Stoke City must address Lewis Baker situation immediately on Preston and Luton evidence | OneFootball

The Potters need to move to extend Baker's contract ASAP

Lewis Baker's Stoke City revival has been nothing short of remarkable this season, and with his contract at the club set to expire this summer, the Potters' hierarchy need to act fast to get him signed up to a new deal.

Stoke are battling hard to pull away from the Championship relegation zone right now, and Mark Robins looks to have got most of his squad onside and pulling in the right direction together as they aim to seal their second-tier status for another season in the coming weeks.

The former Coventry City boss was not able to make many additions to his squad in the January window, but he did choose to recall central midfielder Baker from his loan spell at Blackburn Rovers, which has proven to be a masterstroke over the last few months.

29-year-old Baker has had his ups and downs since he joined the club from Chelsea in January 2022, but he looked set to see out his Stoke contract while at Ewood Park in a pretty low-key end to his time in ST4. Instead, he has returned, and his impact has been clear to see with numerous goal contributions to aid the Potters' survival efforts.

It feels like an absolute no-brainer for the club to offer him an extension to his deal, and they need to get his future sorted quickly with other Championship clubs surely set to be interested in his services this summer.

Lewis Baker has had his ups and downs at Stoke

Baker had not had a permanent club that appreciated his talents before he joined Stoke, after being stuck in the Chelsea loan-cycle for years and never being able to settle with one team amid notable spells with Vitesse, Leeds United and Trabzonspor.

He arrived in the Potteries in January 2022 from the Blues, and enjoyed a stellar first half-season with the club, with eight goals in 20 Championship appearances, as he emerged as one of Michael O'Neill's key players and was subsequently made club captain ahead of the 2022/23 campaign.

That season did not go as planned for the Potters though, as O'Neill was sacked and replaced by Alex Neil in August, and the club finished 16th in the Championship, with Baker making 48 appearances and scoring eight goals in all competitions.

He played all but 46 minutes of the club's first 28 league games that term, but then started just two of the final 18 outings as he fell out of favour under Neil and struggled to usurp an in-form midfield trio of Ben Pearson, Josh Laurent and Will Smallbone.

Baker then suffered a knee injury in the summer of 2023 and did not appear until the start of December against Plymouth, which was Neil's penultimate game in charge, before he was sacked and replaced by Steven Schumacher.

Despite the club reportedly being open to offers for him last January, the 29-year-old forced his way into Schumacher's thinking for a period of the second-half of the season, and even netted goals against Rotherham United and Middlesbrough, but then started in just two of the final eight league games as Stoke avoided the drop.

Fresh reports that emerged at the beginning of the summer made it pretty clear that he did not have a future at the club under the ex-Plymouth head-coach, and despite bagging the winner off the bench in Stoke's opening day victory against Coventry, he was allowed to depart late in the window to join Rovers as the Potters wrapped up a deal for Japanese midfielder Tatsuki Seko.

Baker looked set to leave Stoke - Mark Robins has revitalised his time at the club

Baker featured 13 times for Blackburn in the Championship in the first-half of this season, as they chased the play-off spots under now-departed boss John Eustace, but he was only handed a starting berth on seven different occasions and failed to ever really make an impact at Ewood Park.

With Robins appointed at the start of January following Narcis Pelach's ill-fated spell in charge of Stoke, it took him just seven days at the helm to recall Baker from his Rovers spell, and he was quick to pick out his "quality" as the main reason for his decision, with a clear plan for him to be included in the squad for the rest of this term.

The 29-year-old did not have an instant impact, but was immediately trusted to start six of his first seven games back at the club, with his first strike on his return coming from the penalty spot against Cardiff City in the FA Cup.

It was actually his first appearance back off the bench that saw him have the biggest impact, as he came on against Swansea City and assisted Wouter Burger's header from a corner, then scored one of the goals of the season in the Championship with a brilliant strike from the halfway line to seal a vital win.

He also picked up an assist for Ali Al-Hamadi's winner against Blackburn last month, and his impact in the Potters' last two outings has proven that he is fully deserving of a new deal.

Baker, who has been ever-reliable from the penalty spot since he joined Stoke, rescued his side a crucial point away at Preston North End last weekend as he dispatched his spot-kick late on, then put the Potters into the lead last time out against Luton Town with a deflected long-range free-kick.

Stoke were unable to hold on to that lead as the Hatters levelled in added-time, but they have moved two points closer to their eventual goal of survival in the last two games, with the former-Chelsea man playing the biggest part of any player in Robins' squad.

Robins admitted after the game at Deepdale that he had been "delighted" with Baker's impact, and one of his first decisions as Stoke boss being to recall the 29-year-old is looking like a better one with each passing week that he helps them in the fight against relegation.

Stoke's chiefs have come in for some criticism over the last few years, and particularly this season, but they can help repair their fractured relationship with supporters by making another key decision in the weeks to come and moving to extend Baker's contract in ST4 for at least another two years.