Michael O’Neill makes Stoke City admission on Benik Afobe and Peter Etebo

Stoke City will go into the 2022-23 Championship season with a new-look squad and more wages off the books as Michael O’Neill looks to construct a squad capable of challenging for promotion back to the Premier League.

The Potters have struggled to push for the play-offs or automatic promotion in the four years they have been back in the second tier, and in the first year they splashed the cash in an attempt for an immediate return to the top flight.

Big fees and wages were spent on the likes of Peter Etebo, Benik Afobe, Tom Ince, James McClean Sam Clucas in 2018, but it did not bring success to the Bet365 Stadium.

A lot of hard work has gone on at the Potters to get the big earners off the books over the years, including names like Moritz Bauer and Bruno Martins Indi who took a while to be shipped off from the days of the Premier League, and going into the summer just two of those big contracts remain.

Those are the ones of Etebo and Afobe – the former spent this past season on loan with Watford but the Hornets are unwilling to sign the Nigerian midfielder permanently, whilst Afobe scored 12 times in 38 Championship appearances for Millwall.

Despite that scoring record, there appears to be no way back for Afobe, likewise Etebo, and now Stoke will look to offload the pair, with O’Neill admitting that they are punishing the wage bill despite major savings being made in recent years.

 “We’re a Championship club, we don’t have parachute payments. We have some legacy players on high wages which are hurting us a bit,” O’Neill said of Etebo and Afobe, per the Stoke Sentinel.

“But we have players in our club who are worth money and we believe those players can help us get up to the next level of football.

“We believe those