Stoke City calm amid Championship summer chaos, manager poaching and transfer panic
Two clubs have brought in new managers, three more are closing in on appointments and there could be as many as seven more vacancies to fill
Stoke City are a rare beast in the Championship this season to be working quietly through the close season. The transfer department is in at Clayton Wood and players such as Eric Bocat and Junior Tchamadeu have been in as part of their rehabilitation from injury.
It will be a busy summer but the key figures were all in place at the end of 2024/25 ready to plan for a much better 2025/26, led by sporting director Jon Walters, manager Mark Robins and head of recruitment Ian Torrance.
Not so at plenty of their rivals. It has been axe-swinging time up and down the division. Watford and Southampton have appointed new bosses but there are still vacancies at Norwich, West Brom and Hull and there could still be seven more.
Norwich are set to poach Bristol City’s Liam Manning, for instance, while QPR are looking for a replacement for Marti Cifuentes, who was put on gardening leave in the last few days of term. Middlesbrough have been conducting an internal review about Michael Carrick’s performance, Leicester are keeping Ruud van Nistelrooy on tenterhooks and Sheffield United’s new board have been reportedly considering the future of Chris Wilder after defeat in the play-off final.
Sheffield Wednesday, meanwhile, are in turmoil as panic grows about late wages, a potential three-window transfer ban as punishment and speculation about the future of popular Danny Rohl.
And Charlton Athletic are sweating on the future of Nathan Jones, who the BBC claim remains in contention for the big job at Cardiff City, despite Charlton winning promotion, Cardiff being relegated and the former being able to demand “a significant compensation fee” that is whispered to be around the £1m mark.
Des Buckingham, Ian Evatt, Brian Barry-Murphy and Aaron Ramsey have reportedly been interviewed but Ruben Selles, fresh from being sacked by Hull, “has ruled himself out as he wants to stay in the Championship”.
Manning is close to getting the nod at Carrow Road, having just guided Bristol City to their first top six finish at this level in 17 years. Norwich will have to stump up compensation of about £800,000 and will also take on his coaches Chris Hogg and James Krause.
He will take over from Johannes Hoff Thorup and inherit a squad that finished 13th, despite being the division’s second highest scorers. It remains to be seen if he will keep key men such as Josh Sargent, Marcelino Nunez and Borja Sainz, particularly as this will be Norwich’s first season either not in the top flight or not receiving parachute payments in the second tier since 2011.
He will have to find a new goalkeeper, for starters, after the release of Angus Gunn and the club has already signed Jacob Wright, who had previously been on loan from Man City.
Rob Edwards, the former Luton, Watford and Forest Green manager, has emerged as the first name to be linked with replacing Manning at Ashton Gate.
Players, coaching staff and general club staff have been caught up in another late wages payment saga at Sheffield Wednesday. The Sheffield Star claims that this latest round, plus a late payment of tax bills earlier in the season, has put the club on the brink of hitting the EFL’s limit of 30 default days over a 12-month period, which would mean an embargo on player registration.
The Star reports: “Should Dejphon Chansiri’s Owls be placed under embargo then it would mean that they would not be allowed to spend any transfer or loan fees on players for the next three transfer windows, and they can only sign free agents and free loan players until they have a maximum of 23 of ‘professional standing’.
“By the EFL’s definition, ‘professional standing’ is ‘any player who has made one first team appearance (including as a sub) for any club in any first team competition’, however the EFL Trophy doesn’t count.
“With Wednesday currently having 19 first-team players on their books, with Rio Shipston and Gui Siqueira falling into the ‘professional standing’ category, they will only be able to sign two new players unless they sell players or terminate contracts.”
