Stoke City have been furiously busy behind the scenes in their preparations for the 2024/25 season - and the summer transfer window hasn't even officially opened yet.
The market is officially launched for business on June 14 but Stoke have got a deal over the line for Rotherham United keeper Viktor Johansson and are hoping to seal a move to make free agent Ben Gibson their second signing. There have also been contract extensions for back-up keeper Frank Fielding and left-back Enda Stevens.
The summer of 2024 is not expected to be quite like the summer of 2023. There will be fewer deals and the incomings are mostly expected to be more familiar names than were plucked from Serbia, South Korea, Portugal, Hungary and Switzerland last time around.
There is space for one or two surprises but not a squad full. Due diligence is being stepped up and sporting director Jon Walters has been spotted watching games almost every night of the week at the moment to add another layer of testing. Steven Schumacher is pretty clear about what he wants too.
There is also a big change in the transfer department itself, with head of recruitment Jared Dublin leaving after just under a year. A new appointment is expected to be made quickly.
AS IT HAPPENS: Latest Stoke City transfer news and gossip through summer window
READ MORE: Target set for Stoke as Steven Schumacher scours market for striker
Retained and released
Tyrese Campbell has left Stoke after eight years, ending on a high with a standing ovation afterscoring in a final-day 4-0 win over Bristol City.A 12-month option has been taken on Jordan Thompson's contract, Frank Fielding is staying as third-choice keeper and Stoke are veteran left-back Enda Stevens h as signed on for another year.
Centre-back Ciaran Clark and striker Wesley move on. Rookie keeper Blondy Nna Noukeu, right-back Tom Edwards, forward D'Margio Wright-Phillips and midfielder Tom Sparrow have been released as well as under-21s players Ben Kershaw, Kahrel Reddin, Sonny Singh, Tom Curl and Ian Kamga,
Stoke have offered new contracts to centre-back pair Matthew Baker, aged 21, and David Okagbue, aged 20, who have just reported back from League Two loans with Newport County and Walsall respectively. Playmaker Jack Griffiths, aged 18, is also in talks about a new deal.
There are first pro contracts on the table in the under-18s age group for Dean Adekoya, Josh Bickerton, Jake Griffin, Christy Grogan, Jaden Mears and Will Smith while Adam Watson, the New Zealand youth striker and son of former long-serving physio Dave Watson, has been given the chance to extend his scholarship into a third year.
Signed and sealed
Stoke confirmed the signing of Rotherham goalkeeper Viktor Johansson on a three-year deal.
The Sweden international, aged 25, joins for an undisclosed fee after a relegation release clause was triggered. He had spent four years at the New York Stadium, where he established himself as one of the leading keepers in the Championship.
He told the Sentinel: “People look at me and might think I’m not the biggest but I would say I command my area pretty well. I’m brave, I scrap. I just love getting hit or hitting someone. It’s a contact sport, there should be contact. And I like shot stopping too.”
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Stoke hope to get Gibson deal done
Stoke are hoping to conclude a deal to make Ben Gibson their second signing of the summer.
The 31-year-old centre-back has got a reputation as a changing room leader and there has been strong rival interest, including from the United States, but Schumacher and Walters are trying to seal another big bit of early business.
Gibson made 37 appearances for Norwich as they reached the play-offs in the season just finished but they have a different agenda to Stoke this summer, trying to bring down the average age of their squad and readjust to a final year of parachute payments.
“Ben Gibson left Norwich with his head held high at the end of his contract after playing through some difficult personal circ*mstances in the second half of the season. He is a humble and intelligent man who brings leadership and know how to any backline," Connor Southwell, Norwich City reporter, told the Sentinel.
New recruitment chief on the agenda
Stoke are believed to be closing in on an agreement with Hull City transfer chief Lee Darnbrough to take over as head of recruitment.
Darnbrough, aged 46, has been in a key role behind the scenes at Hull since 2017 in times that haven’t always been straightforward. He has worked under controversial previous owner Assem Allam as well as Acun Ilicali, the Turkish tycoon who bought the club in early 2022.
He has been lined up as the experienced hand to replace Dublin at the start of a pivotal summer window. He will work alongside the current recruitment department, with trusted figures such as Mama Sidibe and Scott Coomber, as well as Walters and Schumacher.
Darnbrough was a highly-rated goalkeeper himself coming through the ranks at Oldham Athletic and spent two years at the FA’s national school in Lilleshall only to have to retire from professional football at just 19 due to a badly broken wrist.
