It’s fair to say that this window has been a quiet one so far, it hasn’t really kicked into life yet but it’s still early days and as always things will get more and more frantic as we near the end of the month.

For me our absolute musts for this window are to;

Keep hold of Begovic, Shawcross and Huth.
Sign Pennant up on a permanent deal
Sign a new Left Back

I was delighted to see that we tied up the Pennant deal before the window even opened and to get him for the price we did was nothing short of a steal. With that signing done and dusted we can now look at the team as a whole and where we might see some movement..

Goalkeepers – Begovic is now firmly in place as the first choice stopper and is doing a good job of keeping Sorensen out of the team and thankfully has recently gone on record as saying his ‘row’ with Pulis is in the past and he is enjoying himself. I do still get a little worried though when he doesn’t completely close down rumours of a move to the likes of Chelsea, instead insisting that he doesn’t know where he will be in the future, I’m not sure exactly how much damage was done at the time of the ‘row’ but it would be nice for Asmir to come out and say how he doesn’t want to move anywhere. As for Sorensen, it remains to be seen how long Thomas is willing to play second fiddle especially given his age and the reported interest from Bayern last season and if he does decide he has had enough then we will need to replace him with an able understudy.

Possible outs – Thomas Sorensen
Possible ins – Alex Smithies, Scott Loach, Joe lewis

Full Backs – I think most Stokies are in agreement that we need to sign new players in both full back positions, with the left berth having a particular pressing need for improvement. I would be happy enough waiting until the Summer for a good player on the right as Wilko is capable enough to see the season out and Shotton has also given us another option there, but we desperately need a left back in this month and I fully expect to see one arrive. I have said for a while that Lescott would be a perfect signing if we could do a deal with ManCity, but I think we’ll most likely see the more realistic signings of someone like Warnock or Konchesky, both unwanted by their current clubs with the former being my preference of the two.

Possible Outs – Danny Collins, Danny Higginbotham
Possible Ins – Joleon Lescott, Stephen Warnock, Paul Konchesky, Vincent Canella

Warnock Wanted?©fantasyepl

Centre Backs – As above, one of my main aims this window was to keep Huth and Shawcross and, despite the anticipated lazy journalism which is becoming a transfer window tradition, we should be able to do this at least for the current campaign. I always said it would be a sad day when Faye left us and it looks like that day will be here soon with interest both in this country and abroad for the one time Club Player of the Year. Abdy is getting on now and seems to have lost a yard of pace and a bit of his sparkle so I think the time is right for all concerned, I’ll never forget his herculean efforts in our first season and for that he will go down in Stoke City history and rightly so. Another exit could be Higginbotham, there has been rumours of a move, maybe to the Championship for Danny, another who has served us so very well over the last few years. If Danny goes, we’ll obviously be losing someone who can cover the middle and the left defensive positions so we’ll have to think carefully about the players we target across the back four as a whole to ensure adequate cover.

Possible Outs – Abdoulaye Faye, Danny Higginbotham, Andrew Davies, Ryan Shotton (Loan)
Possible Ins – David Wheater, Curtis Davies, Joleon Lescott, James Collins, Wes Brown, Maynor Figueroa

Midfield – Now that we have sorted the right wing position the focus falls on the middle two spots, though some cover for both flanks would be a bonus. Whitehead and Delap are both great at breaking up play but both are fairly limited going forward and with the emergence of Wilson recently I would suggest that we are looking at bringing in another player to sit alongside him in what will be a new look midfield. It’s an important position for us as it will mean less of a reliance on the long ball where we largely bypass the middle two so we need to get the right man in. There are plenty of players that I like the look of and it may well be that we look abroad for this particular role as Pulis looks to get better value for the Chairman’s money.

Possible Outs – Glenn Whelan, Diego Arismendi, Tom Soares, Michael Tonge, Danny Pugh
Possible Ins – Mark Noble, Jermaine Jenas, Momo Sissoko, Alex Witsel, Wilson Palacios, Charles N’Zogbia, Anthony Pilkington

Serious Interest?nobr>©7sur7

Strikers – This is a funny one, we have the best forward line I have seen in my lifetime yet I know this is an area Pulis will be looking to improve on. Our unique striking roles have seen us struggle to recruit into this area in the past and two such casualties of that most recently are Tuncay and Gudjohnson, both of whom will be allowed to move on should we find at least one suitable replacement given the return to fitness of Sidibe. A big problem that we have had this season, and indeed many before, is the absence of someone to take the chances we are creating, for a small while that was Beattie but we’re now left with a number of good players who aren’t that prolific in front of goal and the manager is keen to address that.

Possible Outs – Sanli Tuncay, Eidur Gudjohnson, Louis Moult (Loan)
Possible Ins – Hugo Rodallega, Carlton Cole, Michael Owen (Loan), Daniel Sturridge (Loan), Demba Ba

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @espn_stoke for all the latest Stoke City news and of course the fun and games of the transfer window.

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