Stoke City’s 34 loan players since relegation ranked from forgotten Everton outcast to Wolves starlet

There has been an all-too rare chant from Stoke City supporters since relegation. Over the past from Arnar Gunnlaugsson to Jermaine Pennant, loan players who do particularly well have been serenaded with the cry of: “Sign him up!”

There have been plenty of loan arrivals at Stoke over the past six seasons but not many have cracked their way into that category.

There have been a couple who have actually been signed up, James Chester was brought back on a permanent basis by Michael O’Neill and Alex Neil made the popular addition of Ben Pearson. Neil would have liked Dujon Sterling back too and Will Smallbone but lost out to Rangers and Southampton respectively.

Too many of the temporary signings since 2018 have barely figured, let alone made a positive impact, and only 18 have clocked up 1,000 minutes or more in the Championship, the equivalent of just over 11 matches. That’s not a great total when there are 4,140 minutes in a season.

We have ranked all the loan players so far back in the Championship based on league minutes and remembered with great sadness the tragic loss of Matija Sarkic. He didn’t play as much as he would have liked at Stoke but he will not be forgotten.

Who from last season’s loan recruits would you like to see back at Stoke? Who was a waste of space? Tell us in the comments section.

Blink and you’ll miss him. Winger came from Wolves and was quickly sent back to Wolves with questions about his attitude. Sent straight out on loan to Portugal, where he got back playing with Famalicao.

Stoke knew that Sima would be raw when he arrived fresh from Brighton, who had just signed him from Slavia Prague, but the forward’s season was also derailed by injuries. Has had much more success at Rangers.