Matty Baker’s Stoke City career is over without ever really beginning having been sold to League Two side Newport County.

The 21-year-old is now a permanent Newport player having spent all of last season and half of the previous campaign on loan at Rodney Parade.

He played 17 times in Stoke’s Premier League 2 campaign in his first season at the club and in his second appeared on the bench for the Championship clashes with Hull and QPR in September 2022.

However a couple of weeks later he was sent on loan to Newport. He is now in a position to add to the 57 appearances he has made for a team that finished 18th in the fourth tier last term. He will also hope to continue his progress with Wales’ Under 21s.

Stoke have already added to their centre back options at senior level with Ben Gibson arriving from Norwich City. Steven Schumacher also has Ben Wilmot and Michael Rose at his disposal.