Reports have surfaced today that Ryan Shawcross is the subject of a substantial bid from Tottenham Hotspur as Harry Redknapp is reported to have gotten in touch with his old pal Pulis about a deal for the 6ft5in Defender. Stoke, having plucked Shawcross from the relative obscurity of Manchester United’s Reserves for a paltry £1m, saw Ryan fit right in to a Promotion chasing Stoke side and in his first full season achieve a goal tally a Striker would be proud of as he helped fire Stoke to the promised land of the Premier League.

It’s certainly a difficult one for me, there is no doubt he is a great up and coming English Centre Back, but he is far from the finished article, and let us not forget only has 28 Premier League games to his name so a high value offer at this stage is, in my opinion, certainly worth entertaining. I also get the feeling that the wiley Sir Alex will have stuck a sell on clause somewhere in the depths of his contract, so a reported swap deal, rumoured to involve another good young Englishman in Tom Huddlestone, might seem like the right move at the right time for Stoke.

This would obviously leave us with a problem that we were not expecting, which is filling the spot of one of our first choice Centre Backs with an adequate replacement, which at this stage can only be a distraction as the players, stuffing the last of their Chinese takeaways into their mouths, prepare to return to a gruelling Pre-Season tomorrow.

I would say if we could get Huddlestone in exchange, maybe with some cash thrown in as well, and use this money to go for the likes of Robert Huth or David Wheater then this might not be as bad a move as we perhaps first thought and we come out of the whole situation with a more experienced and balanced team. That said, I would be desperately unhappy to lose Ryan as he is a very special player; unfortunately though we need to understand where we are in the Premier League food chain and our current status dictates that this is sadly an all too common occurrence and something that we need to accept and work around as we establish ourselves as a top flight club once more.