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Emre Tezgel needs a loan move if he's to meet his lofty potential

After previously being on the radar of England's elite, the overarching feeling at Stoke City is that Emre Tezgel has a real point to prove - even if he's still only 18.

A graduate of the Stoke academy, Tezgel became the youngest player to ever represent the Potters when he came off the bench in their FA Cup victory over Leyton Orient in 2022 at the age of 16. His entrance into the Stoke record books came as little surprise to both supporters and those inside the club, with the young striker having been widely-regarded among the best players across the entire country for his age.

There's been a natural weight of expectation upon Tezgel's youthful shoulders for quite some time, but through no fault of his own, he's been unable to live up to it thus far.

Emre Tezgel is yet to meet the hype at Stoke City

You could quite fairly point to the high managerial turnover at the Bet365 Stadium in recent years and Stoke's own intertwining under-performance in the league, which invariably imposes significant difficulty in trying to cultivate and embed young talent into a tumultuous, perhaps counterproductive environment. Those potential rationales hold weight, but the inarguable drawback is that Tezgel has suffered a string of injury setbacks after making his debut, only getting on the pitch for Stoke at senior level on six occasions.

It would be naive to write Tezgel off just yet, but there's little escaping that the current state of play is a real far cry from his high stock in 2021. According to the Daily Mail, Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City were all tracking Tezgel, who had been likened to Harry Kane at the time by Potters' academy director Gareth Owen, and little wonder.

Emre Tezgel needs Stoke City loan exit to continue development

Tezgel received his first rehearsal of frequent first-team football on loan with MK Dons during the second half of last season and helped them make the League Two play-offs, scoring three times and assisting a further three all in their final five matches.

He chalked up a healthy return of 0.49 for both goals and assists per 90 minutes and has evidently benefitted from the experience, but he'll need a full season of regular action to really convince supporters that he's still going to reach the levels expected. It certainly remains a possibility among Stoke's decision-makers, and boss Steven Schumacher has recently addressed Tezgel's future amid a promising pre-season foray for the 18-year-old.

"I’m not sure yet,"Schumacher said of Tezgel's future.

"Plans will change as pre-season goes. We’re only really early into it and we are looking for forward players. It will depend on if we get forward players in and then is that going to hinder Emre’s development and what’s the best plan for him.

"At the moment his objective is spot on, to impress me and impress the rest of the coaching staff. We need to see more of him. He’s a young boy who’s had loads of potential and he signed a good contract here. If he wants to stay at this club [rather than go out on loan] then he’s got a bit of work to do and hopefully he can do that."

As per the Stoke Sentinel, the Potters are receiving lower-league loan interest in both Tezgel and fellow 18-year-old forward prospect Nathan Lowe but a decision hasn't been made just yet. However, the likelihood is that Stoke are going to reinforce their striking options before the new campaign rolls around given that they only scored on 49 occasions last term and no player racked up more goals than Andre Vidigal's six - just two of which came after September.

All things considered, Stoke must look to seal another loan deal for Tezgel and League One clubs should be targeted accordingly if they really intend on seeing him maximise his clear potential with the club.