The 3 Stoke City players who surely want to escape the club from June | OneFootball

FLW have picked out a trio that are likely to want to leave the Potters this summer

Stoke City's sole current focus will be on staying in the Championship, but certain players are set to want to depart the bet365 Stadium in the summer transfer window regardless of their league status for next season.

The Potters currently sit one point and two places above the second-tier relegation zone as it stands. Their future is hanging in the balance, and they need a full squad effort over the next six weeks to keep the club safe for another campaign.

Mark Robins was not very busy in the recent January window, with just two senior players signed and one let out on loan, but that is set to change in the summer as he overhauls his squad for next term in either the Championship or League One.

There are numerous players in his squad that will want to seal a swift exit from ST4 in the summer, and FLW have picked out three that will surely want to escape when possible in the transfer window.

Wouter Burger

Wouter Burger could very well have already left Stoke City, had he got what he wanted in the January window, but he remained in the Potteries for the rest of the campaign, and will surely seek a possible departure in the summer as a result of his previously failed move.

Burger joined Stoke for a reported fee of £4.3m from Basel in August 2023 amid an influx of signings from overseas, and enjoyed a successful first six months at the club, but then saw his performances drop off for a while before returning to form midway through this season.

He was reported to be closing in on a move to the four-time Danish champions FC Midtjylland on the last day of the winter window, which came as a surprise to many supporters. Despite the deal looking advanced and all but done, Stoke's hierarchy then stopped the move happening because they were unable to find a replacement for him in Robins' side so late on.

Burger has since continued to impress under Robins, and has arguably been playing some of the best football since he joined the club following his failed move. It feels inevitable that he would leave if the club went down to League One, and it still seems likely if they stay up, as he is clearly a level above playing in a Championship relegation battle every season.

The 24-year-old also recently admitted to StokeonTrentLive that he was "disappointed" about being unable to join Midtjylland, and so it would not be a shock to see him push for a move in the summer window.

Ben Gibson

Centre-back Ben Gibson signed a three-year deal with Stoke after leaving Norwich City upon the expiry of his contract last summer, but his move to the bet365 Stadium has definitely not gone to plan so far.

Gibson joined the Potters with the promise of being an experienced leader that would command their defence and help them move up the table in the years to come. The reality of his time at the club up to now has been nearly the polar opposite, with most of his game-time coming at the start of the campaign and recurring injuries looking to be taking its toll as he nears the end of his career.

The 32-year-old was appointed as club-captain by Steven Schumacher at the start of the season, and began relatively well with starts in all but one of Stoke's first 18 Championship outings under him and Narcis Pelach.

Stoke's season took a turn for the worse under the Spanish head-coach, however, and some blame was pointed at Gibson for his shoddy defensive efforts and knack of turning the ball into his own net. He did atone for those bad moments with three goals at the right end, but many Potters fans look to have already made their minds up on his abilities.

He has played just once for the club in the Championship since the turn of the year, amid form and injury issues, and it is unclear whether he will be back fit to play any part in their survival efforts in the coming weeks.

He is likely to want to leave the club in the summer, but whether Stoke find any realistic suitors for his services remains to be seen, as he is claimed to be one of their highest earners and has two years left to run on his contract.

Andre Vidigal

Andre Vidigal's 2023 arrival from Maritimo garnered substantial fanfare from Potters supporters due to his pedigree and difference to many of their previous signings, but after an electric start, he has since failed to deliver and now finds himself as an outcast on the periphery of Robins' squad.

Vidigal seemed to be worth every penny of the reported £450,000 that the Potters spent on bringing him to the club in his first few outings, as he netted a brace on his debut to seal a 4-1 victory over Rotherham United, before going on to find the net three more times in his next five games in all competitions with match-winning strikes against West Brom and Watford.

The 26-year-old will be wondering where it all went wrong for him in ST4, after he impressed upon his arrival, but fell further out of favour as his debut season at the club went on, and only managed to make the starting eleven once in the final 15 league games under Steven Schumacher as other players impressed in their eventually successful bid for survival.

Stoke-on-Trent Live reported in September that he was understood to have turned down chances to leave the Potters late in the window to fight for his place, with lucrative offers thought to have been on the table from Turkey and Qatar, which he may now regret given how his last few months have played out.

He has featured just 12 times in all competitions so far this season, with no starts in the Championship and no goals or assists to his name as yet. It again seems unlikely that he will play for the club again in 2024/25, given that he has continually not been called upon in the last few months despite being fit, with the club struggling to score goals in a relegation battle.

Vidigal is clearly a talented player, but his first month at Stoke was a flash in the pan, and he has consistently shown that he is not quite at a Championship standard week-in, week-out. His exit seems pretty inevitable this summer, but the Potters may have to settle for a loan departure to take him to the end of his deal next year.