Swansea City are one of three Championship sides being credited with an interest in Stoke City midfielder Josh Laurent. The player, who has entered the last year of his contract at the Bet365 Stadium, is also attracting interest from overseas.
Laurent will return with Stoke for pre-season training today and has been widely expected to play a significant role for Steven Schumacher’s side after they narrowly avoided relegation last season. His value to the Potters was clear last season when, after a vital win against Southampton, the Stoke boss referenced his captain when he said “You got midfield players closing their goalkeeper down in their six yard box and almost scoring, blocking it and it going out for a goal-kick. That’s as important as putting in a block tackle in in your own penalty box because it just stops their momentum and gives us a chance to get up to be shown.”
Laurent’s career has been wide and varied with League appearances at nine different clubs in the football league including Newport, Brentford, QPR and Reading before he joined Stoke on a two year deal in the summer of 2022. 69 league appearances later and five goals he holds the captain’s armband at the Bet 365, something that Stoke fans will want to continue this coming season.
Interest from overseas comes from Paphos in Cyprus and in Turkey there is supposed interest from top flight side Gaziantep whilst it’s been suggested that, along side the Swans, both Blackburn and West Brom are watching on with interest to see if there is any desire from Stoke to sell on rather than risk losing Laurent on a free transfer in twelve months time.
That said it is difficult to see them wanting to move the player on despite his contract expiry in twelve months so it would purely come down to the desire of the player to move and there has certainly been nothing to suggest that he would look to move on this summer. And certainly not to another Championship club.
Central midfield is certainly an area in which the Swans would like to be strengthening but it is also reasonably clear at the moment that there are more pressing areas in which we need to bolster the squad. That said, many will point out that a midfield that includes Matt Grimes and Jay Fulton together will not be the most dynamic one that we have and we all also know that Joe Allen will only be a bit part player this coming season with his legs unable to compete with the full demands of a Championship season. Whether though that would mean a move for Laurent is likely remains open for debate and, personally, I cannot see it to be the case given his value to Stoke and the limitations of our own transfer budget.
Pure speculation for me this one but, as ever, time will tell.