Premier League duo West Ham United and Crystal Palace could be ideal destinations for Stoke City’s Australia international Harry Souttar, Socceroos legend Mark Schwarzer tells Optus Sports.
When Australia took on France in their opening game at the Qatar World Cup, the towering presence of Souttar at the heart of Graham Arnold’s backline may have taken casual observers by surprise.
The Scotland-born centre-back, after all, had only recently returned after 12 months on the sidelines with an ACL injury. In fact, this was just his second appearance since November 2021; Souttar thrown in at the deep end against Olivier Giroud, Ousmane Dembele and the fearsome Kylian Mbappe.
That he more than held his own – despite an eventual 4-1 defeat – spoke volumes not only about Souttar’s resilience and rock-solid mindset.
Could West Ham or Crystal Palace target Stoke City’s Harry Souttar?
“Harry Souttar obviously has been enormous. He is enormous. And he was enormous,” says Schwarzer, the former Fulham, Chelsea and Middlesbrough goalkeeper who played 109 games for Australia.
“He’s definitely going to a Premier League club. There’s been some mention of West Ham. I could see him fitting in really, really well with David Moyes in that squad. That would be my guess at this moment.
“(Crystal Palace) would also suit Harry because he can play any type of system. And he is more than capable of playing the ball out the back.”
At 6ft 6ins, Souttar’s aerial prowess comes as no surprise. But it’s his ability with the ball that really caught the eye in Qatar; Stoke’s former Fleetwood Town loanee starting plenty of attacks with those trademark diagonal passes out to the flanks. A good touch for the biggest of men.
West Ham, per TEAMtalk, are keeping tabs on Souttar amid doubts over the futures of both Angelo Ogbonna and Craig Dawson. New Wolves boss Julen Lopetegui could launch an approach of his own, with a deal for Atletico Madrid veteran Felipe seemingly hitting the buffers.
According to the Scottish Sun, however, it could take bids of £25 million to tempt Stoke into a January sale.
“Everyone is going to have their price,” says beleaguered Potters boss Alex Neil, who has lost more games (nine) than he’s won (seven) since jumping ship from Sunderland. “(But) we’ve no aspirations to sell Harry because he makes us better.”
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