Yahoo News Stoke City in unrecognisable starting point ahead of crucial six weeks
It was an eye-opening first day of pre-season at Stoke City in both of the last two years.
In 2022, the numbers had been squeezed back by Michael O'Neill in the end game of a draining battle to stay on the right side of Financial Fair Play rules - in the knowledge that it would give them scope to make real changes the following summer. So Stoke reported to Clayton Wood on June 20 with Harry Clarke, on loan, the first and only signing to that point and the squad looking very small and very young.
Then, in 2023, Alex Neil had made cuts on top of cuts, and with head of recruitment, Jared Dublin, only just starting work on June 26, the day players came back, there were no new signings. It wasn't until July 5 that Enda Stevens joined a group that was extremely light, although from that point on there would be a new face and introductions on average every three days until the window shut.
Paul Gallagher only joined during pre-season too while fitness coach Paul Walsh was given his cards just before the players returned. It is no wonder, really, that both of those campaigns proved difficult.
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This time, however, Stoke have most of their squad in place and all their staff. There are transfers still to come - and some should be significant, considering that there is still a forward or two to arrive - but it is a completely different landscape than 12 months or 24 months ago.
It will be a first pre-season at Stoke for Steven Schumacher and his head of performance Elliot Turner, sporting director Jon Walters and head of recruitment Lee Darnbrough, as well as for Wouter Burger, Bae Junho, Mehdi Leris and Million Manhoef, who all came from overseas after the season was in swing. It's a first full pre-season at Stoke for Stevens too and Michael Rose, Andre Vidigal, and Lynden Gooch. Lewis Baker missed last year's warm-up due to injury and Viktor Johansson, Ben Gibson and Eric Bocat have arrived before Day One this year.
Schumacher has six weeks to lay down what he wants to the core of the group and everything is set up to give him as good a chance as possible to break this cycle of bottom half finishes and start the long haul upwards.
It has taken a lot of work in the close season to get to this point and it will still take a lot of hard work from this point on to make it count. But it feels like a significant stepping stone towards stability. Strap yourselves in, let's see what happens next.
