26-year-old is surely eyeing a Stoke City escape route in January: View.
There were a lot of changes made to Steven Schumacher’s Stoke City squad throughout the transfer window ahead of this season.
The Potters finished the campaign well in 2023/24 and avoided the drop with a game to spare as Schumacher guided them to an eventual 17th-placed finish, and the aim now is to build upon that going forward into his first full term in charge.
Stoke signed 10 new players in the summer, either on loan or permanently, while six players were allowed to leave for fees or on loan with a big turnover needed to give the former Plymouth Argyle boss a near-ideal squad for his style of play heading into a crucial campaign.
One player that has not departed the Potteries despite an exit seeming likely is Portuguese forward Andre Vidigal, after he had a mixed debut season with Stoke in 2023/24 and looked set to leave with new additions signed in his position over the last few months.
Vidigal is set to remain with the club until at least January now, with overseas windows also closed, but will surely seek an exit when possible, with it looking quite unlikely that he will win his left-wing spot back in the coming months.
Andre Vidigal started well at Stoke but his form dipped
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There was understandable fanfare surrounding Vidigal’s arrival in the Potteries last July, due to his previous pedigree as a Portuguese youth international and impressive exploits in the Primeira Liga with Maritimo in 2022/23.
He looked to be worth every penny of the reported £450,000 that Stoke spent on bringing him to the club in his first few outings, as he netted a brace on the opening day of the league campaign to help his side to a 4-1 victory over Rotherham United, before going on to find the net three more times in his next five games in all competitions with match-winning strikes against West Brom and Watford.
He continued to play consistent games well into the season, but his notable decrease in attacking output coincided with Stoke’s poor run of results in November and December, and boss Alex Neil was soon sacked and replaced by Schumacher before the turn of the year.
Vidigal was initially trusted by Schumacher early on in his reign, and did net in a 3-1 win over Birmingham on Boxing Day, but soon saw his playing time dwindle as South Korean winger Bae Jun-ho’s form improved, and he only managed to make the starting eleven once in the final 15 league games, while not even making it off the bench in seven of those outings.
