Stoke City put new contract model into action for young players

D’Margio Wright-Phillips and Connor Taylor’s progress and reward is being held up as examples of how Stoke City want to bring young players through.

The duo have had different routes to Stoke’s first team squad. Wright-Phillips was on Manchester City’s books until he joined Stoke at 19 in early 2021 while Taylor was 17 when he first arrived from Stafford Rangers for a trial.

Now they are staking their claims under Michael O'Neill this pre-season and have both earned new contracts over the last few days.

“I think he’s a good example of the current situation we have here,” said head of football operations Andy Cousins in an interview for the club website. “D’Margio was essentially told by Man City that he wasn’t going to come through there. We took him in on what was probably a bit of a short-term, lower cost contract and he had to prove himself. He worked really hard on that.

“We improved that, which was his next step, but it certainly wasn’t a first team contract and now he’s moving onto a first team contract or towards one, certainly.

“We have a plan for the players that is not just with D’Margio or Connor but all of them at that age group, that we don’t give them too much too soon but also we reward them as they hit their steps.

“D’Margio has done that and this season he has impressed us once again. This has been in the offing and the plans all summer and it’s been getting around to getting him signing it.

“He’s a great lad, a great character and he’s had a little bit of adversity and shown character bounce back from.”

Wright-Phillips, now aged 20, made 12 senior appearances in the second half of last season and has caught the eye with his performances in warm-up games this summer, scoring the opening goal at