Stoke City

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Stoke City podcaster, Ben Rowley from the YYY-Files shares his opinions on the club's transfer policy and whether they're right to replicate the models of the likes of Brighton and Brentford.

"Where money is crucial, particularly in the Championship, you have to generate as much revenue as possible. With the TV deals, how they currently are, you're not going to fill your stadium, you're not going to get much overseas interest in terms of merchandise, you're going to generate your funds through your transfer fees.

You've got to be able to sell your best players if you don't think you're going to go up, and I think that we've shown that we are going to sell players that are going to be better than us soon. Wouter Burger I think, in one or two years if we don't go up, he will certainly be a Premier League player.

Some players might take a bit longer, like Bae Junho and Nikola Jojic who we've not seen much of, may take two or three or five years to get to the upper echelons of European football, but I think they'll get there eventually, if they get the game time.

The rest of the signings have been pretty low risk in terms of the fees shelled out, so you would imagine that over the next couple of years we're going to make a huge profit on these players. Then it's about, rather than just having to make free transfers and loans, we are going to be able to sign players for maybe a couple of million pounds. And that's what we need, because at the moment we're having to flesh out the squad with bodies."

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On this day: 3 January 2017

Stoke ended a five-game winless run in the Premier League with victory over Watford to move up to 11th in the table.

Goals either side of half time from Ryan Shawcross and Peter Crouch secured all three points for the Potters at Vicarage Road.

The 2016/17 season proved to be a slightly disappointing one for Stoke City, as after three consecutive 9th placed finishes in the Premier League, they would go on to finish 13th, before being relegated to the Championship the following season.

Steven Schumacher says his first two weeks as head coach of Stoke City have been "tough".

Schumacher only took over on the 19 December, but thanks to the hectic fixture schedule over the festive period, he has already been in the dug-out for four games.

Despite the quick turnaround since joining the Potters, the new head coach is undefeated. With his Stoke side most recently picking up a hard-fought draw against promotion chasing Ipswich Town.

The Potters are next in action in the FA Cup third round, against Premier League Brighton and Hove Albion on Saturday 6 January.

You can hear full match commentary of that game live on BBC Radio Stoke.

We asked you what a successful January transfer window would look like for Stoke City. What areas of the pitch need strengthening, who you'd like to bring in and who needs to leave.

Here's what you had to say:

Dan - We are in desperate need of a prolific, or even a semi-prolific number nine. We also need to strengthen at centre back and left back. And we really need to sign a permanent, first choice goalkeeper.

Hosser - We need a quality keeper as strong competition for Bonham and a commanding centre half and left back. Clarke-Harris from Peterborough would be a good acquisition in our search for a 15+ goals a season striker too. To be fair to Alex Neil he brought in some decent players, but there are still areas we have to improve to push us right up the table.

Oliver - Stoke have never liked signing left backs, but it's imperative that they do this window. A goalkeeper is also needed. I'd like to see the young lads given a chance instead of Dwight Gayle, who's scoring record is atrocious.

Brian - We need a striker, the two we bought in the summer are not up to it.

Stoke City signed 19 players in the summer, but with Steven Schumacher now in charge and the January transfer window open, can we expect more signings through the door? Should some players leave? What does a successful January transfer window look like for Stoke City?

Have your say here

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Stoke City technical director, Ricky Martin has told BBC Radio Stoke that ultimately he and first team coach, Steven Schumacher will have the final say on any signings this transfer window.

The Potters signed 19 players in the summer when Alex Neil was in charge, but as Schumacher enters his first transfer window with the club he'll no doubt want to add to the Stoke squad.

So who's responsible for finding and signing the players? The clubs technical director, Ricky Martin says it's a team effort:

"Recruitment going forwards will always be led up by the recruitment team, which I support. They're one of the departments that fall under myself, so we will lead the process.

You can imagine a lot of players get put forward to us and there's a lot of recommendations, so we will go through the reports, the data and then we'll create profiles and they'll then be presented to the head coach and his team"

So who has the final say when it comes to new signings? Martin says ultimately, it's him and head coach Steven Schumacher:

"Not every one case can be the same answer. Sometimes there will be a great opportunity for a young player that if we go in and invest now we are getting someone that maybe in 12 to 18 months we might not be able to afford. So it's an investment for the future.

Or we might need someone here now, to be ready and play Saturday, Tuesday, non-negotiable. So each case will have a different rationale behind it, sometimes Steven [Schumacher] will say 'this is what I really feel the squad needs', and that's what we've got to go and find."

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New Stoke City head coach Steven Schumacher is yet to lose since he took over from Alex Neil last month. A 0-0 draw against promotion chasing Ipswich Town on New Year’s Day means that it’s four games without a loss under the new boss.

Lifelong season ticket holder and BBC Radio Stoke summariser, Angela Smith has been sharing her thoughts on the turnaround under Steven Schumacher:

"I think he is getting a tune out of players that a lot of people thought weren’t going to do well for Stoke.

Bae Junho has been a different class, Wouter Burger and Hoever have done ok. Junior Tchamadeu, who wasn’t getting a look in before, is now playing better.

I do wonder if Daniel Johnson has much more of a future at Stoke, as well as one or two others, but I do think Stoke have done really since Steven Schumacher has come in.

And the most important thing for the fans is, it’s exciting, it’s entertaining and everyone is working as a team".

Stoke City head coach Steven Schumacher says that Jordan Thompson's sending off against Ipswich Town was "unnecessary" and "spoiled the game".

Schumacher told BBC Radio Stoke that he "felt it was a little bit unnecessary from the referee, but he made his decision and that made the game more difficult for us"

Despite the man disadvantage Stoke held on for a 0-0 draw against second in the table Ipswich, a result which takes the Potters unbeaten run under Steven Schumacher to four games.