In my local pub, someone asked the question of a goalkeeper for Stoke City that was once praised by Stoke City chairman Peter Coates, instantly there were answers of Jack Butland and everyone was chuffed that they had gotten the answer correct, then the man who is asking the questions says ” The answer is not Jack Butland but Lee Grant “. Lee Grant is truly the one that got away for Stoke City.
When Lee Grant joined Stoke City on a six-month loan to cover for Jack Butland at the time who was injured at the time, there was a certain amount of googling done as people tried to see who was the man that was going to fill in for the massive shoes of Jack Butland. Those shoes were certainly filled to a large extent when Grant earned a Man of the Match award against Manchester United as Stoke City earned its first point against Manchester United since 1980. He finished the season by winning Stoke’s Player of the Season award. It seemed a no-brainer to sign Lee Grant permanently, the second season was a little tougher for Grant with Jack Butland coming back into the team but he impressed whenever he played.
With Adam Federici in the squad, perhaps Rowett thought that he could sell Grant to Manchester United, this could prove to be a truly terrible move with interest in Jack Butland from numerous Premier League teams, having Grant as backup to Butland would have reassured Stoke City fans should Butland lave but also save precious money for Rowett to pursue other transfer targets.
The main question is if Grant is good enough for Manchester United, one of England’s top teams and European heavyweights, why on earth was he not kept at Stoke City. Instead, he was let for a measly 4.5million, surely when you have a team with the financial capabilities of Manchester United trying to get one of your players, you can negotiate a little bit.
Ahh, Lee Grant is definitely the one one that got away from Stoke City.