Stoke City FC Manager Tony Pulis' Magical Pre-season Mystery Tour Continues

We have had an inkling for a couple of months that something was afoot with regard to Stoke midfielder Darel Russell,talk of buying property elsewhere and so forth.The online edition of The Times newspaper last night went with rumours that Darel was rejoining Norwich City at a fee of £600,000.

Sure enough today Darel left Stoke for his original club,although there seems to be no definitive statement on the transfer fee involved to date.

An entirely personal view is that this represents good business for 'The Potters'.Darel has served the club well for the last four years, but his limitations were often apparent.Through non-stop effort and his all action approach he often got himself into very promising positions without actually being able to capitalise on them.Midfield creativity to date has not been his strong point.

This week looks likely to see further players coming and going as Tony's 'Magic Roundabout' (dare I say) spins!

Real Madrid 2 Stoke City 0...

Stoke's fourth pre-season game was against illustrious current Spanish League Champions Real Madrid at Irdning in Austria.Real Madrid TV covered the match with commentary in English.In what was Real Madrid's opening pre-season game their team (with a fair sprinkling of first teamers from last season) proved too good for an industrious Stoke City team.

Led by their determined captain Higginbottom,Stoke were clearly up for the game and gave a good account of themselves.They went down to a splendidly taken goal from close in by Raul, and a rather dubious penalty in the second half by Soldado.

Patience Is A Virtue....

Stoke City FC fans wait patiently for developments on the transfer front.The last day or so has seen one year renewals to midfielder John Eustace and back up goalkeeper Russell Hoult's contracts.

Trevor Sinclair,in talks with the club in recent days, will not be coming having decided instead to join Cardiff City.At 34 he may indeed have 12 months left in him.We shall see....from afar.

A worry on the horizon for the club is that in May Liam Lawrence was bailed by police in the North East regarding an alleged offence said to involve an 18 year old girl.

All seems to have gone quiet for the moment on the Hendrie and Diao fronts.No definitive news on Griffin either.Weekly wage levels beyond those (sensibly)affordable by the club could prove to be the stumbling block here.

Waiting For Transfer News Stoke City FC Fans.......

.....put their time and talent to good use... huggy995 brings us a bit of fun.(To play click on the bottom left corner.)After the clip plays you can scroll along the bottom edge of the window to see other clips, many from last season.