Michael O’Neill speaks out on Stoke City’s signing of Chelsea player

Prior to this year, 26-year-old Lewis Baker’s career had just been a long series of loan spells away from parent club Chelsea meaning he struggled to get a consistent run of games at most places. 

However, in January the midfielder signed for Stoke City on a two-and-a-half-year deal.

Baker made his debut the day after he signed and scored his first goal for the club just under a week later.

Since then, Baker has made 16 appearances in total and scored eight goals for his new club which is an impressive start to his time there.

Discussing what attracted him to the player, Stoke boss Michael O’Neill told Stoke-on-Trent Live: “He’s been brilliant since he came to the club.

“We tried to get Lewis last summer, it wasn’t really possible so we had to be patient and revisited it again in January and he’s been terrific.

“You can get players at certain times in their career and we’ve probably had a frustrating time, constantly on loan at clubs, you’re obviously at a massive club. Lewis was a player with huge potential, clearly, which is why Chelsea invested in him the way they did.”

To some, it may seem weird to leave Chelsea after 16 years on the books for Stoke but O’Neill has revealed how he convinced the player it was the right move as he said: “It was difficult to judge where he was but we had conversations with the boy and where he felt he was at in his career. The most important thing is that we would give him a lot of responsibility and we have given him that. He’s responded to that with his level of performance.

“He needed it. It’s a big part of English football [loan cycles], the big clubs do it. I’m not sure I fully understand why it would benefit a player but that’s the model that a lot of clubs operate and it’s not