Tony Pulis has admitted that he knows he has an under strength squad for this weekend’s opening match at Cardiff but is hopeful of securing some more players BUT not before the game on Saturday.
He told the Sentinel: ‘Of course I’d like to have signed more players, but sometimes that’s the way it is in football.’
Adding: ‘But we shouldn’t forget we also have some good players here already who get paid well by the football club’.
He still seems hopeful of signing Jon Fortune on loan and has revealed that he is also in negotiations with Dominic Matteo.
Although Matteo is out of contract after joining on a short term contract last January, he has played a full part in the Potters’ preseason after asking to join the first team’s training programme. Initially Pulis had not offered him a new contract – much to Matteo’s dismay, but to the player’s credit (or lack of other options) he seems determined to stay at the club. With the squad currently so threadbare, that contract now seems to have been put on the table.
Salif Diao is another player whose short term contract expired at the end of the season, but he seems to be a far harder fish to land. Contrary to several reports in the media, the former Liverpool midfielder has not signed a new deal and has not been training with the Potters. Charlton have also been linked with the Senagalese international and Pulis has admitted that whilst Stoke have offered Diao a new deal he has not yet been back in touch.
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