Pundit urges Stoke City to steer clear of Plymouth Argyle manager Steven Schumacher | OneFootball

Stoke City could be closing in on finding their Alex Neil replacement in the Bet365 Stadium dugout - and they look set to raid yet another Championship rival for their boss.

15 months ago, the Potters took Neil from Sunderland early on in the 2022-23 campaign to replace Michael O'Neill, but the Scotsman failed to get a tune out of City both before and after a massive summer rebuild of the first-team squad.

A number of out of work managers and coaches have been spoken to by the Stoke hierarchy, however the club have seemingly honed in on Plymouth Argyle boss Steven Schumacher.

Eagle-eyed Stoke fans noticed the helicopter that chairman John Coates tends to use had been in Plymouth on Saturday as well as landing back near his residence, and John Percy of The Telegraph confirmed on Monday that dialogue had been started between the two clubs over the 39-year-old.

That has now advanced though, with The Athletic reporting that Schumacher himself is in talks with City regarding the job, having been given permission to do so by the Argyle hierarchy.

Palmer: Stoke should steer clear of Schumacher and hire an unemployed individual

Even though Schumacher is extremely highly rated by many, ex-England international footballer Carlton Palmer believes that Stoke should steer clear of the appointment.

That is not because he doesn't rate Schumacher though, with his opinion purely being finance-related for Stoke.

"Steven has done a magnificent job at Plymouth with a very low budget, winning League One last season on 101 points and they are sat in 16th place in the Championship, six points from safety," Palmer said when speaking to Football League World about Stoke's approach.

"Schumacher would be a great appointment, but I can't see Plymouth agreeing to let him go, and that means compensation.

"And as I've previously mentioned before, there's a lot of good managers out of work, so why pay compensation for another manager? Use that money to recruit players in the January transfer window instead."

Previously Palmer has told FLW that the likes of John Eustace, Paul Heckingbottom and Tony Mowbray - who have all been linked to the role as either candidates of interest or talks have been held - would be suitable fits, whilst also name-dropping Nigel Pearson as a manager who could fit in well as well.

Palmer is right in the sense that the pool of managers out of work right now is pretty solid and competitive, but that does not mean that they are the right fit for Stoke City.

Eustace of course has a growing reputation due to Wayne Rooney's falterings with Birmingham City, whilst Heckingbottom has a recent promotion to the Premier League on his CV, but Schumacher is clearly an exciting manager.

Schumacher in theory should only get better with more experience, and he has clearly done well with relatively young players at Home Park in his two years in charge - Stoke have a lot of those types of players in their squad, but more internationals and bigger wages.

It's likely that Schumacher will accept the offer from Stoke when it's on the table due to monetary and location reasons, but it's all for now very much up in the air.