B B C Sports Stoke City should move on from Reading FC deal amid Sheffield United, Norwich City interest.

Stoke City have had a slow start to the January window as manager Mark Robins adjusts to his new surroundings, but a recent rumour has surfaced about a potential Potters move for Reading midfielder Charlie Savage, which the club should avoid this month for a variety of reasons.

Links between Stoke and new signings have been scarce in the early days of the window, most likely due to Robins’ official appointment as manager on New Year’s Day, but things are expected to pick up in the coming weeks as the former Coventry City boss assesses the squad he has inherited. The Potters are presently 19th in the second tier, just four points from relegation, so it is evident that they must enhance their team this month in order to move away from the bottom three before May, and their transfer activity will certainly begin shortly.

CaughtOffside recently revealed that Stoke are interested in signing Reading midfielder Charlie Savage, Robbie’s son, with fellow second-tier clubs Sheffield United and Norwich City also keeping an eye on him ahead of a potential move in the current window. The 21-year-old Savage has been a standout for the Royals in the third tier this season, but Stoke do not need to add a player of his profile or experience to their squad right now, and there are numerous reasons why they should avoid signing him this month, while better Championship teams are also interested.

Charlie Savage is not the right player for Stoke or Mark Robins

Stoke’s midfield has been the source of many of their on-field problems this season, with a lack of consistency in available players, the wrong types of players being relied on in different positions, and numerous players losing form at various points during the campaign. The Potters’ midfield is very young, as is the rest of the team, with 23-year-old Wouter Burger and 21-year-old Andrew Moran being their two most regular appearance-makers in the middle of the park so far, while 17-year-old Sol Sidibe has also been given plenty of opportunities to prove himself. No midfielder above the age of 28 has played for the club since Josh Laurent and Lewis Baker featured in late August before their respective summer moves away, and the team simply lacks experience playing together, with just one player in Robins’ first starting eleven against Plymouth Argyle that had been at the bet365 Stadium for longer than 18 months.

Savage has been playing as a box-to-box midfielder for Reading since he joined the club on a four-year contract in 2023, and while he has impressed in League One, Stoke do not particularly need new additions in that certain profile, especially given that Robins’ favoured formation is a 4-2-3-1, with two traditional defensive midfielders and a number 10, rather than multiple number eights like Savage.

Baker’s recent recall from his spell at Blackburn has shown that the new Potters manager wants to make changes to his midfield, but his reintroduction to the squad also means that Stoke’s midfield is quite crowded right now, with players like him, Burger, Moran, Tatsuki Seko, Bosun Lawal, and Jordan Thompson all vying for places, as well as the currently injured Ben Pearson.

Savage’s Reading contract and interest from other Championship sides also makes a Stoke move unlikely

Savage moved to Reading from boyhood club Manchester United in 2023, and while the Red Devils were happy to let him leave on a permanent deal at the age of 20, the finer details of his transfer were later revealed, and could prove a stumbling block for a buying team looking to take him away from the Royals in the future. The Athletic revealed later that year that Reading did not pay a fee for Savage, but a sell-on clause inserted into the contract guarantees United 50 percent of any future transfer, meaning that they will not want to sell him on the cheap to an interested club, but rather get the best fee possible to aid their own pressing financial concerns.

This is an issue for Stoke, who appear to be focussing mostly on loan signings this month due to their own concerns over PSR and financial fair play, so a transfer for Savage is doubtful if he is to command a significant sum. Furthermore, CaughtOffside named Sheffield United and Norwich City as Championship clubs interested in the 21-year-old’s services, and it is fair to say that the Potters do not have the same pulling power as either club right now, given their respective second-tier positions. Savage moving from Reading to Stoke would make little sense for either party this month, so a possible deal appears unlikely to happen anytime soon. However, the Potters will hope that he remains at the Madejski Stadium until the summer so that they can possibly reignite their interest when they are in a better position to sign him with more time to shape their squad.

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