Stoke City: Steven Schumacher needs to offload ex-Preston North End pair this summer - View | OneFootball

Highlights

Steven Schumacher is taking on his first summer as Stoke City boss and has already begun to clear out deadwood from the squad he inherited.

Stoke's full retained list was released on May 21, with first-teamers Tyrese Campbell, Wesley, Ciaran Clark, Tom Edwards, D’Margio Wright-Phillips and Tom Sparrow all set to depart the club upon the expiry of their contracts.

The Potters need to make improvements to their squad - they only finished 17th in the Championship in 2023/24 and are still aiming to finish in the top-half of the second-tier for the first time since relegation from the Premier League in 2018.

They signed 19 players with Alex Neil at the helm last summer, so while the likes of Wouter Burger and Bae Jun-ho have shone, some new faces have failed to make an impression on new boss Schumacher.

Two of those are former Preston North End midfielders Daniel Johnson and Ben Pearson. Johnson was brought in on a free transfer from the Lilywhites last July, while Pearson had impressed on loan at Stoke in 2022/23 and made a permanent summer move from Bournemouth - but neither has figured regularly since the former Plymouth boss' arrival in December.

It's quite clear to see that they were Neil signings, so are not in Schumacher's plans for next season, and there should be a real effort made to try and offload the duo this summer with both still able to attract second-tier suitors.

Johnson and Pearson's seasons did not go to plan

31-year-old Johnson arrived from PNE with genuine Championship pedigree, after racking up 336 appearances in his nine years at Deepdale and even picking up the club's Player of the Year award for a great 2019/20 campaign in which he netted double figures.

He began life in the Potteries as a regular under his former Preston boss Neil, starting 15 of Stoke's first 18 Championship outings and grabbing a goal and two assists - but the Scot was sacked following a bad run of form in December and duly replaced by Schumacher.

The Jamaican international started Schumacher's first game as boss against Millwall, but just four substitute appearances in the next seven games followed before he was back in the starting XI in a damaging loss away at Blackburn.

That Ewood Park outing could not have gone worse for Johnson, as he missed a penalty in the 49th minute to reduce the deficit to 3-2 and was taken off the pitch ten minutes later.

Despite it only being February 10, that game signalled the last of his 29 league appearances in 2023/24 as he was cast away from the matchday squad and made the bench just once more - away to Hull City in March - before the end of the season.

The story of Pearson's season was very similar, but even bigger things were expected of him after a successful loan spell in the second half of the 2022/23 season had already adhered him to the Potters faithful.

He started 17 of the 20 opening league games under Neil, but then appeared in just nine of the next 26 under Schumacher and was sent off for a second yellow card after he had come on from the bench in a 1-0 away loss to Leeds in March.

11 days later, the 29-year-old limped out of a 3-0 home loss to Norwich with a hamstring injury, and did not feature in the final eight games of the season as Stoke lost just once and pulled away from the Championship drop-zone.

It is pretty clear that neither player is fancied by Schumacher, so moving both on seems a no-brainer if the right offers come in this summer.

Despite their poor seasons, if Stoke do wish to sell Johnson and Pearson there will undoubtedly be some Championship clubs keen on taking a pair that have as much experience as they each do in the second tier.

Johnson was one of the mainstays in Preston's side for the eight years he played for them in the Championship, never making less than 30 league appearances in a single season in that time.

Pearson's tenacious Deepdale displays earned him a move to Bournemouth in 2021, where he was a regular as they earned promotion to the Premier League in 2022 and went on to feature seven times in the top flight before his loan move to Stoke.

Pearson earns an estimated £8,000-a-week at Stoke, according to Capology, so wages would not be a stumbling block for most teams but a somewhat sizeable fee would have to be paid for his services with three years still left on his City contract - Johnson is reportedly on a £15,000-a-week salary, but only has one year left to run on his deal so would likely be available for a minimal fee.

At 31 and 29 years old respectively, both should certainly be considered as possible additions by teams in a similar position to Stoke - they each still have a lot to give at this level, and it does not seem like the Potters would stand in the way of a move if it was a possibility this summer.