It is just over two years ago that Divin Mubama introduced himself to diehard Stoke City supporters.
There are sometimes opposition players that stick out when you see them for the first time in the flesh and Mubama certainly did that when he spearheaded Kevin Keen’s West Ham under-18s team at Stoke in the FA Youth Cup.
He scored twice, could have had another couple to shock a highly-rated but young home side. He was good on the ball and relentless off it.
In fact, that’s pretty much what David Moyes said when the forward went on to make his first team debut: “He makes us a completely different side with his running, his pressure and the work he does off the ball for the team.”
That’s what the hope will be now, in a twist, that he’s joined Stoke’s first team ready for his first proper taste of regular senior football.
Mubama had been with West Ham since primary school and seemed destined to breakthrough there and be a local superstar.
Veteran teammate Aaron Cresswell told The Athletic in the summer of 2023, a few months after that win at Stoke and West Ham going on to win the Youth Cup: “Divin doesn’t know about this, but I remember sitting with Craig Dawson on the balcony in Evian. [Divin] trained with us for a few days and I said [to Dawson], ‘This boy has a big chance here’. I remember the shooting sessions and we were doing two-v-twos and three-v-threes. I just kept thinking this boy has a real chance.”
Mubama went on to make 18 senior appearances between late 2022 and the spring of 2024 – under the watch of coach Paul Nevin, now Mark Robins’ assistant at Stoke – giving glimpses of his potential and wanting more.
He stalled on a new deal with that in mind and Stoke were among about 20 clubs who tried to sign him permanently, prepared to go to a tribunal for compensation. Stoke and Championship rivals were prepared to offer him minutes – but then in swept Manchester City, ending up paying £2 million for his signature.
It has meant that Mubama has spent a year training under Pep Guardiola but playing mostly in the under-21s. He scored 16 times in 13 Premier League 2 appearances. He scored in the FA Cup against Salford City too and came off the bench in the Premier League.
Guardiola said after the Salford game: “His movements are unbelievable. The way he moves in right tempo, the way he presses. The movement for the first goal is perfectly as a striker, it looks easy but how he made the one counter movement against the defender… It’s really, really good.”
Salford boss Karl Robinson said: “His movement… Listen, I know it’s Salford, it’s not the level he’ll want to play at eventually, but his football intelligence for somebody so young, especially when playing for a team like Man City and the way they move and to still have the technical capabilities to cope with the football… I like him. I thought he was very, very good.”
But Mubama wants and needs to play more.
Now 20, this will be a first loan, two words that have filled Stoke supporters with a degree of anxiety over the last few years, but he is coming with more senior experience on his CV than Liam Delap when he joined the Potters – and Delap had spent most of the previous year out with injury as well, which didn’t help him.
And he joins with the bulk of pre-season still remaining, to integrate into Mark Robins’ squad and get ready to be unleashed in the Championship.
Stoke leaned on the loan system last year with Tom Cannon and Ali Al-Hamadi supporting injury-plagued Sam Gallagher. Emre Tezgel, aged 19, is expected to head out on loan and there are plenty of suitors for Nathan Lowe, who also has the chance to stake his claim high on Robins’ pecking order at the moment.
Ideally, this would – one way or another – be the last time that Stoke used a loanee in this position, either making sure that Lowe or Tezgel was primed to take over next summer or be able to make a permanent signing. When the going rate is £5m-plus in the Championship for a forward – and Mubama was mentioned at £10m when he was linked with Ipswich last month – that clearly wasn’t feasible in the budget at the moment.
It wouldn’t be a surprise if there was more movement in that department but this feels like a positive start all round.
Stoke have let 10 players go of whom only perhaps one, Ashley Phillips, was a guaranteed starter if everyone had been fit at the end of last season. The first three incomings would get into that team, at least on paper, and a fit Bosun Lawal will probably feel like a new signing as well.
In other words, they could put out a better, bigger, stronger side now than they had in 2024/25 and there are still almost two months until deadline day to tweak and add and have some fun.
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