The Stoke City Courier
Squad11 Sep 2034
The knee: Jonathan Cunningham out for 55 days
55 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Stoke City lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market11 Sep 2034
Emile Dortley asks to leave Stoke City
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market11 Sep 2034
Lorenzo Palmisani raises the bar for Stoke City
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Stoke City heard it as anything else.
Squad11 Sep 2034
A falling-out at Stoke City
Sepp van den Berg and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout11 Sep 2034
No hiding place for Francesco Folino
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Francesco Folino, and the manager let it.
Squad11 Sep 2034
Jack Currie falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad11 Sep 2034
Stoke City lose John Johnson
20 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout11 Sep 2034
Francesco Folino is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Boardroom11 Sep 2034
The numbers do not look good at Stoke City
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
In brief
- Market Talks stall between Stoke City and Mohamed Refat
- Market Seedy Jatta linked with a move away
- Looking ahead Sakhalou Niakaté goes back to face Bournemouth