Stoke City’s stunning team they could name today had they kept their best players.
Stoke City have had some great players on their books over the years, with many of them still playing at the top level to this day.
The Potters have had a turbulent few years in the second-tier since relegation from the top-flight in 2018, but were once a top-half Premier League side and had multiple previous Champions League winners in their squad.
Most of those players are either retired or coming to the end of their careers now though, and while the quality of the club’s squads has understandably decreased in the Championship, Stoke can still boast some big names in recent years that have gone on to do even better things since departing ST4.
With that said, FLW have looked at what a current Stoke City XI would look like had they kept their best players, only using those from the last 10 years in a 4-4-2 formation.
GK: Jack Butland
Jack Butland playing for Stoke City 2019
Jack Butland joined Stoke as a 19-year-old from Birmingham City in 2013, and went on to become the Potters’ number one from 2015/16 onwards in some of the best seasons in the club’s history in the top-flight.
He was with Stoke for seven seasons as they eventually dropped into the second-tier, and won their Player of the Year award on two separate occasions before he left for Crystal Palace in 2020.
Now aged 31, he is the starting goalkeeper for Scottish giants Rangers in the league and European competitions, and he won both their Players and Supporters’ Player of the Year awards and was named in the PFA Scotland Team of the Year for his impressive performances last season.
RB: Ki-Jana Hoever
Ki-Jana Hoever
Ki-Jana Hoever is still only 22-years-old and played for the Potters as recently as May, yet finds himself a place in this team for his outstanding performances while in the Potteries since his first arrival on loan from Wolves in January 2023.
Hoever became a regular starter in the 2022/23 campaign under Alex Neil, and returned to Stoke last summer on a season-long loan after a six-month spell, then finished last season as the club’s top goal contributor with nine combined goals and assists from right-back.
The Dutch youth international was linked with a return to the bet365 Stadium in the summer, but instead joined French side AJ Auxerre on another loan from parent club Wolves, and he has unsurprisingly been a regular in Ligue 1 this term.
CB: Leo Ostigard
Carabao Cup – Round of 16 – Stoke City v Brentford
Norwegian international centre-back Leo Ostigard spent just four months on loan at Stoke from Brighton & Hove Albion from August to December 2021, but showed his great potential in that short time, and has since gone on to even bigger and better things.
Ostigard was signed on a season-long loan by Michael O’Neill to bolster his back-line off the back of a great loan spell at Coventry City, but saw his spell in ST4 cut short, and has since revealed that “problems” with the Northern Irish boss contributed to his early exit.
He has since gone on to play for Genoa and Napoli in Serie A, and won a historic league title with the latter in the 2022/23 campaign.
Ostigard now features in Ligue 1 with Stade Rennais, and is a regular at international level with Norway.
CB: Nathan Collins
nathan collins stoke
Nathan Collins was scouted by Stoke as a 14-year-old while playing for his youth club in Ireland, and has gone on to become one of the best products of the Potters’ academy in the modern era.
Collins played nearly 50 times for the club between 2019 and 2021, before his impressive performances at such a young age saw Premier League side Burnley shell out a reported fee of £12 million for his services.
He then made the move to Wolves just a year later, then another to Brentford in 2023 for a club-record £23 million transfer fee, and he now looks settled with the Bees as a regular starter and one of the most-highly rated young centre-backs in the top-flight at just 23-years-old.
LB: Alfie Doughty
Alfie Doughty
Stoke’s decision to allow Alfie Doughty to leave the club in the summer of 2022 has been proven to be a pretty costly mistake in the two seasons since his departure.
Doughty joined the Potters from Charlton Athletic in January 2021 after he had established himself at The Valley, but was unable to ever really break into Michael O’Neill’s side ahead of Josh Tymon, and made just 16 appearances for the club in 18 months, while also going out on loan to Cardiff City.
He moved to Luton Town, as a result, and he helped the club to promotion to the Premier League in his debut campaign at Kenilworth Road, and has become a key man for Rob Edwards in both the top-flight and the second-tier, with top clubs linked to his signature throughout the summer, and Stoke left pretty red-faced.
RM: Jack Clarke
jack clarke stoke
Mazy winger Jack Clarke is much more well-known for his Championship exploits with Sunderland in recent years, but he was a fleeting loan arrival at Stoke from Tottenham Hotspur once upon a time.
Clarke joined the Potters for the second-half of the 2020/21 campaign from Spurs, and impressed in parts, but saw his time at the bet365 Stadium cut short due to injury in April.
Most Stoke fans would likely not have expected him to go on and become one of the second-tier’s standout right-wingers, as he did with the Black Cats, and his great form on Wearside means he now plies his trade in the Premier League with Ipswich Town, after a summer move to the Tractor Boys for a reported £15m.
CM: Badou Ndiaye
badou ndiaye
Badou Ndiaye may be a surprise inclusion in this XI, given the years since his Potters departure, but he is still playing at the top-level in Turkey and would surely be a standout in the Championship to this day if he had stayed with Stoke.
Ndiaye joined the Potters for £14m from Galatasaray in January 2018 with the club desperate to improve their midfield in the midst of a Premier League relegation battle, and while he was a clear improvement on their existing players, he was unable to stop the club falling into the Championship.
The Senegalese international soon moved back to Gala on loan for the 2018/19 campaign, but played a few more games for Stoke in 2019/20 before numerous loan spells back to the Super Lig and an eventual permanent exit in 2021.
He is not held in great stead by Potters supporters, as a result of his largely failed move, but is still performing at a decent level with Gaziantep FK in the Süper Lig at 33-years-old.
CM: Will Smallbone
will smallbone stoke
Stoke’s potential midfield pairing is completed by Will Smallbone, who made his breakthrough in senior football while on loan at the club from Southampton in the 2022/23 season.
Smallbone had never really established himself in the Saints’ first-team, but he did while in ST4 with 46 appearances in all competitions in a loan spell that saw him improve as the season went on under Alex Neil.
He returned to his boyhood club and soon became a key part of their promotion-winning campaign last season, and is now a fully-fledged Premier League player and Republic of Ireland international at 24-years-old.
