Stoke City are set to have a very busy summer as Nathan Jones looks to reshape his squad as he tries to build a team capable of winning promotion.

The Potters were favourites for the title going into last season after a summer transfer window that saw them splash the cash under Gary Rowett.

However, many of the new faces failed to make the desired impact and the former Derby boss was sacked midway through the campaign as a result.

So, the club will be determined not to make the same mistakes again during this window and chief executive Tony Scholes has revealed that Stoke will be adopting a transfer strategy of only signing domestic players.

On one hand, you can understand why. With Jones’ knowledge of the lower leagues they will feel that they are capable of picking out a few gems who can make the step up.

And, the obvious advantage of domestic signings are that they will not need time to adapt and settle to a new culture or league that can be problematic. But, it’s still a risky, and arguably wrong, move from the Championship side who should recognise the talent that can be spotted overseas.

It is also worth noting that many of the players who struggled after joining last year did arrive from clubs across England.

Ultimately, a good player is a good player in whatever country and if the Staffordshire club identify someone from abroad who can do the job they should bring them in. We’ve also seen how they can often represent better value for money as clubs don’t demand the inflated fees that English clubs do.

Some of Stoke’s better players from the Premier League era were signed from leagues across the world and many delivered, so it seems strange that they would restrict their approach.

Jones has had around six months in the job and it became clear very quickly that the focus would switch to building for next season. So, Stoke need to hit the ground running and need and recruitment will be key to that.

That means this transfer strategy has to be a success otherwise fans will ask serious questions as to why they decided to go down such a road and those concerns would be valid.

Thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.