Stoke City's £3.5m deal with Birmingham City remains a touch of genius: View | OneFootball

In January 2013, then Premier League side Stoke City moved to sign 19-year-old goalkeeper Jack Butland from Birmingham City.

Despite being a Championship youngster, Butland had already played international football for Great Britain at the Olympics, and was a full England international after making his debut for the Three Lions in the summer of 2012.

It was to prove a very shrewd signing, with the club forking out just £3.5million to bring the Bristol-born goalkeeper to the club, and the player would go onto enjoy a fruitful few years at The bet365 Stadium, cementing himself as one of the best keepers in the country.

Considering that he was a full England international at 19, Stoke managing to sign Butland for such a small fee was incredible business, and he certainly didn't let the club down during his seven years in the Potteries.

Signing Jack Butland from Birmingham City was a masterstroke by Stoke City

It was a whirlwind couple of years for Jack Butland, and he was called up to England's squad for Euro 2012 having never played a first-team game for his club side, Birmingham City.

However, after impressing in the Olympics for Team GB, and having performed well on loan at Cheltenham Town, he was given the chance to become Birmingham's first-choice goalkeeper for the 2012/13 season.

Incredibly, Butland made his England debut on 15th August 2012, three days before making his competitive debut for Birmingham City, and it was clear that he was a special talent.

After just half a season at St Andrew's, Stoke moved to sign Butland on a permanent deal, but he was loaned back to Blues for the rest of the season as part of the deal.

He joined Stoke ahead of the 2013/14 season but found himself as third choice behind Asmir Begovic and Thomas Sorensen, so was subsequently loaned to Barnsley, before spending time on loan with Leeds and Derby County.

However, after biding his time, Butland became first-choice for the 2015/16 season after Begovic left the club for Chelsea. The youngster impressed, keeping ten clean sheets in 31 appearances, helping the Potters to a very respectable 9th place finish.

A frustrating 2016/17 campaign followed for Butland as he suffered a nasty injury which kept him out for a large portion of the season, but he bounced back the following season.

Despite Stoke being relegated during the 2017/18 season, the England international goalkeeper continued to perform, and kept six clean sheets in 35 league games, but was unable to keep them up.

Incredibly, the Potters managed to keep hold of Butland in the Championship, despite being tipped to leave by many people.

He kept an impressive 18 clean sheets in 45 league games during the 2018/19 season, before keeping nine in 35 during the 2019/20 season.

However, a 5-0 defeat to Leeds United in July 2020 was to be his 168th and final appearance for the Potters, and he left the club later that year.

Whilst this was a far from ideal way to end his Stoke career, he'll always be remembered as an incredible signing for just £3.5million, and he was always a standout performer, even when Stoke weren't at their best.

Stoke City may regret not cashing in on Jack Butland

Jack Butland departed for Premier League side Crystal Palace in 2020, and the Potters only received a reported fee of £500k, as his contract was set to expire the following summer.

This was a huge blow for the Potters, with the club demanding £23million for the shot-stopper in the summer of 2019, and in the summer of 2018, Stoke were reportedly asking for £70million to take the keeper off their hands after they had been relegated to the Championship.

To lose out on huge sums of money like that was obviously poor planning by the Potters, but it was unlikely that a club would pay that much money for Butland, despite his good performances.

The goalkeeper remained with Crystal Palace until the summer of 2023, with a spell at Manchester United thrown in for good measure, but after making just 17 appearances for the Eagles, he was released.

The former Stoke man moved north to join Scottish giants Rangers, and he's thriving at Ibrox after making the number one shirt his own.

Whilst Butland hasn't quite hit the heights after leaving Stoke, he'll always be fondly remembered by the club for being an absolute bargain and an outstanding goalkeeper.