Bristol City will have enjoyed conclusion of Tony Pulis, Portsmouth FC saga | OneFootball

Tony Pulis was never welcome at Ashton Gate and his move to Portsmouth only worsened his reputation.

Tony Pulis has been retired for almost four years now with his last job, at Sheffield Wednesday, ending on the 28th of December 2020.

His tenure as a football head coach was a mixed bag in terms of results but his time at Bristol City was possibly his worst, with Pulis never respected by the Ashton Gate faithful.

While he was able to build a dynasty at sides like Stoke City, the history that he had with Bristol Rovers saw him immediately disliked at the Robins. Pulis was never able to recover from this and his saga over a move to Portsmouth furthered the disapproval from the stands.

His eventual departure from BS3 was greeted with happiness by fans and the six months that Pulis endured at Bristol City has to be seen as the worst of his career.

Tony Pulis had problems with Bristol City fans from the start

Having played 130 games across two separate spells for the Gas, Pulis arrived at the Robins as a manager who was used to getting abuse from the red side of Bristol.

This didn't stop the Bristol City hierarchy from appointing the then 41-year-old, who had just come off the back of a controversial reign at Gillingham.

Following his trend of poor decisions, Pulis opted not to sign a permanent contract at Ashton Gate, instead working the job on monthly terms. This left the Bristol City fans feeling slightly perturbed and his results didn't earn him much popularity either, as he struggled to secure wins on a regular basis.

January arrived and stuttering in mid-table, the Robins' season seemed set to follow a familiar pattern to their current years in the Championship. However, rumours began to circle about Pulis leaving Ashton Gate to take charge of Portsmouth.

This was greeted with discontent by the Bristol City faithful, who were now at breaking point with Pulis, and it prompted home fans to chant for him to leave in their fixture against bitter rivals Cardiff City.

Luckily for those City fans, Pulis answered those calls and left BS3 to become Portsmouth's manager.

While it was disappointing from Pulis' perspective to leave just a day before a fixture against Bournemouth, the BS3 faithful were thrilled, with many making the trip in their numbers to the South Coast to cheer on their team at the Vitality Stadium.

Bristol City went on to win 3-2 that day, and it was said that the scenes in the away end were similar to a team that had just been promoted.

Bristol City fans will be glad Pulis struggled at Portsmouth

Moving on to Fratton Park, Pulis was tasked with the challenge of keeping Pompey in the second division after a tough start to the season left them languishing in the bottom three.

This was a task that he managed to achieve and come the end of the season they had finished 18th, five points above a relegated Walsall side.

However, that would prove to be his only positive spell at Pompey, as strained relations off the pitch led to Pulis being suspended from his managerial role for four months pending an investigation.

This period of uncertainty was then resolved in early January as Pulis was sacked for an alleged "act of misconduct".

While this would have been frustrating for Portsmouth fans, those at Ashton Gate would have been delighted to see his misfortune as he left them on a whim just a year prior.

Pulis would go on to manage Stoke City after this, but his departure from Fratton Park left him out of work for two years.

In 2020, there were rumours circulating that Pulis may return to the Robins following Lee Johnson's sacking, but luckily for both parties, that never came to fruition.