Stoke City told which star to sell to fund summer spree – and who is a transfer untouchable..
Latest Stoke City news from StokeontrentLive as player deals loom with summer transfer window on the horizon.
Even in the depths of a poor season, a couple of shining lights pierced the largely unremitting gloom of Stoke City’s 2024/25 Championship campaign.
Chief amongst them was goalkeeper Viktor Johansson, the Sweden goalkeeper who won the club’s player of the season award by a country mile. But players like young attacker Million Manhoef also showed their worth, and maybe in more ways than one.
Of course, it took a final-day draw at Derby for Stoke to ensure they would be a Championship club again next season when plenty of their fans would have been hoping for a play-off challenge after seven underwhelming years since relegation from the Premier League.
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But that sort of success seldom comes along when you sack one manager, appoint another, then dump him before handing the job to a third – and all before New Year’s Day. In such circumstances, some might claim that even retaining their second tier status was a triumph for the Potters. I’d whisper it quietly though.
It all means that Stoke face yet another “big summer”, arguably their eighth since that fateful day in May 2018, as the latest incumbent in the manager’s chair, Mark Robins, moulds a squad hopefully capable of reversing the club’s gut-wrenching decline.
He has plenty of experience of doing just that, most notably at Coventry City, where he oversaw one promotion and then a heartbreaking play-off final defeat when only a penalty-shootout stood between the Sky Blues and a place in the top-flight.
Not that it will be straight-forward – things seldom are where Stoke are concerned – and the club’s past excesses mean EFL spending rules will again limit what Robins is able to invest in his team unless there are player sales first.
That is where Manhoef comes into the picture; Johansson too for that matter. Both are players who will draw admiring glances from rival clubs this summer, and both could realise a decent return too.
But Stoke supporters have sent a clear message to the club concerning just who should be shown the door as part of this summer’s rebuild – and who must not.
In a poll marking the end of the 2024/25 season, fans were asked who was expendable when it came to raising cash for Robins to spend.
Leading the way amongst disposable assets was Manhoef, the 23-year-old winger recruited from Vitesse Arnhem a year last February. Of those who responded to the poll, 37% said the Dutch youth international should be sold, followed on 25% by South Korean attacking midfielder Bae Junho, the 21-year-old who impressed in his first season at Stoke, but made less of an impact last term.
At the other end of the scale, 77% of respondents said Johanssen was the asset Stoke should try hardest to keep, with midfielder Wouter Burger next listed at eight per cent.
Supporters believe getting in a decent striker must be Stoke’s main aim this summer, with 63% of respondents making that position their priority. Second, but way back, was centre-half at 20% – and that tallies with the loan player fans would most like to see back at the club next season, young Tottenham defender Ashley Phillips.
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