5 players who will want to forget the 2017/18 season

#3: Jese Rodriguez

Jese Rodriguez endured a poor season at Stoke City

When Stoke City goalkeeper Jack Butland publically criticised the club’s transfer policy following their relegation this weekend, one could be forgiven for thinking that a lot of his words were aimed towards striker Jese Rodriguez, who was signed on loan in the summer from Paris St. Germain. The former Real Madrid striker was expected to fire the goals in for the Potters, but instead, he suffered a terrible time at the bet365 Stadium and isn’t expected to return.

Surprisingly enough he actually started well – scoring the winner in an August victory over Arsenal – but that was as good as it got. Looking at the statistics alone paints a damning picture – just 13 appearances in the Premier League, 8 of them starts, and just 1 goal is a diabolical return for any striker, but Jese has had problems that go beyond just misfiring in front of goal.

Firstly there was the incident in December that saw him go AWOL – that was resolved when the club granted him compassionate leave to visit his prematurely born son. The same situation reared its head again in March – only this time Jese didn’t return when he was supposed to, triggering Stoke to grant him leave until the end of the season, essentially terminating the loan deal.

Sandwiched between those incidents was also the ludicrous situation that saw him argue with teammate and regular penalty taker Charlie Adam over who would take a spot-kick against Brighton (Adam eventually missed), an incident which caused dressing room friction.

In no uncertain terms, Jese has had a nightmare 2017/18 season and he’ll be hoping that wherever he surfaces next, it goes better than his brief tenure at Stoke.