PA PhotosTony Pulis' Stoke have finished mid-table in each of their four full seasons so far in the top flight.

When you are at your lowest ebb, envy can be a cruel mistress. If you had told me a year ago I may be jealous of Stoke City, I would have laughed in your face. Well, that's a bit strong, and somewhat impolite, I would have probably had a little chortle - not too loud, of course - and thought you a little strange. The effervescent Rs jealous of the industrious Potters? One wonders now which of us would have been more misguided.

Stoke have been an interesting exercise since they appeared in the top flight in 2008. Often lambasted as a long-ball bully relying on set-pieces around the box, the eyes of the footballing world took one look at them, made its mind up about what kind of team they were and promptly pigeon-holed them.

Meanwhile (and here I do feel a twinge of green) the Potters got on with it - finishing mid-table in each of their four full seasons so far in the top flight. Last year, they even started upping their spending on transfers, with perhaps the most high-profile acquisition being Peter Crouch. This summer they went to Liverpool to entice Charlie Adam to the Britannia Stadium - as if there is a footballing side trying to break out of the lump-it regime.

Plenty to be envious of. And yet...

There is that recent history. Tony Pulis's side does not play route one, never did. But it is not far enough off it. Where Dave Bassett at Wimbledon relied on the thuggery of the likes of Vinnie Jones, Dennis Wise and John Fashanu, Stoke can at least point to more cultural players in their squad. But Stoke's subtler form of the art still grates.

I remember the first time I saw a Pulis side in Stoke's red and white stripes (during his second stint in charge) and they looked huge. Every man jack of them over six foot tall, but those stripes probably added a few inches ... like the vertical version of a Mark Falco in a QPR shirt. Now there was a man who should not have been seen in public in figure-enhancing hoops.

Then there is Pulis himself. An oversized gollum-like figure with a comb-over angrily hidden under a ram raider's baseball cap - all pinched and hooded - a chip on the shoulder of his well-worn shell suit, becoming more frayed at each supposed referee misdemeanour.

A trip to the Britannia is never much fun, either - that soulless out-of-town shopping centre feel - and those baseball caps: do Stokies ever take them off?

What sticks most in the craw is that the Potters may be QPR's ghost of footballing future - if things go a certain way. After all, there are plenty of similarities:

Get promoted, check.
Buy into a certain theory about how to survive, check.
Survive, check. Just.
Get yourself a new soulless stadium that brings in 'new' fans. Being checked.
Spend plenty of money on players. Cheque, cheque, cheque.

But how rosey is that future?

Stoke are no longer the comfortable mid-table side of yester-season. Gone is the confident assuredness at home: one win (against Swansea in their last six). In its place sits a distinct lack of goals (just three at home all season) which is a worry when you consider they have spent as much as £24 million on strikers in the last three seasons.

QPR's back four - the gift that keeps on giving - could change all that. Arrive like the four-man colossus against Chelsea earlier in the season - and Stoke begin to fade, self doubt creeps in, confidence will start to make the winless Hoops believe. Leak like the sieve they've been all season, and it could get uglier than Robert Huth.

Much may depend on Mark Hughes's selection. There is an argument for the return of Clint Hill in the centre of defence in place of Rio Ferdinand who struggled with Stoke's aerial power last season - as he did against Reading last weekend. Hill knows Stoke well after playing there for four years, too.

Do we stick with 4-4-2? Apart from West Ham, where four mobile lumps bullied our four-man midfield, two-up front has worked well, and Djibril Cisse and Junior Hoilett did about enough in the 1-1 draw at home to Reading to warrant keeping their places in the starting line-up regardless of Bobby Zamora's fitness. I'm still banking on Cisse's indifferent form being in his head and not in his legs.

At the back of everyone's mind, though, must be last season, when a much weaker QPR side came and was engaging and enterprising and held on for what turned out to be our last victory on the road.

Back then Joey Barton had a stormer. Then Heidar Helgusson scored twice. And then Neil Warnock left. And then we never won away again. And then. And then...

Follow Sean Smith on Twitter @seanshorn

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