‘Nightmare for defenders’ – Stoke City and rival verdicts as transfer plans begin
Transfer verdict ahead of the January window as Stoke City look to strengthen under new head coach Narcis Pelach
Stoke City’s summer transfer window was another busy one with 10 new faces and a sea of departures, but plans are already underway regarding what they need to do when the market opens up for business again in January.
It has been a dramatic start to the season for the Potters, with three wins and five defeats in the Championship, three wins in the Carabao Cup and a change of head coach. The big task for new boss Narcis Pelach is to implement his approach and style of play mid-season and haul the club towards the right half of the Championship.
There is a chance to make one or two adjustments to the playing staff in the winter and, although some prices will be inflated, sometimes an opportunity presents itself to bring in a player like Million Manhoef, like it did last season.
StokeonTrentLive has linked up with sister titles DerbyshireLive and CoventryLive as Pete Smith (Stoke), Leigh Curtis (Derby) and Andy Turner (Coventry) identify the transfer needs of each club, review the summer window and ponder who they would pinch off each other for the clubs they
What is your club’s need in the January transfer window?
PS (Stoke): Stoke brought in a player for each position in the summer apart from right-back, where Junior Tchamadeu was trusted to step up and be backed to develop over the course of the season. He’s got some very strong attributes but he’s had some testing moments too and has been taken out of the firing line in the last week, with Ben Wilmot shuffling across from centre-half.
A decision will have to be made at some point soon about what to do next for the best but for now he’s got a chance to earn his place back in defence by knuckling down in training.
The squad looks pretty balanced and there are summer signings who will become more involved as the season goes on: Bosun Lawal and Tatsuki Seko are yet to come into the thick of things, Sam Gallagher has had to be patient with injury, Tom Cannon hadn’t started a game since February before joining from Leicester. There’s more to come from this squad.
LC (Derby): I don’t think there is any dispute that Derby need a striker after failing to land one on deadline day. Apart from Jerry Yates, it can’t really be considered a Championship-level strikeforce, but credit to Derby because they are finding goals from a variety of sources, helped by being incredibly strong at set-pieces.
