Despite signing close to a dozen central midfielders in the past five or six seasons, the one constant in the middle of the pitch at the Britannia Stadium is Glenn Whelan.
The Dubliner is by no means the flashiest footballer ever to grace a Premier League pitch, but there's a reason when Whelan has made 500 career appearances, the majority of which have come in the top tier of English football.
Any manager he has played for will sing his praises as a leader, an organiser, a master of the art of keeping it simple, but yet he still faces stick from some Ireland fans and opposition supporters in the Premier League seem find it very easy to take a pop at him.
Case in point, a reply to a tweet from the Stoke City account after Glenn Whelan praised Stoke's support following their 1-1 draw with Manchester United this weekend.
? Glenn Whelan praises #SCFC fans for the atmosphere created in the final stages of the Potters' draw with @ManUtd on the weekend. pic.twitter.com/RjUX6lcsdF
— Stoke City FC (@stokecity) January 23, 2017
@stokecity @ManUtd whelan is amongst the least mobile central midfielders in the league, thus he needs special support
— Felix Scheidegger (@FelixScheidegg7) January 23, 2017
Do one, Felix.
Thankfully, before any fan had jump in and point out the fact that Whelan was one of the better performers on the pitch, and certainly in the midfield, of Saturday's 3pm kick-off, the official Stoke account happily took on that duty with a dig of their own aimed at Paul Pogba.
That's strange, he's still fishing £89m out of his back pocket #SCFC https://t.co/XVlRbSfjDy
— Stoke City FC (@stokecity) January 23, 2017
That's what we like to see.
The responses to it may make you weep for what being a football fan in 2017 has become, but the idea of a football club hitting back when someone slags off one of their Irish internationals earns them brownie points in our book.
You come at the Glenn, you best not miss.
