Pros: tidy on the ball, intelligent, well-timed runs, cracking long-range shot and good set pieces Cons: unimposing, a bit one-paced, prone to drifting out of games or jogging through them, attitude sometimes questionable His time had run with us especially under our new manager so he'll not really be missed. But a new start might help him and he'll probably fit your team better than ours. Definitely a good footballer in there.

One of my favourite ever Stoke midfielders 🤩 ..and Lewis Baker

Surplus to requirements, Schumacher has never fancied him really, doesn't fit his high-intensity style of play. He has good touch and showed a lot of promise as a youngster but at this stage of his career he's a bog-standard plodder and really won't be missed. He will score you the odd banger though.

Got crocked in his first friendly, back in October in theory

We’ve Been through this, Stoke and Vale don’t mix

To be brutally frank about it, he provides that, and not a great deal else. He's a skillful player but in a way not very suited to the modern game. Doesn't press well, doesn't offer much presence and too often the game passes him by. Does provide a goal threat though and that's not to be sniffed at. Put it this way I'll be very disappointed if Moran isn't an upgrade for us 😃 (which he certainly was in the cup the other night)

I think kiddies get a lot of slack while still developing. Circumstances like the ones you mention can chew up a young player. Hopefully we'll use him sensibly and he can come along. We certainly don't play Pulis-esque full-backs any more! They do outrageous things like cross the halfway line every now and again now, it'll never do

Cheers. I'm just struggling a bit to believe we've brought in a teenager as a first-choice centre-half, although you probably couldn't hand-pick a better mentor than Ben Gibson alongside him so hopefully that's the plan. Gally is out for the foreseeable future, by the way. 8 weeks minimum I think is the prognosis. Stupid fuckin signing 🙄

Can he play right back? It's probably where he's going to get shoved

Ours is a bit better, maybe more like a baboon in a monsoon

Apart from that they're sound though right

We'll be orate. We have a decent manager and players who appear to be invested.. the three from you will feature in the first team to varying degrees. We won't do anything spectacular but I fully expect us to have our best season yet back in the Champo (very low bar)

Appreciate the sympathy 🙂 Ennis just came from doing well at Plymouth under our gaffer, crappy stopgap signing. Moran is talented and highly-rated but still young so can understand him going missing a bit.. I think gets a bit of leeway. Gally, meh, we'll see but we've left our squad #9 free so ideally we'll be signing another first-choice forward.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C-vQ2LXKwLf/?igsh=MWZtZHNid2swd2Nkdw==

can add Paul Warhurst’s dad to my list an all then, he had a loan with us

Hello. I thought I'd ask this here out of curiosity.. have you had many players whose fathers were famous footballers? At Stoke we had Viv Anderson and Jason Koumas' sons make their debuts for us the other night, which adds to an impressive lineup for us in recent years.. sons of: Bryan Gunn Viv Anderson Paul Ince Rory Delap Shaun Wright-Phillips Lou Macari Jason Koumas Kevin Campbell Mamady Sidibe Only a couple of players off a bloody strong XI, and we can make up the numbers with Tony Pulis, whose kid made a few nepo appearances for us, and Eidur Gudjohnsen's dad, who played for Iceland. Feels like we're an anomaly.. pointless musing really, just wondering whether other teams can compare

Anything up to 22/23 is still young in my book. Especially for a central midfielder where you're expected to dictate a game. We already have a very similar case in Lee Cundle who we had on loan from Wolves and might be getting back - he looked absolutely lost most of the time he was with us but towards the end of the season something clicked and suddenly you saw the potential to develop into a really good AM.

Very young though. He might build into it if he's talented

Tongue was firmly in cheek but Ennis came on in our first game and actually did pretty well. Looked fit, did a lot of running and dragging defenders about. Involved in our goal. Maybe he'll have his uses.

We do seem to have developed a penchant for cherry-picking your best talent 😃

Is this "bless them" as in it's unrealistic, or "bless them" as in he's shite, or none of the above? Asking for a fanbase

Crouch was like that himself to be honest. He was never naturally great in the air, paradoxically. Rory's throws were before his time anyway

Some positive news from the Stoke side

I make it four with big Niall

We're now apparently going to "beat" you to the signing of Ryan Wintle. Be still my beating heart.