Steven Schumacher is looking forward to welcoming his new goalkeeper to Clayton Wood when pre-season starts on Monday – in the knowledge that the new goalkeeper, too, will be relishing the chance to come into work.

Stoke have triggered a relegation release clause to sign Viktor Johansson, aged 25, from Rotherham United, where he had been cementing a reputation as one of the leading goalkeepers in the Championship.

It was a key position for Stoke to fill after relying on the loans of Matija Sarkic, Mark Travers and Daniel Iversen over the previous season-and-a-half – and before that seeing the gloves change all too frequently between Joe Bursik, Adam Davies and Angus Gunn.

chumacher said: “I’m pleased we got it done quickly because the goalkeeping area was something we knew we needed to do as a priority. We watched Viktor from January onwards last season and we knew the situation if Rotherham were to be relegated. We monitored him and Darren (Behcet, goalkeeper coach) reviewed all of his games and I got loads of reports back from people who’d worked with him and all the reports were really positive.

“Once we got the discussions going on, contract negotiations didn’t take long and he was in the building, done and sorted. That almost lays the foundation of what we wanted to do. Credit to everyone involved for that.”

The reports that Stoke have been collating have been about character as much as playing attributes and Johansson, who was a favourite with fans, staff and teammates at Rotherham, has received positive references on both fronts.

“It’s so important,” said Schumacher. “It’s almost more important than just ability to have good characters and people with good energy about them and an enthusiasm to come into work every day. If you’ve got all the ability in the world but you’re not willing to work then it’s not going to happen.

“It’s dead important we bring in the right personalities to the group because I think there’s some talent in our group and if we can get the balance right where everyone is driving standards every day and pushing each other to be better, it gives us a chance to improve on what was a difficult season last year.”