Sorba Thomas is a wanted man as Stoke City navigate a crucial final few days of the summer transfer window
Sorba Thomas has been Stoke City's main attacking threat since joining in the summer of 2025.
Sorba Thomas has been Stoke City's main attacking threat since joining in the summer of 2025.
View Image
There were a couple of minutes on Match of the Day on Saturday night which helped explain the biggest Stoke City transfer story heading towards deadline day. Wayne Rooney went through a series of video clips to show how keen Hull were to get the ball into the penalty area as quickly and as often as possible, getting players in there to try to win the first or second ball.
There is no one better at doing that in the Championship than Sorba Thomas. He was a runaway Stoke City player of the year and made it into the divisional team of the year thanks to 13 assists, 10 goals, a couple of forced own goals and cross after cross after cross after cross.
The number crunchers counted that he had swung in 410 crosses in his 45 league matches in 2025/26. The next highest in the Championship was Millwall’s Femi Azeez with 294. They were not all pinpoint balls that found a striker’s forehead but he knows that just sticking it into the right area can cause carnage.
He demonstrated that against Hull on Tuesday night. He dug out an early back post cross that Tomas Rigo might have done better on the end of, a front post ball that Robert Bozenik tried to tap home and a sumptuous dink for Bozenik to give Stoke the lead.
FOLLOW OUR FACEBOOK PAGE! Latest Stoke City news, analysis and more via the Sentinel
"I know everything about Sorba Thomas from the Championship, he's a difference maker, and he's a very good player,” said Hull manager Sergej Jakirovic in his post-match press conference.
At a fee of £1.5 million, he is up there as one of Stoke’s best signings from the last decade and if they were to sell him now it would mean a significant profit.
Hull are not backed by a billionaire with bottomless pockets but they have chucked a lot at the transfer market this summer. It remains to be seen how deep they can afford to dig to test Stoke’s resolve in the next few days.
At 27, few would blame Thomas if he was tempted at a crack at the Premier League but Stoke will know his value. He has been good for them and they have been good for him over the last 12 months or so. His availability has been second to none, for starters, and he has the energy and will to play every minute.
He came admitting that he still wanted to prove people wrong having had an unconventional career path via stints in non-league and France, having chucked his boots in the bin after being released by West Ham as a teenager. He has gone a long way to doing that.
“If I had told my 15-year-old self where I am now he wouldn’t believe what was to come for him and everything I have now, a family, a home, but it’s not going to be an easy one for him,” he said. “There are going to be so many ups and downs and he’s going to walk into a world that is going to have a load of opinions. No matter what you do, people aren’t going to be interested in the good because it’s the bad that makes the stories.
“He’s going to walk into that world knowing there is light at the end of the tunnel so to constantly believe. The dream is there. Dreaming is the biggest superpower anyone could ever have.”
Stoke do not yet sound resigned to an exit.
“He's our player,” said Mark Robins. “That's the update. There's nothing to report. I was asked downstairs if it was strange for Sorba but he's our player, it's not strange for him at all. He's putting on the Stoke City shirt, which he's proud to do, and put in a performance like he did.”
Stoke were already believed to be looking to bring in another winger before the deadline and they must have been going back through contingency plans should an offer come in that is too good to turn down.
How much that offer would have to be remains to be seen but it will have to be big enough that Stoke can back themselves to use the money to make them stronger heading out of this window despite having to fill Thomas’s big boots.
What do you think? Click HERE to join the debate
Get YOUR Stoke City Newsletter