Stoke City manager Mark Robins has confirmed the club are working tirelessly to ‘find the solutions’ to fill his squad ahead of the 2025/26 campaign.
The Robins endured a dreadful campaign last time out, surviving relegation to League One by the skin of their teeth. After making the shock decision to part company with Steven Schumacher after just five games, they tumbled down the table under the guidance of replacement Narcis Pelach.
The Spaniard was cast aside in December, paving the way for Robins to return to work just two months after his departure from Championship rivals Coventry City. There wasn’t a significant improvement under the 55-year-old, but he did just enough to keep them in the division, eventually finishing 18th and two points above the bottom three.
More Transfers Expected
Stoke have already moved to add new faces to their squad this summer, with Premier League veteran Aaron Cresswell the latest to join their ranks. Robins has also acted to bring in attacking options after seeing his team struggle in front of goal last season, with winger Sorba Thomas joining from Huddersfield Town and the highly rated youngster Divin Mubama arriving on loan from Manchester City.
The manager admits that there is likely to be more incomings, telling BBC Radio Stoke:
“It’s been all hands to the pump and they’ve been working round the clock to find solutions to the spaces we’ve still got.
“It won’t be wholesale [changes] because we’ve got to do things in an incremental way.”
Continuing, he admitted that there is still a lot of work to do:
“We’ve got to hope we can get big, big improvements quickly. For me, the quicker the better, but there’s still a lot of work to do.
“It shouldn’t be ‘we’re going to go right there’ but the expectation should be that we’re going to improve and they [the fans] will be able to see that.
“We’re trying to sign people who are going to make their mark on our supporters and the demands they place on us as custodians of their club. It’s exciting.”
Writer’s View
Mark Robins is an experienced head at this level, so it’s not surprising to see him being backed by Stoke. The Potters know that they have underperformed for a number of years now and will be looking for a fast start to the new campaign to avoid any repeat of their recent relegation battles. They have not finished in the top half of the Championship since being relegated from the Premier League in 2018 and that has to be the minimum expectation this time around. If anyone can achieve that, it’s Robins.
