Breaking: An agreement has been reached for a spectacular goal machine, and Steven Schumacher is looking to resurrect the front line for Stoke City on deadline day.

Transfer news from Clayton Wood as Stoke City try to seal business before 11pm deadline

Stoke City are working to get deals done for two forwards on deadline day.

Stoke have made a late move for Vitesse Arnhem winger Million Manhoef, who has just turned 22, as his cash-strapped club look to raise urgent funds after months of weighing up whether to keep or sell as they fight to stay in the Dutch top flight. Manhoef has been a key figure next to Stoke old boy Marco van Ginkel but Vitesse have a 5m euro black hole as a potential takeover is held up.

The Dutch press claims that Manhoef has been wanted by Hellas Verona, who instead opted for Fortuna Sittard’s Tijjani Noslin. He has previously been courted by AZ Alkmaar, who are captained by Bruno Martins Indi, but AZ reportedly couldn’t meet the asking price set last summer and instead signed Ibrahim Sadiq.

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He has played alongside Wouter Burger and Ki-Jana Hoever for Netherlands at youth level and has been linked with clubs including Rangers, Leicester City and Preston North End earlier this month.

“From a sporting point of view, Manhoef’s departure is a major loss,” reports De Telegraaf. “Together with Marco van Ginkel, he is one of the club’s top scorers at the bottom (both four goals), but Vitesse, which has been put in a tight spot by the stalled takeover by the American Coley Parry, desperately needs the money to see out the season. to play.”

Stoke are also in the market for a centre-forward. They have been exploring opportunities around Europe and dominoes have a tendency to topple late in the January window – sometimes even as late as February – and even what is looking like a quiet finale can change as situations develop and players suddenly become available.

Stoke have had a goal scoring problem this season and Steven Schumacher has named two completely different front threes in the last two Championship matches; Andre Vidigal, Ryan Mmaee and Bae Junho against Birmingham followed by Sead Haksabanovic, Tyrese Campbell and Mehdi Leris at Sunderland.