Alex Neil is looking forward to spending time with his new-look Stoke City players on the training ground.
Over the previous two and a half months, the manager has been juggling a double existence, playing an active role in one of the club’s busiest transfer windows while also attempting to prepare his players, including all of the new arrivals, for life in the Championship.
But, as his recruiting department takes a breather after last Friday’s deadline, Neil is looking forward to the opportunity to completely focus on his day job.
“I think it’s ultimately where you want to get to as a coach, but the simple fact is you can’t negate the importance of the transfer window, especially when it’s a rebuild of the size that we’ve had to do,” he added.
“This is a very critical time. I won’t lie, I’ve been looking forward to the window closing. It’s taken some shifting to get everything across the finish line, and there’s been so much effort for so many individuals to bring us to this point.
“But I’ve been looking forward to this when we can purely focus on what happens on the grass and try to prepare the team and doing as well as we can.”
