CLOSING IN ON NUMBER 9!

Potters are linked with striker and midfielder as Robins remains hopeful about additional recruits

- Peter Smith

STOKE City are believed to be closing in on their ninth signing of a big summer rebuild. Mark Robins was hopeful but coy about further business but wants to add more quality to his squad, having already handed five debuts to new signings this week.

Stoke are being strongly linked with a move for Bastia forward Lamine Cisse. Talks over Banik Ostrava midfielder Tomas Rigo are believed to have been frustratingly protracted.

There are two-and-a-half weeks remaining of the transfer window and Robins was not going to give anything away in public when he was asked if anything was close.

"I don’t know is the honest answer, you don't know how close you are," he said. "I’m hopeful but I don’t know how close."