The Stoke City Courier
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Too dear: Stoke City walk away from Giorgi Chakvetadze
$15.2M was the most the club would pay and Watford were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
George Hirst scores twice — 8.55
Two goals and a mark of 8.55 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market24 Aug 2026
Frank Fielding hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stoke City can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Stoke City rebuffed over Max Dean
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. KAA Gent have kept their man, and Stoke City go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match18 Aug 2026
George Hirst sends Stoke City past Bristol City
It finished 2‑1, and it was George Hirst’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Stoke City.
Market24 Aug 2026
Nottingham Forest join the queue for Sorba Thomas
Add another name to the list: Nottingham Forest have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Sorba Thomas. The answer from Stoke City has not changed — yet.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
One of their own: Jack McGlynn
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match18 Aug 2026
Stoke City hit back inside 3 minutes
Bristol City held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Stoke City answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Stoke City count the cost of losing Tristan Achu
35 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
In brief
- Squad Words exchanged at Stoke City
- Player ratings The afternoon belonged to Jack McGlynn
- Match Jack McGlynn rescues a point for Stoke City