New Stoke City manager left with transfer decision near-impossible not to make
Put yourself in Mark Robins' shoes as a new manager walking in for his first full week of training at Stoke City. Stoke hadn't scored in four of their previous five matches but he had invited back Nathan Lowe, who had been out on loan at Walsall along with Stoke clubmate Tommy Simkin, to make introductions.
Lowe is 19 and confidence is sky high, scoring goals for fun to send Walsall to a club record eight wins in a row and 12 points clear at the top of League Two. A starring role in a 5-1 thrashing of Tranmere Rovers on Saturday put him up to 18 goals and seven assists in 30 appearances as he tasted regular senior football for the first time in his career. Now a recall has been triggered.
He has been on Stoke's books since he was at primary school and has the club in his blood. He is desperate to play and score for Stoke and be a driving force in a successful Stoke team. He's fit and strong, increasingly aggressive, smart and committed. He hasn't played regularly at Championship level and Robins, while emphasising patience, still made the point: “He is certainly scoring goals at League Two level and when we spoke the other day I said the goals don’t move. If you’re hungry and you can get into good positions where the ball is going to find you… and we have to make sure we can do that and our team moves and evolves into a state when we can start to create chances on a regular basis that gives forwards the opportunities to stick the ball in the back of the net."
READ MORE: Stoke City diehards and teammates bombard Tom Cannon with love as transfer rivals circle
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Meanwhile, Sam Gallagher is on the sidelines for a few weeks with a hamstring injury and clearly can't be rushed. Niall Ennis hadn't played since early November and hadn't scored since last February before he got the winner from the bench at Sunderland on Saturday - and he has clubs wanting him in League One. Emre Tezgel, Lowe's long-time academy sidekick, impressed from the bench too but has played fewer than 300 minutes in the league so far this season. Andre Vidigal has slipped back into the deep freeze.
Million Manhoef is out until March with a knee problem, Bae Junho has to rediscover his confidence and form and Lewis Koumas is in his first proper season at senior level.
Stoke's hands are tied in the transfer market this month due to profit and sustainability rules and Tom Cannon, who has scored 11 times on loan from Leicester, has suitors wanting to steal him away on a permanent deal from Leicester. Stoke have owners who would happily sign a cheque like that but it's Sheffield United, in the midst of a drawn-out takeover and having been in danger of sliding into administration in the not too distant past, who have the Premier League parachute payments to burn.
Stoke are believed to be still in the market for a centre-forward to bring in this window but it's a sellers' market and that is likely to go late into the month. Who knows, it is not out of the realms of possibility that Lowe could still be allowed back to Walsall, especially because - if he plays as expected for Stoke at West Brom next weekend - rules don't allow players to represent more than two clubs in a season so he wouldn't be allowed to jump into a League One one club, for instance.
It's a gamble to bring him back and to see how he does two divisions higher but it would have been all-but impossible for Robins, especially considering everything else, to leave a centre-forward scoring goals out on loan. It would have been a gamble to let him stay.
This is one of Stoke's most successful ever outgoing loan deals. In the recent past, Harry Souttar did very well at Fleetwood Town, D'Margio Wright-Phillips helped Beerschot win promotion in Belgium and Connor Taylor starred as Bristol Rovers stormed up and out of League Two but this is in a different stratosphere.
"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened," said a post from Walsall late last night.
"Thank you for your outstanding contributions Lowey, we wish you all the best in your next chapter," they added in another.
Roll on the next chapter.
