DUO’S DEPARTURES CAN HOLD THE KEY TO STOKE’S BUSINESS

THE immediate future of two of the last remaining players from Stoke City’s disastrous late Premier League and early Championship intake will go a long way to setting the tone for this summer’s transfer window.

It doesn’t take much back of a fag packet maths to work out that a big chunk of Stoke’s vastlyrealigned wage budget is taken up by midfielder Peter Etebo and striker Benik Afobe, who have both just finished their third loans away from the club and have 12 months left on bumper contracts.

Etebo, now aged 26, hasn’t been seen at Clayton Wood since January 2020.

Watford declined the chance to turn his stay permanent. He was largely left on the sidelines to watch their relegation after returning from a quad injury.

Afobe, 29, has been through trauma of serious injury and the death of a daughter in the last couple of years and has enjoyed his time at Millwall.

He might return for the start of preseason training, but he is expected to continue his career away from the bet365 Stadium.

They are the final duo – apart from defender Tom Edwards, on a considerably more modest deal and away on loan at New York Red Bulls – still on terms drawn up when Stoke were in the Premier League or trying to guarantee as quick a return as possible.

Stoke brought in Etebo just as he was heading to the World Cup and Afobe with the thinking that he would be the leading striker in the division.

It would be a major surprise if they were not among the highest earners outside the top flight in 2018 and the landscape has changed so much.

The Championship has been hammered by the pandemic and Stoke have been battling to stay on the right side of financial fair play rules.

What would the money set aside for a couple of absolute top end players at this level four years ago get you in 2022?

Finding new homes is one of this summer’s major priorities to cover as much as possible if not all of their salaries. Gary Rowett has suggested he’ll have competition to get Afobe back after a decent campaign and Etebo has always had admirers around Europe.

The good news is that Stoke can now see the time when they will be able to close the chapter on transfers which have haunted the club - and they won’t have to go through this transfer dance again.

Mark Hughes, Paul Lambert, Rowett and Nathan Jones were backed to spend just shy of £120m to sign 31 new players between January 2017 and the summer of 2019.

The vast majority not only did work out, they lost value dramatically to the point where only defender Bruno Martins Indi (undisclosed) has generated even a modest transfer fee. In fact, Stoke have had to spend to get some of those players off the books.

Wycombe, in League One, for example, would not have been able to afford the wages that Stoke were offering to Sam Vokes without a subsidy from Stoke and sacrifice from the player himself, or James Mcclean to Wigan, Lee Gregory to Sheffield Wednesday, Danny Batth to Sunderland.

It has been a major problem to solve and probably what Michael O’neill has diplomatically hinted at when he has spoken about trying to dismantle a squad at the same time as building one, even if that perhaps only tells part of the story.

It has been a challenge but the end is in sight. Stoke are in a better financial position than last summer and next summer, even if they’re still in the Championship, they will be in a better financial position again.

The manager said: “We’re a Championship club, we don’t have parachute payments.

“We have some legacy players on high wages which are hurting us a bit. But we have players in our club who are worth money and we believe those players can help us get up to the next level of football. We believe those players, with the right players around them, can help us go to the next level.

“We are operating on a different financial level and have been pretty much since I came in but in 12 months’ time I think the club will be in a very strong position financially in terms of what it can invest in the team from a salary point of view because we won’t have any legacy players left as well.”

The key will be making that count but that’s another story.

MONEY FOR NOTHING: Midfielder Peter Etebo, main, and striker Benik Afobe, inset, are two of Stoke City’s highest earners, despite spending recent time away from the club on loan. Their exits this summer could play a big part in the Potters’ market moves.