Ali Al-Hamadi to Stoke City transfer - Mark Robins on 'powerful' new striker's first week ahead of debut
Effervescent and hungry Ali Al-Hamadi is arriving at Stoke City trying to prove he can make an impact as both a starter and finisher.
The 22-year-old is primed to make his Stoke debut this weekend at Hull after signing on loan from Ipswich, where he has been largely to try to influence games as ‘a finisher’ substitute as they won promotion last term and in the Premier League this season.
Stoke had to win a fight among Championship clubs to land him and there is hope he can hit the ground running – but part of his switch will also be about showing he can adapt to a place back up the pecking order. He hasn’t played 90 minutes at club level since his final appearance for AFC Wimbledon in January last year, a day which capped a run of 13 goals in 13 games.
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But his key strengths are, well, his strength and athleticism and it sounds like he has been showing his appetite to succeed in his first week’s training at Clayton Wood.
Mark Robins said: “He’s effervescent. He’s got lots and lots of enthusiasm, really keen to do well. He’s got a lot of really good attributes and obviously that’s what prompted Ipswich to buy him from Wimbledon.
“He’s done really well, you’ve got to remember, from a position of being one of the finishers or substitutes to finish games rather than starting games regularly. This is something that he wanted to get into his armoury just to make sure he’s got that ability to start and finish games. That’s another one that’s going to be interesting because it’s not been a continuation of 90 minutes, 90 minutes, 90 minutes, it’s something he’s probably going to have to build up to as well but let’s see.
“He’s got a lot of strengths and he’s a powerful athlete as well.”
Part of Robins’ job, then, will be to manage Al-Hamadi as he tries to get right back up to top speed – at a time when he has to manage a squad when Ben Pearson, Bosun Lawal and Ben Gibson are coming back from lay-offs of 10 months, six months and a month respectively.
Ben Wilmot, Jordan Thompson, Million Manhoef, Sam Gallagher, Eric Bocat and Sol Sidibe are all in the treatment room too and will have to be eased back into action when their time comes.
Robins said: “It’s about managing them all but you hope they can contribute for 90 minutes and make a real big difference and a real big impact without putting too much pressure on somebody to come in and say, ‘Right, over to you.’ They all need support. He’s 22 years of age as well but he looks more experienced, older than his years, and he’s really physically in good nick and he’ll be a big help to others around him, that’s for sure.”
Al-Hamadi has had to work his way up the pyramid over the last four or five years, playing for Bromley on loan from Wycombe in the Conference in 2021/22 before taking off at Wimbledon a year later. He scored 23 times in 42 League Two games to earn his move to Ipswich.
He comes into a strike department where Nathan Lowe has also shown his potential in League Two, having scored 15 times in 22 games on loan at Walsall in the first half of this season.
It remains to be seen if Robins will use one or the other or both together – and Gallagher and Emre Tezgel will hope to come into his thinking too – but he hopes they will prove to complement each other over the next three or so months.
The manager said: “They are different players, different players with different characteristics but the one characteristic Nathan has is that he’s a goal scorer, instinctively a goal scorer, whereas Ali can score goals, maybe not the same as Nathan, but I’m happy with that because you’ve got two different types and let people try to work them out when they play. Let’s see.
“It gives people a platform, gives Ali a platform to come here and play. Nathan has had a taste of it so far and let’s see where we can get to.”
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