‘The deal came as a bit of a surprise to me’ – Stoke City secure agreement with Championship rivals: The verdict

This article is part of Football League World’s ‘The Verdict’ series, which provides personal opinions from the FLW writers regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Stoke City have agreed a loan swap deal with fellow Championship side Reading that sees Liam Moore arrive at the bet365 Stadium, with Tom Ince heading in the other direction.

The centre-back looked to be on his way out of the Select Car Leasing Stadium from the early stages of last month, with the Royals releasing a statement revealing that they had stripped the 29-year-old of the captaincy after asking to leave the club.

This is the second transfer request the central defender has handed in since the beginning of the club, with the ex-Leicester City man previously pushing for a move to Brighton and Hove Albion back in the summer of 2018 before signing a new deal to extend his stay.

That contract sees him through until the summer of 2023 – but with the club publicly criticising their ex-skipper – he looked set to depart Berkshire way before then despite making a respectable 17 league appearances this term.

The signing of Josh Maja looked set to be the only bit of incoming business the Potters would conduct on deadline day, but talkSPORT’s Alex Crook broke the news of this swap deal yesterday evening and it finally materialised late last night.

From Stoke’s point of view though, is the addition of the former Reading skipper a good move? And is he a much-needed figure in Staffordshire?

We asked some of our Football League World writers to give their opinion on these subjects.

Charlie Gregory

The deal came as a bit of a surprise to me but I think he could be a nice addition for Stoke on the quiet.

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