Pulis set to clinch Edu deal
Stoke manager Tony Pulis hopes to bring several new players to the Britannia Stadium before Friday evening’s transfer deadline.
The Potters boss watched as American summer signing Geoff Cameron impressed during the goalless draw against Arsenal yesterday and later revealed he is close to completing deals for at least two other players.
United States and Rangers midfielder Maurice Edu is set to finalise his move to Stoke today, and should be joined this week by Tottenham’s Tom Huddlestone.
He said: “We’ll hopefully know more about a couple of players on Monday, whether they’re leaving or whether they’re coming in.
“I hope next week will be a busy week for us because we need to freshen it up.
“We’ve taken Maurice Edu. Hopefully that will be completed by Monday.
“We have to do it [transfers] in a much more structured way this year.
“We spent 23 years outside of the top flight and we’re putting together an infrastructure that most of the Premier League clubs have.”
Pulis also admitted he is interested in bringing Tottenham defender Michael Dawson to the club.
He said: “I’d love to take Dawson off Spurs but whether we could afford him or not I’m not sure. We will see what happens.
“Huddlestone and Dawson and people like that would improve us and make us a better team, but whether you’re Arsenal or Stoke City, you have a level to what you can spend and who you can bring in and we have to work to that level.
“If we have to bite the bullet a little bit we have to bite the bullet, but hopefully it will make this club better in future years.”
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger was left to rue a lack of cutting edge as his new-look strike force again failed to score yesterday.
Lukas Podolski, Olivier Giroud and Gervinho were unable to make a breakthrough despite a dominant display in midfield led by Santi Cazorla, leaving Arsenal yet to open their goalscoring account after two Barclays Premier League games. They also drew 0-0 with Sunderland in their opener.
Wenger put the slow start down to a lack of understanding in his attack.
He said: “Offensively we still have some work to do because we missed a bit of accuracy in the final third in our movement and in our passing.
“We are used to finding each other in the final third and there’s something missing but I still think we should have won the game 1-0.
“[It is] an understanding because you have Cazorla and Podolski who one month ago, they didn’t know each other, so that will come.
“We have some work to do on the training ground but I believe we have the potential.”
The Arsenal boss, who has been linked with a move for Newcastle midfielder Cheick Tiote as a replacement for Alex Song, denied he is interested in signing the Ivorian.
Wenger said: “Tiote is a good player but he is not on his way to Arsenal.”
