Mmaee to be moved on? Stoke City must sort these 3 issues before August 30th
The Potters are set to take on their first summer transfer window under former Plymouth boss Schumacher, and have already been active in the market with goalkeeper Viktor Johansson and centre-back Ben Gibson arriving from Rotherham United and Norwich City respectively.
Schumacher has been decisive in his contract decisions too, with Tyrese Campbell allowed to leave after eight years with the club, despite a strong end to the campaign, and Ciaran Clark, Wesley, Tom Edwards and D’Margio Wright-Phillips all set to depart upon the expiry of their contracts.
A one-year extension was triggered on Jordan Thompson’s existing contract, while Frank Fielding and Enda Stevens have each penned new 12-month deals, but Schumacher still has a lot of work to do on the transfer front this summer.
With that in mind, here are three key issues that we think the Potters must address before the summer window slams shut at the end of August.
A decision must be made on Mmaee
Things have not gone to plan for striker Ryan Mmaee since his arrival in the Potteries last July, as the Belgian-born Moroccan international joined Stoke from Hungarian champions Ferencvaros on a three-year deal for an initial reported fee of around £1.75m.
It was a tough start for Mmaee in English football under then-boss Alex Neil, but he did begin to find some form and was Schumacher’s preferred forward option upon his arrival as head-coach, starting all of his first six games in charge.
It began to turn sour behind the scenes for the 26-year-old after the turn of the year though – he reportedly saw a late January move to an unnamed Turkish club fall through after deciding to stay put at Stoke, then was banished to train with the U21 squad at the start of February by Schumacher due to poor discipline in training.
He returned to the first-team fold in mid-March, but was soon ruled out for the remainder of the season after picking up another hamstring injury, so finished his debut Potters campaign on the treatment table and was barely missed by his teammates as they scored eight goals in the final three games of the season in his absence.
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