Stoke City on the verge of signing 24-year-old Portuguese winger

Stoke City’s recruitment drive ahead of the 2023-24 Championship season is now well and truly taking shape, with the hopes that this will be finally the year that they break their long streak of finishing in mid-table in the second tier of English football.

For four straight years since they were relegated from the Premier League, City have been in the middle of the road despite at times spending mega money on their squad.

Alex Neil had to be patient last season and rely on loans in the second half of the campaign, but Harry Souttar’s sale and a club restructure, both in terms of staffing and finances, means that there’s more money to spendfor the Scotsman in the current summer window.

He has re-united with his former Preston North End midfielders Ben Pearson and Daniel Johnson on a permanent basis, whilst centre-back Michael Rose and left-back Enda Stevens have added more experience to their squad.

Neil is now targeting a goalkeeper following the collapse of a move for Wolves stopper Matija Sarkic and also the wide areas of the pitch, and it looks as though he’s set to land a new winger in the coming days.

Stoke set to sign Portuguese winger

According to Mike McGrath of The Telegraph, the Potters are set to raid the European market and bring in Maritimo attacker Andre Vidigal, with the 24-year-old set to fly to England to complete a move to the Bet365 Stadium after positive negotiations between the two clubs.

Whilst it hasn’t been confirmed that a fee has been agreed for his services, a move must be close enough for Vidigal to prepare to take the trip to Staffordshire.

Stoke currently lack options out wide to play Alex Neil’s preferred 4-2-3-1 formation, with just Jacob Brown and Tyrese Campbell the senior options along with D’Margio Wright-Phillips to choose from.

Vidigal began his professional career with Academica by making his first appearance in January 2017 as an 18-year-old, but he quickly moved on to Fortuna Sittard of the Dutch second division – initially on loan before making the move permanent at the end of the year.

After 18 months with Sittard, Vidigal was further loaned out to Cypriot outfit APOEL in an 18-month deal, and then spent time back in his native Portugal following that with Estoril.

Scoring six times as they won the title of the second tier of Portugal, Vidigal secured a permanent return to his home country, but not to Estoril as he penned a deal with Maritimo.

He contributed to just four goals in his debut year with Maritimo, but Vidigal improved on that in the 2022-23 season by scoring eight times in the Liga Portugal – unfortunately though his efforts were not enough to keep his club in the top flight.

With one year left on his contract at the Estadio do Maritimo, Vidigal is set to be sold following their drop back into the second tier and Stoke are poised to be the beneficiaries providing they get the deal signed and sealed.