'We want the players and staff to push each other every single day'

THE Stoke City squad might have had a significant facelift compared to last season thanks to a busy summer of transfer business - but it is barely recognisable from tip to toe next to the season before that.

- Peter Smith

Jon Walters has overseen 21 senior exits from the squad that was in place when he rejoined the club back in February 2024. That departure list includes some players who had blink-and-you'll-miss-it if well-paid Stoke careers, such as Ciaran Clark, Sead Haksabanovic and Wesley.

‘There are 16 players signed in that time who are now in the first team group while there have been other major changes behind the scenes, not least with the management team now led by Mark Robins.

There isn’t enough space to go through everything here but Ian Torrance is new head of recruitment with Vinny North as head of research and analytics, Gareth Owen has been moved to academy technical director, Joel Dawson to head of performance working with Mark Howard, who was a highly-rated head of performance at Everton, Sam Stockley has been brought in as academy manager, Matt Hockin as player liaison, Matt Lancett has returned as head of medical services and... you get the picture.

There is turnover at most Championship clubs but this has been on a pretty extraordinary scale, although it feels like it is now genuinely starting to settle down.

The revolution will ultimately be judged by what happens on the pitch but it is safe to say there is considerably more confidence in what is available in the changing room now than there has been for a long time.

Sporting director Walters said: “It's completely different, yeah. The mentality of players...