He moved his attention to off-field matters and has been involved analysis and recruitment at West Bromwich Albion, where he worked with Manchester United-bound Dan Ashworth, Burnley, where he helped win a surprise promotion to the Premier League in 2014 with Sean Dyche, and Norwich City, where colleagues included Alex Neil and Ricky Martin.
It is at Hull where he has been able to put down roots while also graduating with a distinction in sports directorship from Manchester Met. Familiar signings he has overseen at Hull include Liam Delap and Jaden Philogene, Fabio Carvalho, Harry Wilson and Fikayo Tomori.
Players linked to Stoke so far
Striker Jay Rodriguez, now aged 34, was put forward by TeamTalk as a potential target as he prepared to come to the end of his contract at Burnley - but he has ultimately signed a new deal to stay put.
Daniel Iversen is expected to move on from Leicester this summer if Stoke pursue his signature - and was in consideration by Stoke's recruitment team before they swooped for Viktor Johansson.
“There were other goalkeepers that we considered, Daniel Iversen being one of them," said Schumacher. "He was brilliant for us in the run-in, by the way, excellent. I spoke to Daniel at the end of the season and his circ*mstances were always going to be difficult because we didn’t know if Leicester were going to go up. Now they have and Daniel’s contract situation has changed and it was going to be another conversation for us that might have dragged on."
QPR centre-back Jake Clarke-Salter is being suggested by the Telegraph's John Percy for a fee "around the £5 million to £7m mark". Anything like that would be Stoke's biggest signing since early 2019 when EFL rules really started to tighten the purse strings.
Forward Josh Windass, aged 30, is expected to have talks about extending his stay at Sheffield Wednesday but the Sheffield Star claims Stoke, West Brom, Hull and Derby are interested in trying to lure him away. He has since been linked with Coventry and Hull.
TeamTalk claimed that a deal was done for left-back Sam McCallum to join Stoke after his Norwich exit. The 23-year-old is a good young left-back but it doesn't sound like anything is imminent.
It was suggested in Italy that Stoke could be the only club who could both attract and afford Marko Arnautovic if and when Inter Milan try to move him on this summer. It doesn't sound promising.
"Nobody has spoken to me or my manager," he said. "I have a contract with Inter, I'm very happy at Inter and I'm staying at Inter."
Stoke are among the clubs who have been linked by TeamTalk with Oxford United promotion hero Josh Murphy but it is understood that the winger hasn't been on their list this summer.
There have also been suggestions from TeamTalk as a suitor for Fleetwood Town centre-back Brendan Sarpong-Wiredu, aged 24. It's Charlie Adam in charge at Fleetwood these days so that would be an interesting conversation.
The Express claims that Stoke are in the hunt alongside Celtic and Coventry for FC Lausanne-Sport's £4.3m-rated midfielder Alvyn Sanches.
Luke Cundle location speculation
Luke Cundle, who finished the season strongly on loan, got tongues wagging when he posted a quickly-deleted Instagram story over the weekend with a tagged location of Stoke-on-Trent, even if he was actually in Stone.
What we do know is that he is under contract at Wolves until 2026 and Schumacher is a committed admirer, having worked with him at Plymouth as well as at the bet365.
Schumacher said at the end of the season: "Luke Cundle has shown in the last month or two how good of a player he is when he has got people who will pass the ball to him."
He added, also including Ki-Jana Hoever, Daniel Iversen and Luke McNally in his round-up: "I'm really pleased for all four of them and I'd love to work with them again.”
The pundit's view on Stoke's transfer window
Mike Pejic wrote in his latest Sentinel column: "We’ve got a goalkeeper signed up for starters and it is pretty clear where the manager thinks is the most important position to address. Tyrese Campbell was released because Stoke need a main striker or two who they can really rely on across a 46-match season.
"It is the easy part to spot that. The hard part is to find them and bring them in, particularly when your budget is constrained by Financial Fair Play rules. This is where you need your scouting network. The players are out there and it’s their job to spot the ones who could fit precisely into the coach’s plans, probably with a little bit of polishing.
"The forwards who are already scoring 20 times a year in the Championship will be out of our budget at the moment but you don’t just look at scoring goals when you’re up in the stands and taking notes of potential targets. You look at team play and attributes and you get references about character and work rate."
