Stoke City dream transfer window as Mark Robins juggles perils and opportunities of loan market
Stoke City knew the gamble when they set about building a squad again last summer, armed with considerably less money than the club had in the budget 12 months previously.
They would need to sign a player in pretty much every position and ended up getting 10, pretty much covering all roles except right-back, where Junior Tchamadeu was backed to step up and replace Ki-Jana Hoever.
But those Financial Fair Play rules – on the back of the spending in 2023 – meant that they would have to again utilise the loan market. You might not see the best of even very good young players in their first or early loans, like Stoke probably didn’t – at least not consistently – with Liam Delap, Jack Clarke, Jaden Philogene and Taylor Harwood-Bellis.
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It’s a hard fight for those a little bit older and Stoke had to scrap to get Tom Cannon from Leicester – then see him score goals... and be recalled in the final hour before a deadline to do so on Tuesday, with the hope or promise of ready cash from suitors who are not so constrained.
It’s tempting to think that was inevitable with a successful loan but Mark Robins hopes that’s not the case with Tottenham centre-half Ashley Phillips, who is showing glimpses of turning into a serious prospect, nor Andrew Moran (Brighton) and Lewis Koumas (Liverpool).
“I’m hoping they will be with us for the rest of the season,” he said in his pre-West Brom press conference. “You’re at the mercy of (other clubs) when you take people on loan but I don’t see any reason to change for them at this moment in time. I think it’s slightly different than Tom’s situation at Leicester City.”
This is all a long way around of saying that Stoke’s dream window would not only being able to find a striker who can score goals as regularly as Cannon – but to be Stoke’s own player too, without fear of doing what Leicester have been well within their rights to do this week, or Bournemouth did with Mark Travers last season or Stoke did to Walsall with Nathan Lowe.
Stoke scouts are out at the moment checking and double-checking on strikers who are available in a difficult window and within their awkward financial constraints, albeit with hope that the rules will change for the better in the months to come.
There is hope they have the answer in the long-term in Lowe - and they certainly don’t want a bed blocker – but there is an urgency for goals in the here and now and it would be unfair on him to shoulder the entire burden. Still, he did well in his first game back and he will back himself to shoulder quite a bit. To have that in itself is exciting.
A winger or two would help Stoke and help him too. Even a loan signing made now wouldn’t be allowed to be recalled – but it would be good if they could find a solution for the next few seasons there too.
