Stoke City cash boost as youth graduate set for £400k transfer
News from the bet365 Stadium as Stoke City fan, Wembley mascot and former youth striker Will Goodwin completes League One switch
Stoke City are set to pocket the cash from a significant sell-on clause after former youth striker Will Goodwin completed a £400,000 transfer from Cheltenham Town to Oxford United.
Goodwin, now aged 21, joined Stoke from Chester in 2021 after showing his potential in non-league. He was a boyhood Stoke fan to the point where he was one of the club’s mascots at Wembley for the 2011 FA Cup final.
He continued his development with loans to Hartlepool United and Torquay United before a £20,000 permanent deal was agreed with Cheltenham this time last year. His form in League One has attracted admirers and Charlton Athletic were determinedly in the race before Oxford matched their offer. GloucestershireLive reports that Goodwin has been to promotion-chasing Oxford to undergo a medical on Wednesday afternoon, with a two-and-a-half year contract on the table.
Stoke will receive a healthy cut while the new deal will also include several add-on clauses, coming into force depending on Goodwin’s success and if Oxford win a place in the Championship.
Goodwin has scored six times in the league for Cheltenham as well as one in the EFL Trophy and he has been in superb form, particularly since the appointment of former Port Vale manager Darrell Clarke in late September.
Clarke said recently:
“Goody has been a pleasure to work with since I’ve been in the building. He has a lot of attributes that are very good and we want to kick him on. He is only going to get better and better the more minutes he plays.
“He has that physical presence and attributes that could play at a higher level, he just needs that consistency of games and performances. He should be thinking that number 9s are few and far between and if he can produce that consistent level of performance, the world is his oyster.”
