A key part of Stoke City’s summer transfer strategy has been to make sure that Steven Schumacher is overseeing a manageable squad size in his first full season as head coach.

Schumacher and sporting director Jon Walters want a senior group of about 22 players so that a budget which is constrained by the EFL’s financial rules can be focused on the starting XI. There have been too many times in seasons past when too much cash has been going on players watching games from the stands.

A number one of their own was high on the agenda too, as well as an experienced centre-half, so Viktor Johansson, Ben Gibson and, all being well, left-back Eric Bocat should represent at least on paper a good start to the window.

The big item remains what happens up front. Tyrese Campbell and Wesley have been released while Sead Haksabanovic returned to parent club Celtic. That leaves Ryan Mmaee and Niall Ennis plus teen prospects Emre Tezgel and Nathan Lowe at centre-forward, Bae Junho, Million Manhoef, Andre Vidigal and Mehdi Leris in the wide positions. Bocat can play on the wing too and Lynden Gooch has played virtually everywhere.

Schumacher built his reputation as Plymouth Argyle manager on being ruthless in the final third and he wants to add that dynamic at Stoke.

He said recently: “We’ve highlighted the areas of the pitch and things that we did really well since we came in in Game Week 23 and there’s loads of positives and loads of things that we were doing successfully, but there’s a glaring and obvious weakness of what we’ve got. Now we need to be more clinical in front of goal. There’s areas in the 18-yard box where we need to score more goals from and there’s areas outside the box where we need to create more from.