It’s been a reasonably quiet summer transfer window at the Bet 365 Stadium.
Stoke City manager Mark Hughes
Stoke City’s transfer policy this summer probably reads something like ‘Quality, not quantity.’ The Potters have pulled off just three major signings this window, with two of those being loan deals completed on the deadline day.
Mark Hughes has spent liberally over the past couple of seasons he has spent in charge, and perhaps now he is starting to put the breaks on the spending spree and allow his squad some time to gel some more.
The players that he has brought could all prove themselves to be smart signings, and Mark Hughes’ lack of business this summer could be made to look like a masterstroke. However, if the team struggle on the pitch this season, fans may point to their laid-back approach this summer as the reason as to why the team has not improved.
The Welsh Xavi can be the final piece in the puzzle
New signing Joe Allen challenges City’s Kevin de Bruyne
The headline recruit of the summer from a Stoke point of view has to be Welsh central midfielder Joe Allen. Discarded by Liverpool, but having made some serious waves with his national team in the Euros, Allen arrives as the link man that can connect together all of the powerful Stoke attackers.
Manager Hughes has assembled a very physically imposing side, but now with Joe Allen at the heart of pitch, the Potters’ match winners will get the service that they need. His fee of £13 million represents good value in today’s market, and at 26 the playmaker still has time on his side. It may not be the huge money attacker signing that every football supporter craves from their team in a transfer window, but Allen may turn out to be the most under-rated bit of business completed by any Premier League side this summer.
Their big names are going nowhere
Stoke City’s Marko Arnautovic in action with Everton’s Mason Holgate
Many supporters feared that Stoke may fall a victim to its own success this summer, and several clubs would come looking for their star players. Winger Marko Arnautovic for example was subject of interest from Everton, but instead has signed a new four year deal at the club. Xherdan Shaqiri was linked with Turkish side Besiktas, but Stoke held firm on that deal too.
The only first team player that has left is centre-back Phillipp Wollscheid, in a slightly surprising loan move to German club Wolfsburg.
These days there are loan transfers that are genuinely intended to develop a player so that he can form part of your team next season, and there are loan transfers that one suspects just lead to the player moving permanently at the end of the loan spell, and this deal appears to be the latter.
Wollscheid had made a solid start to the season at Stoke, so this departure is slightly puzzling given the fact that Stoke do appear light on centre-backs anyway. However, the loss of just one first team regular is definitely something that Potters fans would have taken if you had questioned them at the start of the transfer window.
Using the loan market to full effect?
New signing Wilfried Bony
Stoke have brought in three different players on loan this window. Lee Grant has arrived from Derby County, presumably to provide back-up to Shay Given whilst Jack Butland recovers from injury, but the other two loan signings will almost certainly play a much larger part in Stoke’s season. Dutch defender Bruno Martins Indi has signed for the year from FC Porto, and will likely slot straight into the backline to replace the newly unavailable Wollscheid.
And Wilfried Bony has been loaned in too, arriving from Manchester City with a serious point to prove to his parent club. Bony will want to prove that he can still be a force in the Premier League, after a successful spell with Swansea but a less successful one at the Etihad.
You would think that Bony is practically the ideal striker to suit Stoke’s style of play, and if he scores goals then Stoke could challenge the European places this season. He’ll take a few weeks to get up to speed, but if he hits form that resembles anything like his form at Swansea then Stoke have pulled off a really shrewd signing with Bony. There’s also a high chance that they could persuade City to let him go permanently at the end of the season, if Stoke want to pursue the player come next summer.
Manchester City’s Wilfried Bony goes down
Stoke have gone about their transfer business quietly this summer window, but have made 3 very helpful signings, to add to a group that is already brimming in talent. If problems appear over the course of the season then perhaps Mark Hughes can look to add some more players in January, but for now it seems like Stoke are just trying to put one or two finishing touches on what has been achieved over the last two years of frantic spending.
They have added players that play along the spine of the team, and some players with a chip on their shoulder after being cast out by former Premier League clubs.
Keeping the side stable by retaining key players from last year will hopefully from Stoke’s perspective lead to a more consistent season of performances this campaign, and one in which the Potters can announce themselves as one of the Premier League’s elite.
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