Stoke City: Leicester City, Tom Cannon agreement can rid lingering striker demons - View | OneFootball

Cannon may finally be able to fire the Potters up the Championship table after six years of little success

Stoke City supporters will already have been excited about their prospects this season under Steven Schumacher, and the deadline day loan addition of Leicester City striker Tom Cannon will give the Potters even more optimism about finishing further up the Championship table in 2024/25.

Stoke have not finished in the top half of the Championship since relegation from the Premier League in 2018, but there has been reason for optimism in ST4 since Schumacher's arrival late last year, as despite eventually finishing in 17th place, they lost just one of their final eight games in 2023/24 and ended on a high with emphatic wins over Plymouth Argyle and Bristol City respectively.

The club subsequently backed him in the transfer market with over £5m spent on the likes of Bosun Lawal, Sam Gallagher, Eric Bocat, and Viktor Johansson this summer, but the most important addition of the Potters' window could be the statement signing of 21-year-old Cannon after Schumacher had made it clear that he wanted a quick striker to bolster his attacking ranks.

His ability in forward areas and the way he should suit the head coach's system will surely mean he is a success in the Potteries, and he may be the striker to finally take the club in the right direction this season after so many failures in the last six years.

Cannon could be the key to Stoke's success

Stoke's scoring record last season was one of the poorest in the second tier, and Schumacher was understandably after more firepower in his attack in the transfer market after his side were the sixth-lowest scorers in the Championship in 2023/24, albeit he only took over in December and there was a noticeable increase in attacking output from that point on.

Schumacher did not hide his desire to bring in another striker, and the Potters were first linked with a potential move for Cannon's services by The Telegraph's John Percy at the start of July but were only able to get the deal done late in the window due to the Foxes waiting to bring in more additions to their frontline.

Cannon has arrived at Stoke to join an attack that does not boast any prolific Championship strikers, and while he is still at an early stage in his career, he will certainly be Schumacher's starting striker for the foreseeable future, likely starting with a trip to Oxford United after the international break.

He experienced promotion from the second-tier with the Foxes, but his best Championship spell so far came out on loan at Preston North End in 2022/23, where he quickly became a talisman for Ryan Lowe in his short stint at Deepdale and impressed at just 20-years-old.

Now 21, he has insisted that he is "itching to get going" in red and white, and Stoke fans will be pinning their hopes on him to consistently score goals and help the team improve on years gone by this season.

Stoke's strikers have had a tough time of it since they dropped into the Championship, with numerous big-money signings and experienced heads unable to convert their goal-scoring form from elsewhere to the Potteries, so Cannon needs to be the man to buck that trend.

The attacking rot began before they dropped into the second tier as £12m man Saido Berahino failed to score in the first 18 months of his Stoke spell, and then Benik Afobe, who was signed on loan in the summer of 2018 with an obligation to buy for £12m, netted nine goals in his first season but then barely played another game for the club.

Sam Vokes was another signed for a sizeable fee the year after, and he mustered just 12 goals in 86 appearances for the Potters before he departed for Wycombe Wanderers, while the likes of Sam Surridge and Ryan Mmaee have both been signed for decent money and failed to adapt.

Liam Delap, Josh Maja and Abdallah Sima are all notable strikers that have been brought in on loan to the Potteries in recent years but been unable to set the bet365 Stadium alight, so it would be a huge relief if Cannon comes in and becomes one of their better acquisitions since relegation.

His high-energy style of playing off the shoulder of a defender and making runs in behind definitely suits Schumacher's style of play, and him, flanked by the likes of Million Manhoef, Bae Jun-ho or Lewis Koumas will certainly make up one of the most potent attacking forces in the second-tier right now if all goes well.

If he can hit the ground running in the weeks to come, there is no reason why he can't get more than 15 goals in Schumacher’s fluid attacking system this season, in turn surely helping the team push up the table for the first time since relegation.