‘Most managers are pretty superstitious. We struggled in the first half of a game, so I put my cap on and we won. It stuck after that’ Tony Pulis reveals the origin story of his iconic baseball cap

Tony Pulis has never been one for style over substance.

The former Stoke boss’s brand of football favoured results over aesthetics and grit over flair, with his teams very playing playing in his own image.

He also never seemed the type to buy into fashion accessories, yet he would rarely be seen on the sideline without his trademark baseball cap.

Why Tony Pulis always wore a baseball cap

So why did the Welshman embrace this trademark look? It wasn’t branding, sponsorship or any fashion reasons - but superstition.

Pulis began his managerial career with Bournemouth, when he replaced Harry Redknapp as boss in 1992, spending two seasons with the Cherries, before taking up his second managerial post at Gillingham, where the cap years began.

“I wore a cap when it was tipping down with rain,” he recalls to FourFourTwo. "I think we won.”

The headware was then put to one side after that game, but with the Gills up against it in their next game, a superstition was born.

“In the next game, we struggled for the first half, so I was looking for my cap, I thought that was the reason. I’m pretty superstitious, most managers are – you wear the same tie or the same suit if you win.

“I put the cap on, then I think we won the game in the second half.

“From there I thought, ‘Well, that cap is sticking with me now.’”

Pulis would go on to manage eight more clubs, including the two spells at Stoke City which saw the Potters establish themselves in the Premier League and carve out a niche as the division’s chief provocateurs, with Pulis’ cap as symbolic as Rory Delap’s long throw-ins.