Ben Pearson has to be number one on Stoke City transfer hit list

It has emerged this week that in the five years since relegation. Ninety. I didn’t think I had heard right at first but it’s not so surprising when you think what we’ve all sat through since 2018.

That includes of whom only James Chester has so far been signed on a permanent deal. That is 27 players we have spent time developing players for other teams while we finish in the bottom half of the Championship. What’s the point?

We’ve seen Taylor Harwood-Bellis go on to win the title with Burnley, Leo Ostigard play in the Champions League with Napoli. Good for them but what good for us?

‘I’LL BE BRUTALLY HONEST’ – Alex Neil on leaving Sunderland, transfers and huge Stoke City project

READ MORE: Championship strikers at career crossroads as Stoke step up search for goals

There has been so much churn and it still makes me laugh and cry when I think back to Nathan Jones’s press conference after his first game in charge, talking about how he would have done things differently if he’d been focused just on winning.

He said something similar this week while he looks for his next job: “I’m a builder, I like to build. I like to be at places for a long time. Ironically, I believe that our work is deep and not just results based.”

That’s as maybe but results would be nice somewhere along the way!

Unfortunately at Stoke in recent times we’ve neither had results nor building. There is no sense of continuity, no sense of progress.

Michael O’Neill did a remarkable job to keep us in the Championship. We were dead and buried when he joined. He saved the club from certain relegation and did a steady job turning the club into a steady Championship team.

Expectation levels naturally rise but there was no sustained play-off charge and the squad changed every year if not every window. You can understand why supporters didn’t feel like we were getting anywhere. It felt like we were continuously starting again.

This season we’ve finished with seven loan players in the squad and fans are fed up.

We go into a huge summer with a load of work to do and we have to take the opportunity to make sure we put in solid foundations. We need a core of players that we can build on – even if the proof will be in the pudding soon enough when it all kicks off again in August.

Building a squad for any successful team at this or any level starts with three key areas – and Stoke need to address them all in the next few weeks.

First up, I want a sitting midfield player. That’s number one, the centre of your spine. Ben Pearson is a must in my book.

Then I’d look at centre-backs. We’ve currently got one who will be penned in as a starter for next season in Ben Wilmot. Connor Taylor has been coming through and hopefully he makes more games – but you need a couple of solid choices.

Then I’d look at the goalkeeper. You need someone you can really trust to be number one whether you’re a supporter, coach or teammate. It gives you so much confidence or so much fear depending on who has got the gloves.

Then you look ahead and the kind of players you need will depend on the manager and what his thoughts are regarding wingers or wing-backs. Does he want to play with a midfield three or four? What does he want in his front line?

There is so much uncertainty in there at the moment for Stoke and it is a hell of a lot of business to try to do in just a couple of months. They are looking for players who can be their number one choices, not just squad fillers or development projects. Good luck!

Those last eight results, winning one, drawing two and losing five, have made sure that we’re all a bit nervous about what lies ahead.

But we can’t carry on with this mass conveyor belt of loan players and changes of system, asking players to do different roles. It’s been change, change, change without getting anywhere.

This summer needs to be the window when we nail consistency.

I HAVE been sitting on a chair trying to direct my taekwondo classes recently as I recover from the injuries I picked up just before Christmas. But this week I’ve been walking, even able to pull on a welly to get out in the garden – even if it was a struggle to get it off again.

I’ve still got a bit of a limp but the crutches are away and I’m making good progress. Hydrotherapy is a big help and I’ve got some more sessions of that. So thank you for all your well wishes over the last few months and we’re getting there, gingerly. I’m still aiming to be up and running for pre-season!

Do you agree with Pej? Have your say in the comments section

READ NEXT