Daniel Johnson and Ben Pearson may not play into the Potters’ plans next season. Steven Schumacher is embarking on his first summer as Stoke City manager and has already began to clean out deadwood from the squad he inherited.
Stoke’s entire retained list was announced on May 21, with first-teamers Tyrese Campbell, Wesley, Ciaran Clark, Tom Edwards, D’Margio Wright-Phillips, and Tom Sparrow all set to leave the club when their contracts expire.
The Potters need to upgrade their team; they ended 17th in the Championship in 2023/24 and are still hoping to finish in the top half of the second division for the first time since being relegated from the Premier League in 2018.
They signed 19 players with Alex Neil.
head last summer, so while players like Wouter Burger and Bae Jun-ho have flourished, certain newcomers have failed to impress new manager Schumacher. Daniel Johnson and Ben Pearson are former Preston North End midfielders. Johnson joined on a free transfer from the Lilywhites last July, while Pearson impressed on loan at Stoke in 2022/23 before joining on a permanent basis from Bournemouth in the summer – but neither has featured frequently since the former Plymouth manager arrived in December.
It’s fairly evident that they were Neil signings, thus are not in Schumacher’s plans for next season, and there should be a strong effort made to try and move the duo this summer while both are still able.
Johnson, 31, joined from PNE with genuine Championship pedigree, having made 336 appearances in nine years at Deepdale and winning the club’s Player of the Year title for a fantastic 2019/20 season in which he scored double figures.
He started his career in the Potteries as a regular under his old Preston manager Neil, starting 15 of Stoke’s first 18 Championship games and scoring a goal and two assists – but the Scot was fired in December after a poor run of form and was replaced by Schumacher.
The Jamaican international started Schumacher’s first game as manager against Millwall, but only four substitute appearances in the next seven games followed until he was back in the starting XI in a costly loss away.
At Blackburn. Johnson’s Ewood Park outing could not have gone much worse, as he missed a penalty in the 49th minute to cut the lead to 3-2 and was substituted ten minutes later.
Despite the fact that it was just February 10, that game marked the end of his 29 league appearances in 2023/24, as he was dropped from the matchday squad and only appeared on the bench once more, away to Hull City in March, before the season ended.
Pearson’s season was quite similar, but even more was expected of him since a successful loan stay in the second part of the 2022/23 season had already endeared him to the Potters fans.
He started 17 of the first 20 league games under Neil, but only nine of the next 26 under Schumacher, and he was sent off for a second yellow card after coming off the bench in a 1-0 away loss to Leeds in March.
The 29-year-old limped out of a 3-0 home loss to Norwich 11 days later with a hamstring injury, and he did not play in Stoke’s final eight games of the season, as the club lost only once and moved out of the Championship drop zone.
It is evident that Schumacher has no interest in either player, therefore moving both on appears to be a no-brainer if the proper bids arrive this summer.
Both players should receive offers.
Despite their terrible seasons, if Stoke decide to trade Johnson and Pearson, several Championship clubs will definitely be interested in taking a pair with as much experience as they do in the second tier.
Johnson was a regular in Preston’s Championship team for eight years, never making fewer than 30 league appearances in a single season. Pearson’s tough Deepdale performances earned him a move to Bournemouth in 2021, where he was a regular as the club won promotion to the Premier League in 2022 and went on to appear seven times in the top level before his loan move to Stoke.
Pearson earns an estimated £8,000 per week at Stoke, according to Capology, so wages would not be a stumbling block for most teams, but a sizable fee would have to be paid for his services with three years remaining on his City contract – Johnson is reportedly paid £15,000 per week, but has only one year left on his contract and would likely be available for a minimal fee.
At 31 and 29 years old respectively, both should undoubtedly be considered as viable acquisitions by teams in a similar position to Stoke – they both still have a lot to provide at this level, and it does not appear like the Potters would stand in the way of a deal if it was a possibility.
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