Top Five: Clubs having a disappointing transfer window

Stoke City

Major Ins: Erik Pieters (PSV, £3m) Marc Muniesa (Barcelona, Free)

Major Outs: Dean Whitehead (Middlesbrough, Free) Michael Owen (Retired)

Summary: The early moves for Pieters and Muniesa attracted positive attention because they were of more footballing stock than Stoke’s usual targets. But the one area of the team that, left back aside, has been very strong for a number of years is the defence. The problem for Stoke is the attack and the general lack of inventiveness or creativity that last year saw them only score 34 goals in the league. But this hasn’t been addressed so far at all. The likes of Scott Sinclair and possibly even Demba Ba are seemingly available to offer Stoke some punch in attack but they’ve not made those moves. Even with some tactical tweaks which Hughes is working on he still has the same attacking personnel. The lack of goals nearly dragged Stoke down last year and not doing anything about it is baffling.