Ali Al-Hamadi to Stoke City transfer - Mark Robins on 'powerful...

Ali Al-Hamadi is almost ready to make his Stoke City debut when they play Hull in the Championship.

Ali Al-Hamadi, a lively and motivated player, is coming to Stoke City looking to establish his ability to contribute as a

starter and a finisher.

The 22-year-old, who signed on loan from Ipswich, is ready to make his Stoke debut this weekend against Hull. He

has mostly been there to attempt to impact games as “a finisher” substitute as they gained promotion last season and

the Premier League this year.

There is hope that he can start right away because Stoke had to fight through Championship clubs to get him, but

part of his transfer will also involve demonstrating his ability to adjust to a position higher up the hierarchy. Since

his last game with AFC Wimbledon in January of last year, when he scored 13 goals in 13 games, he hasn’t played 90

minutes at the club level.

But his key strengths are, well, his strength and athleticism and it sounds like he has been showing his appetite to

succeed in his first week’s training at Clayton Wood.

As Mark Robins put it: “He’s bubbly. He has a great deal of energy and is eager to succeed. It’s clear that Ipswich

bought him from Wimbledon because of his many highly admirable qualities.

As you may recall, he has performed exceptionally well when used as a replacement or finisher to end games rather

than as a regular starter. To ensure that he had the ability to start and finish games, he wants to add this talent to his

arsenal. He will likely need to build up to that as well, but we’ll see. That’s another one that will be fascinating since it

hasn’t been a continuous 90 minutes that go by.

The manager said: “They are different players, different players with different characteristics but the one

characteristic Nathan has is that he’s a goal scorer, instinctively a goal scorer, whereas Ali can score goals, maybe not

the same as Nathan, but I’m happy with that because you’ve got two different types and let people try to work them

out when they play. Let’s see.

“It gives people a platform, gives Ali a platform to come here and play. Nathan has had a taste of it so far and let’s see

where we can get to.”

Ali Al-Hamadi to Stoke City transfer – Mark Robins on ‘powerful’ new striker’s first week ahead of debut