Stoke City are continuing to explore late opportunities in what is increasingly looking like it will be a relatively quiet end to the transfer window.
Steven Schumacher has added Daniel Iversen, Luke Cundle and rookie keeper Scott Morris to his squad and the door has not been shut on further activity before the deadline passes at 11pm on Thursday, February 1. The search for goals in particular has seen Stoke look beyond UK shores but, in a month notoriously difficult for permanent deals, there is still hope of another arrival, probably on loan unless unexpected dominoes fall.
Schumacher has also been clear that, while keen to bring in different attributes, he is not desperate for numbers. His repeated message since arriving at the bet365 Stadium before Christmas has been that the squad is better than its current standing in a congested Championship – and improvements can be made with ‘serious’ work on the training ground.
That is especially the case given the size of the turnaround last summer. There have been 22 new arrivals in all since pre-season. The club filled 22 spaces out of 25 spaces in the squad list they submitted to the EFL in early September but Mark Travers left and Blondy Nna Noukeu and Ciaran Clark were added before Iversen and Cundle joined in January. Morris, Liam McCarron and D’Margio Wright-Phillips would also need to be included on the list of senior names if they are to be considered for selection.
