Marked for Carlo De Risio
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings7 May 2029
Successful dribbles: 44. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad7 May 2029
Defences have started doubling up on Róbert Boženík
22 goals and a season average of 7.23 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match5 May 2029
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Stoke City did not have in the autumn.
Market7 May 2029
Carlo De Risio has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Stoke City they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad7 May 2029
Million Manhoef 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.
Squad7 May 2029
Tatsuki Seko in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stoke City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch7 May 2029
Tommy Simkin’s loan is measured in nothing happening
12 clean sheets from 19 appearances at Dijon. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Match5 May 2029
A goal on 90 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
The dugout7 May 2029
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match7 Apr 2029
Nobody wants to play Stoke City right now
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Market9 Apr 2029
Carlo De Risio has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Stoke City they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Róbert Boženík and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad9 Apr 2029
A row about effort at Stoke City
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Million Manhoef was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings9 Apr 2029
Nobody could get near Tomáš Rigo
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match7 Apr 2029
A 2‑0 win over Ipswich Town, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings9 Apr 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.01, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Loan watch9 Apr 2029
12 clean sheets on loan for Tommy Simkin
19 appearances at Dijon and the goals have stopped going in. Stoke City lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Player ratings9 Apr 2029
The game went through Sorba Thomas — 7.43
Marked 7.43 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings12 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 34. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Market12 Mar 2029
Only the photograph left for Carlo De Risio
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Carlo De Risio will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stoke City the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Róbert Boženík and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match10 Mar 2029
Reading left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Words at Stoke City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bae Jun-Ho is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Loan watch12 Mar 2029
12 clean sheets on loan for Tommy Simkin
19 appearances at Dijon and the goals have stopped going in. Stoke City lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Player ratings12 Mar 2029
Tatsuki Seko ran the middle of the pitch — 6.87
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.87, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Mark Marshall to a room that had heard them before.
Squad12 Mar 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sebastián Valbuena and Stoke City agree another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Feb 2029
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Swansea City moved on, Viktor Johansson reports back to Stoke City, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Transfer targets12 Feb 2029
The window shuts on the Kevin Danso deal
Stoke City ran out of time with Tottenham. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Market12 Feb 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Stoke City is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Róbert Boženík and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Words at Stoke City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Million Manhoef is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Transfer targets12 Feb 2029
Stoke City asked and Charlton Athletic said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Loan watch12 Feb 2029
12 clean sheets on loan for Tommy Simkin
19 appearances at Dijon and the goals have stopped going in. Stoke City lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Squad12 Feb 2029
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Stoke City know it.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Josh Koroma, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets15 Jan 2029
An offer of $13.4M for Kevin Danso
Stoke City have gone to Tottenham with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Market15 Jan 2029
The offer from Swansea City for Viktor Johansson was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stoke City have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market15 Jan 2029
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Stoke City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market15 Jan 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Stoke City is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom15 Jan 2029
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Carlo De Risio has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Róbert Boženík and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match13 Jan 2029
Bae Jun-Ho among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Bae Jun-Ho on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Stoke City and Leeds United.
Match13 Jan 2029
Leeds United left with the points after a 2‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 Jul 2028
“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 targets17 Jul 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market17 Jul 2028
Heracles come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Stoke City did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Róbert Boženík and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Freddie Anderson is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Late improvement for Tomáš Rigo
At 26 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Dan Ballard 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.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
Swansea City have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Market17 Jul 2028
Steve Cook is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Stoke City has been clear about where Steve Cook stands, which is more than many ever get.