O’NEILL OUT TO MAKE BIG SUMMER IMPACT
MICHAEL O’neill is confident that he will make Stoke City stronger in the quick turnaround for next season – as he tries to finish the job of keeping them in the Championship.
Stoke take on Brentford at lunchtime (12.30pm) knowing they need a point to secure their safety, albeit it would already take a dramatic turn of events to haul them back into the relegation zone.
Players will only then get a week or fortnight off following the final game at Nottingham Forest on Wednesday before they are back in to prepare for 2020/21, which could start on either August 29 or September 12.
Stoke will try to be active in the transfer market – which will run from Monday, July 27 to 5pm on Friday, October 16 – but may have to wheel and deal in a difficult market, with the onus on getting players out as much as bringing in talent.
O’neill said: “We’ve only had one transfer window since we came to the club and we had to use that, in all honesty, to get players out rather than get players in because our numbers were so high.
“This window will be challenging as well because the off-season is so short. We’re turning the team around very, very quickly.
“We’ll start on Day One of preseason with 31 signed players, which is too many, as simple as that.
“We can’t just continue to add players to the club’s wage bill. We have to manage players in and out of the building and ideally by the start of the season but certainly by the end of the window, we have a streamlined, hungry squad and a squad that we believe can do well in this division.”
Out-of-contract Adam Federici has already left and is being joined by Stephen Ward, while Mame Diouf has a deal running until the end of the season.
O’neill said: “We would like to be stronger than we are now. Whether we are able to add players by the start of the season is something we’ll learn over the next few weeks. I don’t think we can use that as an excuse.
“When you have players under contracts and, in some cases, long-term contracts the process of change takes that little bit longer.
“If we were coming into a situation now when we had 10 players out of contract, it would be much easier to make an impact into the playing squad than we maybe are currently able to do.
“We are in a market where moving players is going to be difficult, there’s no doubt about that. Every club is going to be challenged financially and we’re going to have to wheel and deal if necessary.
“But I’m pretty confident when we kick off that we’ll be stronger than we are now.”
Brentford arrive in the Potteries having won eight in a row and breathing down the necks of West Bromwich Albion and Leeds United.
O’neill said: “Brentford have been terrific to come back from lockdown and win seven straight, having won going into lockdown as well.
“But we’re not going to give them a guard of honour or anything like that. We’re going to give them as tough a game as possible.
“We believe we can win. We know we will have to be at our very best.
“They will test us. They’ve got some real quality in their team, a lot of consistency in their team and that is leading to a lot of consistency in results.
“Going forward, this is a benchmark for us, a bit like a Leeds game. We have to be ready for this type of challenge.”