Promotion-chasing Burnley are the only club in the Championship to rely as heavily on the loan market as Stoke City this season, new figures reveal.
A fifth of Stoke’s playing minutes so far in 2024/25 (20.7 per cent) have been clocked up by players borrowed from other clubs; Ashley Phillips, Andrew Moran, Lewis Koumas, Ali Al-Hamadi, Tom Cannon and Josh Wilson-Esbrand. Burnley top the table with 21.7 per cent, including regulars Jaidon Anthony (Bournemouth), Zian Flemming (Millwall) and Bashir Humphreys (Chelsea).
Centre-back Phillips, the 19-year-old on loan from Tottenham, has been used the most by Stoke with 2,362 minutes, followed by Brighton midfielder Moran (2,359) and Liverpool forward Koumas (2,328).
Derby County are third (18.5 per cent), ahead of Sheffield Wednesday (17.1) and Preston North End (16.8) and these statistics tallied by the CIES Football Observatory highlight that the level of usage of loanees has little bearing in itself on whether a team is going to be successful or not.
Stoke’s numbers are in sharp contrast, ironically, with Coventry and a squad that was built over time by Mark Robins. Robins did use the loan market extensively in some campaigns but last summer he didn’t bring in a single loanee. Luton (0.9 per cent), Cardiff (2.3), Millwall (2.8) and Oxford (3) are not far behind.
It is Coventry who lead the way in the Championship for minutes played by players who are under contract beyond 2026 in what CIES describes as minutes secured or planning for the future. A total 86.2 per cent of game time under Robins and his successor Frank Lampard has been taken up by players who are on the books for at least another two seasons.
Sunderland (70.5 per cent), Hull (68.5), Leeds (64.7), Sheffield United (62.7) and Swansea (61.5) all score highly on that regard too and Stoke are up there with 51.6 per cent.
First team regulars and key assets Viktor Johansson, aged 26; Wouter Burger, aged 24; Million Manhoef, aged 23; Bae Junho, aged 21; and Junior Tchamadeu, aged 21, are all under contract until 2027, as well as youth prospects Sol Sidibe, aged 18; and Jaden Dixon, aged 17. Eric Bocat, Bosun Lawal and Nathan Lowe are under contract until 2028.
That is a core of a squad for the long-term albeit that new head of recruitment Ian Torrance will have a significant to-do list for this summer, with only 58.7 per cent of the players used this term scheduled at the moment to be back for pre-season training. Only QPR (56), Millwall (55.5) and Sheffield Wednesday (49.8) have fewer.
What Mark Robins has said about the loan market
Robins admitted in January that the loan market might be a necessary evil for Stoke at the moment. At that point he was losing top scorer Cannon – recalled by Leicester to be sold on – and had to use the loan market again to find a replacement in Al-Hamadi from Ipswich.
He told StokeonTrentLive: “Well, you always run the risk when you’ve got players on loan that when they do well it will ignite interest in them from elsewhere and Leicester are well within their rights – as we were to recall Nathan Lowe.
“It’s circumstances. Whatever your circumstances are you have to cut your cloth accordingly and that’s been the situation here this season. That’s something we’ve got to pick our way through, the financial situation, and it is what it is. We’ve got the players we have and you’re at the mercy of parent clubs about what they want to do. We brought Nathan (Lowe) back from Walsall on that basis.”
What Mark Robins said about the loan market while Coventry manager
Robins took five players on loan in 2022/23 when Coventry reached the play-off final: Callum Doyle, Luke McNally, Jonathan Panzo, Brooke Norton-Cuffy and Josh Wilson-Esbrand. That season’s squad also included three of the club’s most successful players in years in Viktor Gyokeres, Callum O’Hare and Ben Sheaf, who also started out as loans before upgrading to permanent contracts.
But there were none brought in for 2024/25 and Robins told CoventryLive: “It shows the strategy of the club more than anything. There are some really good loans out there, that’s clear. We have used the loan market well in the past, but the difficulty with that is you get to a stage where three, four or five loans then go back at the end of the season and you have a big hole to fill. And that’s difficult.”
He added: “But if you have good loan players from top clubs then they can make a difference, as they have done in the past, and obviously we have converted some of them into permanents, namely Callum O’Hare being one of them. Ben Sheaf was another, as was Viktor Gyokeres, so we have used it pretty well in the past.
“But the strategy of the football club is that we now try to bring our own players in and develop them. Obviously you have assets there and you can then trade at whatever point you want to. But ultimately you have to try to get a squad that’s cohesive, that works together and lives together on a daily basis and are aligned with aims, objectives and goals.”
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