Stoke City are expected to make Eric Bocat their third signing of the summer as Steven Schumacher ticks another big box on his close-season to-do list.
Bocat, aged 24, has come to attention thanks to his performances with Sint-Truiden in the Belgian top flight and, all being well, will be holding up a Stoke shirt at a grand unveiling before players report for pre-season training at Clayton Wood next Monday.
There is extra paperwork and time to wait when bringing in a player from Belgium, which has administrative procedures to tackle money laundering following a fraud scandal between 2017 and 2019, but Bocat is set to join influential centre-half Ben Gibson and number one keeper Viktor Johansson in the Potters’ early business.
Left-back has been a near-mythical creature at Stoke over the last seven or eight years. Erik Pieters had made the shirt his own after being brought in by Mark Hughes in 2013 but there were complaints even when he was playing every week that there wasn’t enough cover or competition.
Bruno Martins Indi, James McClean, Jordan Thompson and Lynden Gooch have all been tasked with filling in at various points while Stephen Ward wasn’t able to feature regularly and Liam McCarron is yet to play in the league.
Josh Tymon was sidelined and cast out before being brought into the fold and developed under Michael O’Neill – and then sold by Alex Neil. Enda Stevens was a key player when available last season but injuries limited him to 18 league starts, although he has extended his contract by 12 months and is confident he can stay fit for longer next term.
Bocat can play at left-back, wing-back or even on the wing and the French press suggest he will sign a four-year contract, with a fee just north of £1 million.
Schumacher has spoken about wanting something like a 22-man senior squad with a couple of players fighting for each position. These deals should make sure, injury crisis apart, that there are no square pegs in round holes in 2024/25. A new striker remains high on the agenda as Stoke continue their first window under sporting director Jon Walters.
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