Stoke City must push for Blackburn Rovers swap deal despite Coventry flashpoint: View | OneFootball

The Potters should force a move for Lewis Travis and allow Lewis Baker to go in the opposite direction

Stoke City are set to be busy in the final month of the transfer window as boss Steven Schumacher shapes his new-look squad ahead of his first full campaign in charge.

Schumacher will be hoping to build on a strong end to last season in the coming months, as Stoke staved off relegation and finished 17th in the Championship in 2023/24.

Stoke have brought in four new faces to the club so far, with goalkeeper Viktor Johansson, centre-back Ben Gibson, wing-back Eric Bocat and striker Sam Gallagher arriving from Rotherham United, Norwich City, Sint-Truiden and Blackburn Rovers respectively.

The Potters are yet to sell any player for a transfer fee, but will be prepared to allow for some departures before the transfer window closes, and one of those could be midfielder Lewis Baker.

Baker has been touted with a move to fellow Championship side Blackburn in recent weeks, and could well leave for Ewood Park soon given his overall lack of influence on Schumacher's side since his arrival last December.

Following those links, reports have emerged that both clubs are discussing a swap deal between Baker and Rovers enforcer Lewis Travis, but are seemingly locked in negotiations over a fee for each player.

Stoke should definitely pursue a swap as soon as possible, as a move in the coming weeks would allow both players to become accustomed to their new surroundings and teammates, and a deal definitely makes sense for both players, with Baker not a guaranteed starter under Schumacher, and Travis seemingly wanting to leave following a loan away to Ipswich Town in January.

Lewis Baker and Lewis Travis swap deal latest between Stoke City & Blackburn Rovers

Talk of a Stoke exit for Baker is nothing new - TEAMtalk revealed in January that Stoke were open to offers for the 29-year-old just a month after Schumacher's appointment and his return from a serious knee injury, but he stayed at the club to see out the season and could instead leave this summer.

Despite his slight resurgence in 2023/24, it does seem as if Schumacher is still open to allowing him to depart after two-and-a-half years at the club, and transfer journalist Alan Nixon was the first to report on Blackburn's interest in his signature on July 21, as he stated that boss John Eustace hoped to sign him, while hinting at a possible swap deal if Schumacher was interested.

That initial interest seemingly progressed, as Nixon then reported on July 29 that Stoke were after £2.5 milllion for Baker, despite the ex-Chelsea man entering the last year of his contract, and that the fee was putting Rovers off a potential deal, while also adding that the Potters were fans of Travis.

Nixon's latest update, on August 4, stated that Blackburn and Stoke were haggling over a swap for Baker and Travis, despite both clubs valuing each player at a similar price.

The likely snag is that Stoke are demanding too much money for Baker for Blackburn to accept any sort of deal, so the Potters should simply lower their price to get a move over the line in the coming weeks and give both parties the move that they want this summer.

With that said, Blackburn boss Eustace has played down an exit for Travis after saying that he would "love Lewis to stay and be an important part of the team," in a recent interview with the Lancashire Telegraph, so it is unclear whether a move is set to go through.

Stoke City, Blackburn Rovers swap deal would make sense for all parties

Following each player's lack of impact at their current clubs in 2023/24, it is understandable why a move for each to go in the opposite direction has reportedly been mooted.

Travis has been with Rovers since 2014, when he joined as a youth player from Liverpool, and then made his senior team debut in August 2017, coincidentally against Stoke's under-21 side in the EFL Trophy.

He has gone on to play over 220 times for Blackburn's senior side across seven seasons, but was the subject of a rejected bid from Millwall last summer, and then moved to Ipswich on loan in January amid a reported fallout with former Rovers boss Jon Dahl Tomasson after he had asked for a move away.

Travis made just nine appearances for the Tractor Boys as he helped them win promotion to the Championship, and returned to Ewood Park this summer with Tomasson gone and Eustace in charge, but it seems unlikely that he will have completely changed his mind against leaving and will surely be tempted by a move to Stoke for a new challenge.

He featured from the off in Rovers' season opener against Derby County on August 9, which may have been a show of faith by Eustace and an insinuation that he wants to keep him around for the season.

Baker, meanwhile, has been on the periphery at Stoke for the last 18 months, after a stellar first year with the club in which he emerged as one of Alex Neil's key players and was made club captain in the summer of 2022.

He fell out of favour with Neil towards the end of the 2022/23 campaign, then suffered a knee injury last summer and did not appear until the start of December against Plymouth, which was his penultimate game in charge before he was sacked and replaced by Schumacher.

Despite the club reportedly being open to offers for him in 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 key goals against Rotherham United and Middlesbrough, but then started in just two of the final eight league games as Stoke avoided the drop.

He did score the winner in Stoke's opening game of the 2024/25 season against Coventry this past weekend, but started on the bench and was introduced as a substitute late on, a role that he will not want to keep reprising each week when a more consistent starting berth will likely be offered to him at Ewood Park.

His end to the season, and fresh reports surrounding a swap deal with him and Travis, imply that his future is not with the Potters, and so it would clearly be a great move for each player to get their respective careers back on track.

Travis would slot in well in the middle of the park for Schumacher as an upgrade on Jordan Thompson to sit just in front of the defence, while Baker would add a tenacity and power that has been lacking in Rovers' midfield in recent times.

It remains to be seen whether each player will be at their respective clubs when the window closes, but Stoke should be making it their priority to see the deal through and have Travis in red and white for the new season.