Stoke City legend Mike Pejic reviews the transfer comings and goings in busy summer window

It must have been a daunting moment early in the summer at Stoke City as Alex Neil and Ricky Martin wrote down the name of all the senior players then on the books who were part of their plans going forward. They wouldn’t have needed much paper.

It has been a very busy few weeks to put together what looks like a competitive squad that largely follows a pretty safe Championship template

When all is said and done in this division you need a goalkeeper who can stop shots, you need two centre-backs who can properly defend, you need a sitting midfielder who can win things in that area and that releases your two full-backs to defend or join in, you need two advanced midfielders who can sit in when needed or join the front line and can create with and off the ball, you need wingers who can dribble, get to the by-line and get crosses in or link with the midfielders, and you need a target man who can receive the ball from any angle.

That is the basic menu, the bits you can add to it are extras, and if you get the fundamentals right then you won’t go far wrong.

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If you manage to get your hands on a player who is a little bit more special, good for you – but the bottom line is to get enough solid players who are hard workers with grit and drive. When you’re down in a match you know you can come back because you’ve got belief and determination. They can put things right for you, they are the ones to carry your club forward, they’re the ones with enthusiasm to win games when all seems lost, they keep believing.

Manchester City spend billions of pounds on footballers who can play how Pep Guardiola wants, no matter how good he is as a coach, and although it might be tempting to try to follow his model, give me a keeper who can stop the ball going in the net first and foremost rather than worrying about his passing range.

Recruitment makes or breaks managers and trying to be too clever catches out many.

Neil has made some important signings and his current three first choice players in midfield have a nice balance. There’s a sitting midfielder and two who can join in attacks or sit in too depending on the state of the match. Ben Pearson can link in with the back line and the other two can advance and work angles and distance off each other to create and exploit space.

There’s a fluency and good variety there to work possession up the pitch and it showed as Stoke comfortably beat Rotherham while having 70 per cent of the ball. That has been a common struggle in recent times and it was no surprise that having wingers or wide forwards gave Johnson the opportunity to slip the kind of passes through defenders that we haven’t seen enough of over the last couple of years. They can stretch teams.

 

It will be interesting now to see how they go about replacing Jacob Brown, who I believe still has development in him as a striker, working on his short pacing in the penalty area for example, but he has some excellent attributes.

There is no doubt that Neil will be bringing in another forward, is the exact type which will keep us guessing. It is good that he still has a good chunk of his transfer kitty left because good front lads don’t come cheap – and if they’ve sanctioned Brown’s exit then they must have one or two in mind who can come in and more than make up for it.

It wouldn’t be a surprise if Dwight Gayle left before deadline day too and Tyrese Campbell knows he has to keep improving on and off the ball to feature prominently.

Stoke’s recruitment department know this division, they know who to watch in the divisions below and who is available from the division above. They are dipping their toes in waters that most of us don’t know a great deal about too. They will know who is for sale or loan and, hopefully, who to avoid. It will be fascinating to see how it plays out in the next couple of weeks – and what impact that has on the next few months.

 

GOOD luck to England against Colombia this morning in the quarter-finals of the Women’s World Cup.

This tournament has been really fun to watch, enterprising and fresh. The top seeds have looked a bit wobbly at times so we’ll wait and see if England and France, who take on Australia, can avoid any shocks and make it a final four who were all pretty well fancied before we kicked off.

Spain, who are already through, look dangerous even when they aren’t at full strength and Sweden were too strong physically for Japan.

Australia have done well to reach the quarter-finals but France have looked excellent so far. Mind you, Netherlands were looking good too and they’re out. The US are out, Germany are out.

To see 32 teams from around the world competing at this level has been absolutely fantastic. The enthusiasm and quality will be opening up new areas too, which is great for football. Let’s hope the final week can be just as exciting.