Stoke City sporting director Jonathan Walters spoke effusively about his side’s loan signings this campaign, including Liverpool youngster Lewis Koumas.
The 19-year-old Welsh international scored for the Reds in the FA Cup last season against Southampton during the club’s hellacious injury crises last winter.
Now, Koumas finds himself as a key rotation player for a Stoke City team rapidly climbing the Championship table. In 1,178 total minutes for the Potters in all competitions, the teenager has scored three times and added a pair of assists.
Stoke entered the 2024/25 campaign with high expectations having poached highly-regarded coach Steven Schumacher from Plymouth Argyle midway through last season. However, the former Premier League side sacked its new manager in mid-September.
New coach Narcis Pelach has taken seven points from the last nine available as seemed to right the side’s struggling ship. Stoke sit six points off the playoffs through 15 league games.
In addition to Koumas, Stoke features other key loanees Thomas Cannon (Leicester) – the side’s leading scorer – Ashley Phillips (Tottenham), and Andrew Moran (Brighton).
Walters appeared keen to retain the quartet’s services in a recent interview with the Stoke Sentinel. However, he understood the complications of any future move.
“There’s a big thing made about loans and recall clauses in January, but almost every single loan, 99 percent, will have clauses like that because if your player’s not playing, you’ll want to call him back,” he said. “If your player’s playing and has been called up for the international team, why would you want to call him back?”
“They were sent with expectations, some of them to not have been involved as much as they have, and the likes of Lewis, I’m not sure how many first loans have played more minutes in the Championship this season and he’s really disappointed when he doesn’t play, which is what we want. It’s great!”
“You come, you develop, we invite the loan managers down to come and watch and we’ll tell them what we’re doing, and they go into what they want from us,” Walters continued.
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“You hope you’re doing well for them as a club and then next year, can we have them again?” While Koumas is only a rotation option for Stoke at the moment, his form means he could earn a Premier League loan next year.
Koumas has started four games for the Potters in the Championship as fights with expensive signings Million Manhoef and Jun-Ho Bae for minutes.
The teenager did earn his first start for Wales against Montenegro back in early September. Koumas now has five caps for his country.
