Reports are surfacing to suggest that Joe Ledley has favoured a move to Celtic park over the Potteries and whilst the move hasn’t taken place yet, it looks to be in the final stages and unless he has a late change of heart will be lining up in the Green and White Hoops against the likes of the mighty St Johnstone, Hamilton and Kilmarnock.

As per my previous story, the Potters looked to have the upper hand on this one and the apparent snub has been met with the predictable attacks on the Manager and backroom staff in charge of the negotiations on certain forums – how can Stoke lose out to Celtic for a player, someone needs to be sacked!!

The reasoning of many is so flawed it barely warrants a response but the moaners tend to be the loudest so this Stokie would like to have HIS say and to put the record straight.

Transfers are very rarely a simple choice between two clubs – Many sources say that Ledley has been offered a £20k/week 4yr contract at Stoke to play in the Premier League, it seems his ambition and indeed loyalties to his boyhood club have taken a back seat to an extra £5k/week. My question to those whining about missing out is, do you really want that kind of character at Stoke?

We know footballers are greedy, but Ledley knows full well if he moves to Celtic his boyhood club could sink into Administration, he knows if he moves there he will have to play in front of 4 figure crowds every other week against opposition worse than he faced in the Championship. He knows if he moves their he won’t get the chance to test himself against the best players in the World, in the best league in the World and realise his self stated ambition to play in the Premier League. It seems that all it has taken to buy Ledley’s ambitions, loyalties and self respect is an extra £5k/week and a signing on fee, and that is everything that is wrong with modern football.

Yes we have chased Ledley at various points over the last 2 yrs, indeed 2yrs ago we offered £6m at a point when we were struggling to get players in and he was a midfielder on the top of his game but this was 2yrs ago.. Since that time, Ledley has done very little to suggest that he was worth revisiting at anything like £6m. In those 2 yrs Stoke City have evolved and moved onto bigger and better things and whilst he was once a marquee signing, he is now little more than a squad filler.

We made a very generous £20k/week offer and quite rightly refused to budge on it despite reports that we were being encouraged to match Celtic’s offer of £25k/week. We identified a player, where he would fit into our team, where he would fit into our wage structure and we stuck to it, we didn’t get drawn into a measuring contest and that is very much to Stoke City’s credit and is exactly why we were one of the only clubs in the Country turning a profit. This seems to be lost on some people who think we have endlessly chased a target and not done enough to get him here and instead have LOST him to Celtic.

Too expensive… ©AP

These are the same people who were whinging when we didn’t sign Zigic; “he’s made for our system” they said (despite being the ones whinging at the system in the first place – go figure) instead he went to Birmingham in a deal worth over £20m…..£20M!!!!! I’m sure these people would like all of our targets to sign, I’m sure we can afford to shell out on the big transfer fees but it’s the contracts that are killing us, why on earth would we commit to a long contract worth over £20m on a 29yr Serbian who is unproven in the Premier League, it is madness! Certain fans need to understand that football is a business and whilst we are a certain sized team with no European football and a ground that holds under 30,000 we are in no position to be handing out such lucrative and damaging contracts, I’m sure Pompey, Leeds, Hull and many more had a great 15 mins in the limelight but all are paying for it now for that very reason – you don’t live beyond your means.

Be careful what you wish for… ©GettyImages

This season sees a new rule come in which puts any transfer activity under the microscope even more, we are only able to register 25 senior pro’s for the season in addition to any number of U21’s and like it or not we have a LOT of dead wood we need to shift, do you really want our team splashing the cash around and ending up with 40 players come registration time? They all need to be paid you know? We simply can not let ourselves be in that position.

In fact, ironically whilst people were switching on their gas ovens and sealing the windows over the Ledley saga, Stoke went about their business and signed a very promising Belgium Youth International, in fact we beat a number of teams to his signature including the richest club in the World, this player’s agent didn’t seem to have too much of a problem with the club saying;

“"He was very impressed by Stoke from the off, their professionalism and enthusiasm, and it did not take long to agree."

We had a valuation of Ledley and where he would fit in and Celtic offered more, not a problem, we walk away and get value for money elsewhere, could we have blown Celtic out of the water if we had wanted to? Of course, just like we did with Beattie, but now, just like then, we knew what the player was worth to Stoke City Fc. We identified this young Belgian International and saw him as having great potential and thought about the bigger picture - does that sound like a club struggling to sign the players they want? Or does it sound like a club who are looking forward and building for our future?

If the whiners could step back and be even the slightest bit objective then they would see that Coates/Pulis et al are doing the very best for our club and will never, ever let us get to a point where our ongoing stability is compromised by stupid short term decisions and the need to appease the vocal minority who only care about whose name they want on the back of their shirt. We continue to be run in a very sensible and practical way and I for one am more than happy that there are people who care enough about our future that they don’t put our very existence in jeopardy for short term gain or glory.