boro’s big spending would be enough to see them over the finish line:
“Steve at Middlesbrough, someone said the other day, spent nearly 50 million pounds on players. Now, he’s brought a lot in because of the money they received for Rogers and things. But that investment, I think, hopefully, fingers crossed.”
Pulis managed under Steve Gibson at the Riverside and clearly has fond memories of his time on Teeside. He grouped Gibson with the Coates family of Stoke and Steve Lansdown of Bristol City, stating how he looks at the British owners and hopes they do well.
It’ll be difficult though, “It’s a tougher league than what it was last year,” Pulis states.
“Obviously West Ham, people will be talking about West Ham and Wolves. They’re the two teams that people say are the standout teams. Burnley might come a little bit later. They’ve taken a bit of time to settle down, but it’ll be interesting to see how they move on.”
Coventry and Hull City proved last season that it is possible to break out of the Championship as teams who have been in the division for a while, but it takes a longer process. For Pulis’ favoured sides, I think it’s fair to say that Middlesbrough and Bristol City are a bit further down the project pipeline than Stoke, who seem to have been stuck in rebuild mode since their relegation from the Premier League over eight years ago now.
A cornerstone of Tony Pulis’ managerial style was the long throw. Visions of Rory Delap, in his trademark long-sleeved shirt, launching the ball with venom into the penalty area are highly associated with Pulis.
That was a good fifteen years or so ago now, and in recent seasons, this once old-fashioned tactic has risen back to prominence.
In League One, Lincoln City scored twice as many goals from long-throw scenarios as anyone else. They utilised Tom Hamer’s impressively flat throw-in, combining it with their tall, aggressive eleven, to score a remarkable twelve goals from throw-in scenarios last season.
The Imps have carried on their long-throw exploits as they enter the Championship, securing a potentially vital three points away at Bolton with a goal from a long throw.
😤 Match-winner. pic.twitter.com/Ts9nXmnHfg
— Lincoln City FC 🇺🇦 (@LincolnCity_FC) August 29, 2026
Pulis was candid in his assessment of why it has come back into fashion:
“Because it’s been successful! If they were throwing it in and it wasn’t working, they wouldn’t use it. But everybody’s on stats now. We were on stats in the 70s and 80s. We knew where our goals were scored and our goals were conceded, and that goes right from general play through set plays as well. So I’m not surprised that people are doing it.”
Football has had analytics deeply intertwined with it for a reasonably long time. It’s actually a bit surprising to me that it has taken this long for the throw-in approach to come full circle to where long throws are all the rage once again.
It took a leap of faith from the pioneering teams to once again decide that a throw-in was an opportunity for a set-play goal rather than just a chance to recycle the ball back into possession.
Pulis takes a less-covered angle on the influx of long throws, and it may signal at what point this ‘trend’ will come to an end:
“Having said that, I’d be very, very disappointed in the defensive side of the game if we kept conceding off throw-ins, or if we kept conceding off corners.”
All sorts of efforts are being put into set-pieces now. From designated set-piece coaches to AI assistance, clubs across the pyramid are attempting everything to secure an extra edge. Naturally, as football tends to work in cycles, you’d expect lots of clubs to abandon the long throw just as quickly as they adopted it. As analysts work night and day to limit any minor advantage the opposition may have, we will almost certainly see the application of the long throw diminish.
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Joel Grainger is the co-owner and Lead Editor for eflpublished. He has previous experience writing independently and for the Huddersfield Town podcast And He Takes That Chance, as well as an honours degree in Football Business and Marketing from the University Campus of Football Business.
