Stoke City backing for Mark Robins following interest in Portsmouth boss John Mousinho

Jonathan Walters has reassured Stoke City boss Mark Robins that his future lies with the Potters.

Doubts about the 56-year-old remaining at the bet365 Stadium emerged last month after he guided the club to a 17th-place finish in last season’s Championship.

The former Coventry City manager’s long-term position also came under scrutiny when The News was reliably informed that Pompey boss John Mousinho was someone on Stoke’s radar as they weighed up a potential managerial change.

That change in leadership never materialised, though, with Robins retaining the backing of his Stoke superiors and the club opting to reinforce the support network around him by appointing former Arsenal under-21 head coach Max Porter as the Potters assistant manager and Stuart Harvey arriving as technical director.

Those appointments are anticipated to provide a fresh bout of optimism around the Stoke first team following a second half of the 2025-26 campaign that produced just 21 points from a possible 69 and included a 3-1 home defeat to Pompey on the penultimate weekend of the season.

And as Robins & Co prepare to return to pre-season training in the coming days, Walters has insisted stabilty is the best thing he can provide the club ahead of a new league campaign.

‘Rumours will always be there’

Addressing Robins’ future, Walters told BBC Radio Stoke: ‘Rumours will always be there in football, but you know internally what's going on and the process you're going through in terms of recruitment, in terms of staffing, in terms of everything else.

‘You can't always come out and answer rumours all the time. Mark's here, Mark's starting the season.

‘This club over time has gone “you're wrong, you need to change, change everything”.

‘I think there comes a point in time where you need to offer stability to a football club, stability to players, stability to staff and say “actually, we're building something, we're trying to do something”.’

Why Robins’ position came under scrutiny

Initially appointed as Stoke boss in January 2025, Robins helped the bet365 Stadium side finish 18th in the 2024-25 Championship table.

The former Manchester United forward was awarded a new three-and-a-half-year contract in November 2025 when Stoke sat third in the table and two points off the automatic promotion places after 15 games.

The Potters form after the turn of the year, however, was not that of a promotion contender.

Instead, they won just five of 22 league games and suffered 11 defeats, including four consecutive losses at the end of the campaign.

That saw Stoke finish level with Pompey on 55 points - eight points above the relegation zone and 18 off the play-offs.

The News was told Mousinho’s two successful battles to avoid relegation with the Blues had attracted the attention of Stoke.

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