Stoke City: Michael O’Neill to blame as Nottingham Forest sale made a loss – View
Not many strikers have succeeded at Stoke City in recent years, and one 2021 signing by Michael O’Neill almost instantly became a flop frontman for the Potters.
Stoke brought in Sam Surridge that summer from AFC Bournemouth on a four-year deal for a fee believed to be worth around £5.5million, including add-ons, in a huge leap of faith considering his relatively ordinary Championship scoring record at the Cherries and on loan at Swansea City.
O’Neill had made the 23-year-old attacker his main target ahead of the new campaign, and his risk looked to have paid off early on in the season as Surridge got off to a decent start in red and white, but his form soon dipped, and he slipped down the pecking order up front.
Surridge was then allowed to leave permanently in the January 2022 transfer window to join Nottingham Forest, just six months after he had moved to Stoke, for a cut-price fee compared to what the Potters had previously paid, as they cut their losses at the earliest possible juncture.
It was a huge gamble by Stoke that did not pay off at all, and O’Neill’s perceived insistence on bringing him to the club went on to represent little more than a significant loss of money in a very short space of time.
Sam Surridge flopped at Stoke City
Stoke needed a frontman to step up and take them forward under O’Neill, as well as added depth after Lee Gregory and Sam Vokes had both departed the club, and so Surridge joined in August 2021 in the hope that he could become the Potters’ talisman ahead of the likes of Steven Fletcher and Tyrese Campbell, as well as break their curse of poor striker signings.
He started the campaign well at the bet365 Stadium, with a late winner on his debut in the season opener against Reading, two goals in the first two EFL Cup outings against Fleetwood Town and Doncaster Rovers respectively, then another strike against Barnsley in September as Stoke sat comfortably in the top six in the opening stages.
All seemed to be going well for him and his teammates, but he soon lost confidence in front of goal and continued to fail to find the net as O’Neill began to prefer Fletcher and Jacob Brown in his starting XI.
Surridge’s frustrations were summed up by a moment of madness in the dying embers of Stoke’s 2-0 win over Peterborough United in November, as he was given a straight red card just minutes after coming on for a headbutt on Posh defender Josh Knight.
