Well Sunderland have signed yet more players, taking their pre-season total to eight, which surely means there will be players on their way out of the Stadium of Light.
This is where the Potters come in, now we've seen a few of our reported targets Gardner, Brown, O'Shea, Kilgallon and Larsson all join the Mackems, with another soon to follow in David Vaughan, so we already 'owe them one' and we do seem to have an annual raid on Sunderland during pre-season.
After promotion the Potters decided to re-sign Danny Higginbotham, 12 months later they paid £5m for the services of Sunderland player of the year Dean Whitehead and £3m for twice Sunderland player of the year Danny Collins before signing Kenwyne Jones for a club record £8m last summer.
So who could be available, and who could the Potters be interested in this summer? Maybe these -
- Lee Cattermole - midfielder - Club captain but may find himself out of the side with Vaughan and Gardner having joined. Would suit the Potters style as a tough tackling all action midfielder. Would probably take a hefty fee though
- Phil Bardsley - right back - Last seasons Sunderland Player of the Season, allowing him to follow Whitehead and Collins before him, but with O'Shea and Brown having come in will surely find himself benched next season. Has been heavily linked with Stoke and wouldn't cost anymore than £2-3m
- Asamoah Gyan - striker - Would take a massive bid to shift, around double the current club record £8m paid for Jones, but would suit the Potters style and could form a deadly partnership with Jones. Sunderland aren't flush with strikers so may not be a goer but if they need to sell to fund the players that have come in then Gyan could have to go
- Craig Gordon - keeper - Probably lost his place in the side to either Stephen Mignolet or new signing Keiran Westwood and is on high wages so the Mackems won't want those wages sitting on the bench or in the stands. If Sorensen leaves in search of first team nogger or Begovic ends up at Chelsea then Gordon would be an ample replacement
- Michael Turner - With defenders arriving left, right and centre Turner could be on his way to make way. TP has already stated he wants to bring in a centre back and Turner's stock has fallen recently so he may accept initially biding his time behind Huth and Shawcross knowing the season will be a long one.