Stoke City player sends Monday message to Mark Robins as transfer deadline approaches | OneFootball

Emre Tezgel's Premier League 2 exploits are sure to have piqued the interest of boss Robins ahead of next week's deadline

Stoke City have struggled for goals this season as they aim to stave off Championship relegation, and with Tom Cannon a distant memory and boss Mark Robins now searching for the answer to his side's woes in front of goal, youngster Emre Tezgel could have forced his way back into his thoughts after an impressive display in the Premier League 2 on Monday evening.

The Potters are now playing under their third permanent manager or head-coach this season in former Coventry City boss Robins, and while he has overseen a run of just one loss in his first five games in charge, their fortunes in front of goal are yet to improve, but need to quickly.

As it stands, Stoke are the lowest scorers in the second-tier, with 26 strikes as a team in 29 league games up to now, and so it was no shock to see the club recall Nathan Lowe from his spell at Walsall earlier this month before Leicester City loanee Cannon was summoned back to the East Midlands and sold on to Sheffield United.

Robins has also moved to bring in Iraqi international centre-forward Ali Al-Hamadi, on loan from Ipswich Town until the end of the season, and with the club still reportedly leading the chase for Liverpool's Jayden Danns, it is still unclear which strikers will be leaving the club this week, as some are going to have to depart.

Academy graduate Tezgel has been mooted for an exit in this window, amid his lack of chances for the senior side in recent months, but his recent exploits for the Potters under-21's have proven that he has outgrown youth football, and they will have alerted Robins to his clear talent as Stoke weigh up their options regarding the 19-year-old's future this week.

Emre Tezgel has struggled to break through at Stoke but could come back into first-team contention

Burton-born Tezgel has been highly rated for a number of years as an academy striker, and became the youngest player to ever play for Stoke when he made his senior debut in January 2022 at 16 years and 112 days old, while also reportedly attracting attention from the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea for his impressive outings at youth level.

The England youth international went on to feature six times for the first team across the 2021/22 and 2022/23 seasons, but his progress soon became stop-start due to persistent muscle issues and the club's subsequent reluctance to push him too far into men's football at such a young age.

Tezgel returned to action for the Stoke under-21s last season after a recurring injury had kept him sidelined, and joined MK Dons on loan in the January window to help with their play-off push, where he made just five league starts in his 17 appearances for the club but registered three goals and assists each under Mike Williamson in a decent return for his first real foray into men's football.

Off the back of that impressive spell, he fully broke into the Potters' senior squad earlier this season and began to net at senior level consistently for the first time in his short career, with his first goal for the club coming in the EFL Cup first round against Carlisle United, and his second the opener in a 5-0 thrashing of Middlesbrough in the next round.

Despite being handed starts in each of Stoke's first two league games of the campaign against Coventry and Watford under Steven Schumacher, he found minutes a lot harder to come by under Narcis Pelach, and has featured just once under Robins so far, with a late appearance against Sunderland in the FA Cup Third Round as he drew praise from the 55-year-old for his impact on the game.

Amid his lack of minutes in months gone by, Robins and co saw fit to allow him to play at under-21 level once again alongside some of Stoke's out-of-favour and recovering first-team players, and Tezgel took his chance against Reading in the Premier League 2 with aplomb on Monday evening.

The 19-year-old started as a lone striker and netted a hat-trick as Stoke ran out 5-1 winners in Berkshire, so he certainly took his chance and did himself no harm of possibly catching Robins' eye as he aims to find a goal-scoring formula in the Championship.

Stoke need to make numerous decisions regarding Tezgel this week

The Potters may well want to allow Tezgel to leave the club for a lower-league side for the second half of the season, or could even keep him in their own first-team, yet regardless of their decision, they must encourage him to sign a new contract as soon as possible with his current one set to expire at the end of the campaign.

The 19-year-old signed his first professional contract, a three-year deal, with his boyhood club in July 2022 after he had made his first-team debut at 16 years old just six months earlier.

It is imperative that the club tie him down to a new long-term deal soon, as a loan exit seems like the best-case scenario for both parties at this moment in time, but he cannot be allowed to leave for the duration of this term just to then depart for a tribunal fee in the summer.

Alternatively, Tezgel's exploits at youth level may well push boss Robins to give him more chances in his first-team as the season goes on, but there is no guarantee that he will be able to impact games at Championship level, and he may well find himself further down the pecking order when Sam Gallagher is fit, and even further down if another striker joins before the window slams shut.

With that said, Stoke need to sort out Tezgel's situation at the club over the next six days, and be sure they have made the correct decision, as he is widely seen as the future of the Potters' strike force, and has the potential to go to the very top of the game if his career is managed correctly.