Yahoo News Stoke City transfer talks continue as gossip debunked
Stoke City remain locked in talks with transfer targets to add to Ben Gibson and Viktor Johansson – but the names will likely come as a surprise.
Stoke moved quickly to bring in their first two signings of the summer while also securing Lee Darnbrough from Hull as head of recruitment and Chris Cohen, from Lincoln, as new assistant head coach.
There has been no shortage of speculation about who could be next in line but pretty much all links made public so far, if not all, don’t have any substance. It did emerge about interest in Johansson and Gibson before they signed, however, and it is all part of the fun of summer to guess where Jon Walters and Steven Schumacher will turn next.
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There are some rumours that have been persistent, like interest in left-back Sam McCallum, who is leaving Norwich at the end of his contract. He is a free agent in a position where there is scope for Stoke to add, having already signed Enda Stevens to an extended deal, but there haven’t been any offers, let alone any rejection or a medical up to this point. Still, who knows what might happen over the next couple of months.
Darnbrough had a close relationship with Tan Kesler, the influential vice-chairman at Hull, and they had a reputation among agents for walking away from deals if they were leaked. It would be no surprise if Stoke had the same tactic.
What is public knowledge is that Stoke want to bring down the size of their senior squad to about 22 senior players, making space for emerging talent such as Sol Sidibe, Jaden Dixon, Freddie Anderson and Emre Tezgel, who will hopefully be nudging nearer to the first team over the next year to 18 months.
So there will likely have to be exits depending on how much they want to freshen things up. And it is unlikely, for instance, that they will want to carry seven central midfielders through the season.
The big vacancy remains at centre-forward, where Tezgel and Nathan Lowe are coming through but Niall Ennis and Ryan Mmaee weren’t able to cement their claims for a regular starting shirt last term while Tyrese Campbell is leaving.
There are cases to prove or decisions to be made about other players who couldn’t get the minutes they wanted for whatever reason, from Liam McCarron – who wasn’t registered in the squad last season – to Andre Vidigal, who couldn’t maintain his encouraging early scoring form after joining last summer.
Stoke City squad as it stands
Players who have played league minutes at Stoke or out on loan
GK: Viktor Johansson, Jack Bonham, Frank Fielding, Tommy Simkin
RB: Junior Tchamadeu, Lynden Gooch
LB: Enda Stevens, Liam McCarron
CB: Ben Gibson, Michael Rose, Ben Wilmot, David Okagbue, Matthew Baker
CM: Wouter Burger, Josh Laurent, Jordan Thompson, Lewis Baker, Ben Pearson, Daniel Johnson, Sol Sidibe
RW: Million Manhoef, Mehdi Leris, Nikola Jojic
LW: Bae Junho, Andre Vidigal
CF: Ryan Mmaee, Niall Ennis, Nathan Lowe, Emre Tezgel
