Busting the 20-goal striker myth as Stoke City look to end 26-year problem

Stoke City are in the 26th summer in a row when they are looking to find a prolific striker.

No one reading this will need reminding that Stoke haven’t had a forward score 20 league goals since Peter Thorne got 24 in 1999/2000, including 15 in the final two months. Thorne was sold to Cardiff after scoring 16 in the next season and, since then, Stoke’s top scorer has got no more than 15. Even the great Ricardo Fuller topped out at 15 as he inspired promotion in 2007/08.

Only Walsall (Kyle Lightbourne, 20, 1996/97), Plymouth Argyle (Steve Castle, 21 in 1993/94) and Sheffield Wednesday (David Hirst, 24, 1990/91) in the whole of the top four divisions have had longer waits since their last 20-goal haul.

Stoke haven’t even had anyone in double figures in four of the eight years since relegation. They haven’t had a player lead the way in more than one season since Peter Crouch and they haven’t had a player be top scorer in consecutive seasons since Fuller.

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There are a couple of caveats: firstly, Stoke spent a decade in the Premier League and Fuller’s 11 goals in 2008/09, Crouch’s 10 in 2011/12, Mame Diouf’s 11 in 2014/15 and Marko Arnautovic’s 11 in 2015/16 carry significant weight.

Secondly, Tom Cannon had got to nine in 22 games in 2024/25 before he was recalled from loan by Leicester City to be sold to Sheffield United for £10m. He hasn’t caught fire at Bramall Lane but who know what he would have reached if he’d stayed put.

But just how rare is it not to have a forward who scores semi-regularly? We have looked at the past decade for all 24 teams in the Championship next season.

Only one of them had a striker in the 20s in 2025/26: Zan Vipotnik (23) at Swansea. Only one other had a forward with more 15 or more: Josh Windass (16) at Wrexham.

No one in the Championship had a 20-goal man in 2024/25 and the most has been six of the 24, in 2018/19.

It has taken an average 9.3 goals to be top scorer at Stoke since 2016. That is the lowest, narrowly seen off by Queens Park Rangers (9.7) and way behind Blackburn Rovers (16.9), Norwich (16.4) and Wrexham (16).

It is still a target for all managers and transfer teams to get their hands on one of these beasts.

“It boils down to scoring goals,” said Craig Hignett in the Teesside Gazette this week. “Your top scorer should be getting 20-plus. You need about three who get into double figures every season to have a chance.

“They need a big centre forward who's going to hold the ball up and ruffle people. They need pace.”

Hignett tipped Jayden Danns, from Liverpool, as a potential answer – but that also highlights the risk about recruitment at this level, with its budget constraints and the chasm in cash and quality between the top two divisions. Danns is 20 and has made three league sub appearances in his career so far.

Stoke have had England under-21s forwards Liam Delap and Divin Mubama in recent years but they have struggled for consistency in the first seasons at senior level. Wingers Jack Clarke and Jaden Philogene-Bidace have been developing too.

Stoke’s top scorers in the league this century

2000/01: Peter Thorne – 16 2001/02: Chris Iwelumo – 10 2002/03: Andy Cooke – 6 2003/04: Ade Akinbiyi/Gifton Noel-Williams – 10 2004/05: Gifton Noel-Williams – 13 2005/06: Paul Gallagher – 11 2006/07: Ricardo Fuller – 10 2007/08: Ricardo Fuller – 15 2008/09: Ricardo Fuller – 11 2009/10: Matthew Etherington – 5 2010/11: Kenwyne Jones – 9 2011/12: Peter Crouch – 10 2012/13: Jon Walters – 8 2013/14: Peter Crouch – 8 2014/15: Mame Diouf – 11 2015/16: Marko Arnautovic – 11 2016/17: Peter Crouch – 7 2017/18: Xherdan Shaqiri – 8 2018/19: Benik Afobe – 8 2019/20: Sam Clucas – 11 2020/21: Nick Powell – 12 2021/22: Jacob Brown – 13 2022/23: Tyrese Campbell – 9 2023/24: Andre Vidigal – 6 2024/25: Tom Cannon – 9 2025/26: Sorba Thomas – 10

Sporting director Jon Walters, who is charged with leading the search for talent over the next couple of months, knows that the equally important thing, perhaps bigger thing, is chance creation.

He told The Sentinel during the January transfer window: “Look at strikers in this league and in the Premier League. How many strikers have scored a ridiculous amount of goals? Not many. A lot of wingers are scoring. There's a lot of goals coming from other areas of the team. There's not that many strikers around that score 20 goals.

“But we’ve got to create chances for that striker as well. You’ve got to have really good wingers and midfielders, you've got to play it forward. There's no point in bashing a striker if we're not creating chances. We’ve had strikers here I've seen get a bit of stick, and you think, ‘He's not had a chance in the game. We're not creating the chances for him.’

“So we've got to create and that's the target of every coach and manager, to set up a team to win a game. Sometimes you also need a striker that can hold it up and link, that gets the wingers more chances and gets other people up the pitch and fills the box.”

Smit might be a case in point. The 23-year-old joined on loan from Go Ahead Eagles in the winter and has since made the switch permanent. He scored twice in six starts and seven cameos as he found his feet in a new country. There were a couple of afternoons which passed him by a little too much but also a couple of moments when he was in the right position for a tap-in if only a teammate had played a pass.

Mark Robins described him as a project and Smit comes across as being prepared to do the work necessary to give himself the best chance. At the moment he knows he needs to pile on the pounds, through the right food and a lot of gym work.

He told the Dutch press: “If you look at the giants of guys standing at the back, and also if you look at how many attackers and midfielders are on the pitch every game, then that is quite a big difference compared to the Dutch matches.

“I have a dietitian here in the Netherlands. He helps me with that. I am in contact with him every day about how tough the training was and exactly what we did. Based on that, he creates a meal plan for me for the day, and besides that, I naturally have to lift a lot of weights.”

Bozenik, aged 26, has talked about the same kind of thing as he adjusts to England after life in Portugal while the same must be true of Cisse, aged 23, who came from France.

Gallagher, now aged 30, is a Championship veteran at the other end of the spectrum – but a major project for new head of performance and medical Damian Roden if he is going to have a future at Stoke. He has managed just 13 starts in two years since joining from Blackburn Rovers.

There is believed to be loan interest in Tezgel, aged 20, and clubs who will try to get Lowe, also 20, away on a permanent deal.

So the numbers aren’t particularly short, even if there two or three exits, but Stoke – as always and like all their rivals this season – are trying to find that gold dust, the hero like Thorne, Mike Sheron or Mark Stein for a new generation who might think it isn’t possible.

Stoke City's 20-goal-a-season strikers (in all competitions) since Second World War

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