Huddersfield Town, Sorba Thomas "rebirth" claim made - Stoke City form is no surprise | OneFootball

Sorba Thomas is looking rejuvenated in the early weeks of his Stoke City career

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Sorba Thomas has enjoyed a fine start to life at Stoke City, with the Welsh international playing a strong role in the Potters' strong opening to the 2025/26 season.

The 26-year-old has become a household Championship name in recent years after a previous spell with Huddersfield Town, albeit his time associated with the West Yorkshire club represented extremely mixed fortunes, with the Terriers relegated to League One just two years after the playmaker played a starring role in an unexpected run to the play-off final under Carlos Corberan.

Thomas spent last season with Ligue 1 outfit, FC Nantes, before returning to England and moving to Staffordshire on a three-year contract at the beginning of Mark Robins' first full season in charge of the Potters.

And, it's fair to say that he has already made an extremely strong impression on those at the Bet365 Stadium, whilst those who watched him at his best in West Yorkshire are also hardly surprised by such exploits.

Huddersfield Town stance given as Sorba Thomas enjoys early Stoke City "rebirth"

In total, Thomas accrued a tally of seven goals and 31 assists in 125 appearances for Huddersfield, with his strongest season total coming in Town's near-miss on promotion to the Premier League, registering three goals and 16 assists across all competitions, as well as still managing to accumulate four goals and nine assists during the club's dismal relegation campaign of two seasons ago.

Therefore, when speaking to Football League World, our Terriers fan pundit, Graeme Rayner, isn't surprised to see the 18-time international start his spell at Stoke with one goal and three assists in his first two appearances.

"I'm not surprised at all that he's doing so well at Stoke in terms of goal involvements," Rayner stated.

"I think he's played in both league games, scored one and got three assists. That was what we missed when he went (on loan to Nantes). Not so much his goalscoring, but his ability to be involved in goals.

"His dead ball striking was great - corners and free-kicks, just putting them into the right areas, so I expect he'll get well into double figures if he's already on three for Stoke.

"Good luck to him, it seems like he's having a little bit of a rebirth there, and that's great," Raynor added. "I always liked him.

"Sometimes he came across as a bit moody and sulking, but I just think he didn't like losing, and we lost a lot when he was there.

"I wish him the best of luck, and with the setup at Stoke now, he'll do really well so I wish him all the best," he concluded.

A firing Sorba Thomas will be key as Stoke City look for major Championship improvement

After years of stagnation in the second tier's bottom half, Stoke supporters will now feel there are plenty of factors which can set the wheels in motion for a successful season, and a confident Sorba Thomas will be paramount to those aims.

As Raynor alluded to, the former Boreham Wood man has extremely high quality levels of technical ability when on song, and with the likes of Divin Mubama and Robert Bozenik at Robins' disposal alongside Sam Gallagher, all three strikers will be delighted to have a player of Thomas' attributes to call upon when it comes to service.

Robins has also previously worked with Championship 'assist kings' such as Gustavo Hamer, who was instrumental in Coventry City's run to Wembley in 2023, and if his new recruit in ST4 has started how he means to go on, there is every chance that the Reds could mount a serious play-off bid.