Steven Schumacher is braced for a busy week for comings and goings as Stoke City head towards transfer deadline day.
Stoke have brought in eight new signings so far this summer and there are likely to be one, two or more on the cards before 11pm on Friday, perhaps depending on how many spots they can also free up in the squad. Schumacher insisted that the result against West Bromwich Albion – a 2-1 home defeat – didn’t change that plan.
“We need to get players in if we’d have won today,” he said. “It is what it is. You can’t base your decision making on outcomes of results, you have a plan and a strategy which we’ve got. We’re still trying to bring people in to help the squad, make it stronger in the areas where we think it needs to and we’re still trying to get players out too who we feel aren’t going to play a part. We’ll keep working this week until Friday and see what happens.”
Stoke brought in centre-half Ash Phillips from Spurs on loan on Friday and are still chasing a striker. There could be movement in midfield too and it remains to be seen how close business will go to the deadline.
Schumacher said: “I’d love to get them in in the next hour but that’s obviously not all down to me, there are other people behind the scenes trying to make that work. We’ll see how we go.”
There will be exits too as players understand their positions in the pecking order.
Schumacher said: “We’ve had those conversations and people are aware. It’s not all down to me, we’re all aware of what the strategy is and we’ll try to execute it over the next few days.”
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