I see it happening” – Jon Walters drops exciting Stoke City transfer claim.
Stoke City sporting director Jon Walters believes that the Potters are now an attractive place for bigger clubs to send their players on loan.
His claim comes after witnessing the success of loanees Andrew Moran, Tom Cannon, Lewis Koumas, and Ashley Phillips, all of whom currently reside at the bet365 Stadium on loan from Premier League clubs.
Although they haven’t had enough collective impact to help Stoke sit among the league’s early pacesetters, the Potters are tucked nicely into the chasing pack and are showing signs of improvement under Narcis Pelach.
Stoke have lost just one of their last eight league games, and although only three of those saw them walk away with the three points, it provides them with a great foundation upon which they can build.
Their loan contingent will certainly help them build on that respectable start as getting back into the Premier League for the first time since 2017/18 remains the ultimate goal, and Walters believes that their success should help them attract players in the transfer market.
Walters believes Stoke’s success with loan players will help them in the future
Lewis Koumas for Stoke
Loaning players is always a risk for the club letting the player go, as there are no guarantees that he’ll get the minutes the loaning club hopes.
Utilising that in January may not be something Stoke can do too much as EFL rules state you can only have a maximum of five loanees in a matchday squad and the Potters already have four.
But Walters believes that clubs could now loan to the Potters with some faith that any player who goes there will get the required minutes and come back a more rounded player.
Walters told the Stoke Sentinel: “I hope other teams are looking and thinking, ‘I want to send a player to Stoke because I know what they produce, players are getting minutes, developing and their asset value has gone up.
“We’ll help them, coach them, develop them, put in the messages that need putting into them. It’s not just me saying that, I see it happening. We’ll do that here.
“You come, you develop, we invite the loan managers down to come and watch and we’ll tell them what we’re doing and they go into what they want from us.”
It seems a win-win scenario for all parties, but loan deals tend to largely favour the club loaning the player, who more often than not get back a better player than the one they sent out.
Walters’ views could be seen as shortsighted
Jonathan Walters
While the four loan players are undoubtedly bringing some short-term gain to Stoke’s season, fans would be forgiven for wondering what the long-term plan is once these loanees return to their parent clubs.
With the success they’re enjoying in the Midlands, it’s unlikely that when the season ends Stoke will be in a position to buy any of them, which would leave them again needing to dip into the market to replace them.
