Matteo heads Stoke departures

Matteo signed from Blackburn Rovers on a short term deal in January 2007 as Stoke pushed for the play-offs and signed for a further one-year last summer. Danny Higginbotham's departure to Sunderland resulted in Dom being handed the captaincy and he started the season as a regular member of the side. A foot injury in November, however, meant that he played no part on the field for the rest of the season, even when back to full fitness. He was though a strong character in the dressing room as Stoke closed in on automatic promotion.

Russell Hoult also joined Stoke last January after falling out of favour at West Brom and provided competition to Steve Simonsen. He did not live up to expectations and appeared only twice, once in the Carling Cup at Rochdale and in the League at Plymouth where he was sent off. Later in the season he was loaned out to Notts County as Stoke brought in first Marton Fulop and then Carlo Nash to compete with Simonsen.

Marlon Broomes joined Stoke from Preston in 2005 in a swap deal that saw Lewis Neal head to Deepdale. In his first season under Johan Boskamp he played the majority of matches although he never really convinced as a full-back. Tony Pulis never really saw the best of him as he has spent most of the following two seasons sidelined with injury.

Johan Boskamp also gave Robert Garrett his debut towards the end of that interesting season, coming on as sub in the impressive away victories at Ipswich and Brighton.  Garrett was sent out on loan to gain experience at Wrexham and never troubled the first team at Stoke again as the team moved up a gear under the new regime.

Although none of these players set the world alight whilst at the Britannia Stadium, we would like to thank them for their contributions over the last few years, and we wish them all the best for the future.