YOU know your club’s going places when half a dozen teams who are in a similar league position cannot beat you to the signing of a player.

The likes of Fulham and Blackburn were known to be interested in James Beattie. But he’s swapped Sheffield United for another team that plays in red and white. The Potters.

A little thought at the back of my mind whispers that he might not be the player he was, but let’s be honest – a fully fit Beattie in the form of his life would be attracting the likes of Aston Villa and Stoke would not have a prayer of getting him.

But when you see what he has to offer, in clips like this, who cares Or indeed this!

So now the City squad has genuine width on the left side, with Etherington or Tonge the choices.

It has a choice of two from Sidibe, Fuller, Kitson and Beattie to form the strike partnership.

So who else will the manager being trying to snap up before the end of the January transfer window.

If you believe the internet stories, he’s after another left back to give Danny Higginbotham some competition. Danny’s done very little wrong, but he’s not an attacking left back.

Then again our experience with Carl Hoefkens suggests that attacking full backs things that excite Tony Pulis – Hoefkens was our player of the year but Griffin was brought in to replace him.

The one area that we have not really strengthened is the centre of midfield, where we have an abundance of players of the same kind.

Salif Diao, Amdy Faye and Seyi Olofinjana all pretty much play the ‘Claude Makele’ role, breaking up opposition attacks and starting off our own.

Glenn Whelan is the nearest we have to a more creative attacking central midfielder and it appears Pulis does not regard Tom Soares as a solution to that problem.

He played there for Crystal Palace and orchestrated a defeat of TP’s promotion chasers at the Brit last season, but apparently he’s destined to play out wide or nowhere for Stoke.

In which case who can we get to provide a little more than crunching tackles and endless running for the team?

To be quite honest, those sort of players are pretty rare and I can’t call one to mind.

But isn’t that exactly what Stoke City need right now.