“He simply had to go” – Stoke City fan pundit issues verdict on 29-year old leaving the club | OneFootball

This article is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk’ series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

FLW’s Stoke City fan pundit Ben Rowley believes the departure of Benik Afobe has been long overdue.

The forward has exited the club for Championship rivals Millwall, having joined the Potters from Wolves in 2019.

But a lack of consistent game time under multiple managers has seen him shipped out on loan to the likes of Bristol City, Trabzonspor and the Lions.

Rowley claimed that upon the arrival of Nathan Jones as manager, form never really recovered for the 29-year old following a decent start to life at the club under Gary Rowett.

Rowett has once again gotten him back playing his best football with the London club, but that has not been enough to convince the Stoke supporter that he was worth keeping beyond the summer.

High wage costs was another reason cited by the site’s fan pundit as why it was time to let Afobe leave the club.

“It’s absolutely the right decision to let him go,” Rowley told

“He’s not played for us in almost three years now and the salary that he’s on, to not be playing for us is ridiculous.

“He absolutely needed a fresh start somewhere else and to be released of his Stoke contract.

“You could say that he’s been relatively unlucky at Stoke.

“He played very well under Gary Rowett, who signed him, and when Nathan Jones came in he wasn’t as big of a fan.

“He didn’t score goals, he parted favour with the manager and the fans at the time and then he had plenty of injuries and a traumatic time with his family life as well.

“But no excuses. At the end of the day, Stoke are losing a lot of money right now and we have to be somewhat ruthless and Benik Afobe is a casualty of that.

“He’s drained a lot of money from this football club and he simply had to go.”

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Michael O’Neill also rarely used the forward so far in his tenure at the Bet365 Stadium, so an exit was always the likeliest outcome given the drain on the club’s resources that his salary ended up being.

Afobe will be hoping to carry his richer vein of form at The Den next season as a permanent member of the first team squad.

The Verdict

Despite the initial flashes of good from Afobe, his time at Stoke was ultimately unsuccessful for all involved.

Loan moves didn’t really help matters, as he never seemed to have a route back into the first team.

Meanwhile his performances for Millwall showed that he is capable of playing well at this level and competing.

So it is best for all parties to move on, with the Lions proving to be an ideal next destination for Afobe in his career.