The players who could leave Stoke City before deadline day
Stoke City have let Niall Ennis leave so far this month and seen Tom Cannon recalled by Leicester to be sold on, while sanctioning a development loan for Freddie Anderson.
Mark Robins hinted that players might have to leave to keep the financial balance right as Stoke bring anyone in but not too many, if any, further exits are expected before 11pm on Monday.
Andre Vidigal has been short of game time, scoring twice for the under-21s last Monday against Reading, but, other than that, senior players have either been involved in Stoke's first team or are or have been injured. It will be interesting if Stoke decide to let any other younger players go out on loan, such as Emre Tezgel, Darius Lipsiuc or even Bosun Lawal as he gets up to speed.
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But the manager doesn't want to see too many departures, saying at a press conference on Friday: “Let’s wait and see. I’m hoping not, to be honest. We need to try to keep people here if we can do because we do need the bodies but then it’s not just bodies, they’ve got to be able to contribute.
"It’s a fine balance and any decisions that are made on anyone else are going to have to be around the last day.”
Vidigal, aged 26, has made 11 appearance for Stoke this season but his only start has come in the Carabao Cup at Southampton in October under Narcis Pelach.
Tezgel, aged 19, has been kept close at hand by Robins and scored a hat-trick at Reading. He is out of contract in the summer and, although he might benefit from a Nathan Lowe-style loan, he will have a chance to impress Robins - and will be likely to start next week as Lowe and Ali Al-Hamadi are cup-tied. A contract that runs out in the summer will also come into everyone's thinking too.
Midfielder Lipsiuc, aged 19, is rated highly and was on the bench again for the first team yesterday at Hull. He is ready to test himself in men's football too and there have been lower league clubs sniffing around to see if Stoke might let him out for a few months.
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