Match of the Week – Brentford v Stoke City

After last week’s lucky draw for Stoke away at Shrewsbury, Gary Rowett has been sacked and now we have a new manager Nathan Jones from Luton Town. He promises attacking football and has done well at Luton taking them up from League Two into current a play-off position in League One. Exciting and interesting times at Stoke for sure.

Brentford have drawn their last three games and have fallen away since their previous manager Dean Smith joined Aston Villa. Should be a good game, with Ryan Woods set to start against his old club and possibly a return to the squad for Bojan and Moritz Baeur? Tyrese Campbell must also be in with a shout of at least making the bench. Be interesting to see how the defence lines-up, with Martins Indi getting the nod ahead of Williams?

Tymon signs for Stoke :)

Eighteen year old left back Josh Tymon has signed from Hull City on a five year deal. The fee will go to a tribunal due to his age. Good signing of a highly rated youngster and in an area we don’t have great cover for.

Jon Walters is all but set to join Burnley in a deal of around £3m. He has been a great player for us and hopefully Mark Hughes has some sort of replacement lined-up. Mind you, given the fanfare Bojan has been given at coming back after his loan last season maybe we are looking at him as our new SJW?

Man City’s Fabian Delph could still be joining us on a loan, although hopefully he won’t seek advice from Wildred Bony after his disastrous loan with us last season!

The squad travel to Switzerland this weekend for the start of their pre-season friendlies and Philipp Wollscheid will be in the squad, despite spending most of last season away on loan. No news on Joselu who was linked to Malaga and unless he engineers a move, looks set to stay with the club for now.

Stoke City 2-0 Man Utd & Pieters signs

What a great result today against a Man Utd side who really are struggling under the rigid tactics of their manager. Bojan opened the scoring from an assist from Glen Johnson, with Marko Arnautovic getting the second. Everton away next which will be a good game I am sure.

Erik Pieters has signed a contract extension until 2020. He has become a firm fan favorite and all we need now is Marko Arnautovic to sign a new contract. I am sure we can persuade him to stay on for another couple of seasons.

January transfer window could see a few fringe players leave like Steve Sidwell, Peter Crouch who must be hankering after first team football, Stephen Ireland (what has happened with him?) and possibly , although any move for him would be hampered by his recent injury.

Bojan art print

http://art-of-football.com/collections/all-prints/products/little-genius-print

Interesting company Art of Football who create illustrations that try to capture those magical moments in football. They have just made their first Stoke design of the little genius Bojan. They have other football clubs, plus rugby and more. Luckily no rubbish like P*** V*** are covered 😉

The full range of Stoke City products available can be viewed here

Adam, Moses and Whitehead

Charlie Adam has signed a new extended contract with the club until 2017, with an option of a further year. Great news as his form since becoming a regular in the starting XI following Bojan’s injury was immense. Speaking of Bojan he is aiming to be back in contention for the opening game of the season against Liverpool.

One player who looks like won’t be signing is Victor Moses if this Guardian news piece is to be believed. Seems he is not keen to be any part of a deal to take Begovic to Chelsea. No formal offers have been made for Begovic yet.

Andy Wilkinson is on a week-by-week contract with the club until he finds himself a new club after being released this summer.

Ex-Stoke player Dean Whitehead has moved clubs again signing for Huddersfield Town.

Rochdale 1-4 Stoke City FA Cup 4th Round

Good away win after an early wonder goal by Bojan, easily the most talented Stoke player I have seen in my lifetime as a Stoke supporter. Rumours of Liverpool interested in him, they can look elsewhere, Emile Heskey would be good for them 😉

The other goals came from Stephen Ireland, Victor Moses and Jon Walters. Next round is Blackburn away, a tough game and hopefully televised again.

Andy Wilkinson has returned from his loan spell at Millwall and Jamie Ness is back on loan at Crewe for the rest of the season.

Stoke City 3-2 Arsenal and Wrexham in the FA Cup

Great win for us over Arsenal, a team who never seem to like playing at the Britannia 🙂 Goals from Peter Crouch, Bojan and Jon Walters secured three points and we even had a second Bojan goal disallowed. Next up Crystal Palace away, that will be a tough game, although Aston Villa recently beat them 3-1 at Selhurst Park. Good to see Huth come on at the end of the game too.

The FA Cup third round draw has been made today and we have non-league Wrexham at home. Good draw for them and not too far to travel. Really hope we get past this potential banana skin…