Peter Etebo’s surreal Stoke City career

from start to three-year end game via love and frustration

Gary Rowett politely distanced himself a little from the signing of Peter Etebo back in the summer of 2018, Gary Smith chronicles the mid-fielder’s career in England for the Stoke Sentinel.

Etebo’s prospective exit from Stoke City to Aris in Greece four years on is a chance to reflect on a quite surreal but unfortunately not all that unique transfer chapter in the club’s recent history. It is almost three years since he last played for Stoke.

Back then Rowett was busy reshaping a squad fresh from relegation to the Championship and Etebo was technically the first signing under his watch. Not all that many Stoke supporters could claim – although some tried – to be aware of the Nigeria mid-fielder’s form in 14 games for Las Palmas in the previous season or with Feirense in Portugal before that.

Even Rowett did not suggest he knew all that much about him before he was presented as a potential £6.3m signing by technical director Mark Cartwright. Everyone would get a chance to see him in action at the World Cup in Russia, catching the eye against teams including Croatia and Lionel Messi’s Argentina.

“I have to give credit to Mark and his team,” said the manager. “He was one highlighted to me very early and the more I watched him, the more I really liked him.

Even Rowett did not suggest he knew all that much about him before he was presented as a potential £6.3m signing by technical director Mark Cartwright. Everyone would get a chance to see him in action at the World Cup in Russia, catching the eye against teams including Croatia and Lionel Messi’s Argentina.

“I have to give credit to Mark and his team,” said the manager. “He was one highlighted to me very early and the more I watched him, the more I really liked him.

“You could see that energy, power and youth. I spoke to a lot of people in Spain when he was at Las Palmas and they said he was very good for them and an outstanding player in that division.

“I think we’ve got a really good talent. But at the same time a World Cup is very different to a Championship season. There is still going to be that element of acclimatizing to a different culture, different league, different style of players – but he looks a very good player.”

Etebo might have actually joined Watford in the Premier League rather than Stoke in the Championship although when asked why he had made that decision he quickly moved the Sentinel on to the next question.

Then 22, he missed the first two-and-a-half weeks of pre-season due to his international commitments, flying in to meet up with Rowett and his new teammates on July 16 to make his debut as a sub in the third friendly, a 2-0 defeat to Bochum in Germany.

He was eased in, starting on the opening day against Leeds but then used from the bench until the first win of the season, against Hull on August 25 – and then starting nine of the next 14 up to a 2-1 home win over Frank Lampard’s Derby when he was sent off for a high tackle on Richard Keogh.

That was late November and he wouldn’t play again until the death knell of Rowett’s time in the saddle, coming on for the closing stages of a numbing 0-0 draw at Bolton in late December and starting a dreadful 2-0 home defeat to Bristol City on New Year’s Day.

Nathan Jones turned to him more regularly and Etebo replied with a couple of goals in the second half of the season, playing well enough to be named player of the year by the South West supporters’ club.

Jones was a fan, saying by the spring: “Peter has been absolutely outstanding since I came in – he’s been wonderful.

“His work-rate, his character, his technical ability and what he does is high level. When you first see him you don’t necessarily see what he’s got but then you see him in games and he’s a real game player. It’s clear that he’s not a training ground international, he’s a proper, proper player.

“I’ve been delighted with him and there’s far more to come because I think he can be even better when he gets into the final third, I think he can be even better with his passing and he’ll get fitter. He’s an exciting player for us.”

Etebo was popular. He was given a big send off by Stoke players when he went away that summer to help Nigeria reach the Africa Cup of Nations semi-finals, which meant he didn’t return for pre-season training until early August.

Still Jones had highlighted the player’s 94 per cent availability rate over the past three or four years and fans were gushing about his potential in the run up to the new season.

But then the manager did interviews saying he didn’t want to lose him and then there were then hints he wasn’t picking him nor Badou Ndiaye and Bruno Martins Indi while the transfer window was still open. Etebo didn’t start a league game until August 24, a home walloping by Leeds.

“All through August I couldn’t pick Badou, Peter, Bruno Martins Indi. Elsewhere, people are looking, ‘Can I get a move?’” Jones said, for example, after a dramatic win at Swansea in early October.

That was Stoke’s first win of the campaign, coming in the 11th game, and Jones would only last another three. Etebo played in two of them, limping out of a miserable defeat at Sheffield Wednesday with an injury.

Michael O’Neill was parachuted in, getting his head around a squad featuring 40 players with first team experience, and Etebo and Badou, who shared the same agent, quickly made it clear that they saw their futures elsewhere. Etebo’s injury meant he wasn’t in contention for much of the period up to January anyway and he joined Getafe on loan in the New Year.

It wasn’t a particularly convincing spell but he wouldn’t return to Stoke again until this summer. He spent 2020/21 on loan at Galatasaray, making 14 starts as they finished runners-up in Super Lig, and 2021/22 with Watford, with a purchase option included if he played a certain number of games.

It was looking promising up to the end of September when he suffered a nasty quad injury that would sideline him until March. Watford had given two managers the boot while he was in the treatment and Roy Hodgson was a walking sacking by the time he returned to be left out in the cold.

There were still 12 months left on his Stoke contract and he came back to Clayton Wood late in pre-season due to more international commitments. O’Neill had talked with him about spending the year actually at Stoke – and insisted he was no bother in terms of discipline – but the agent was keen to secure a permanent exit.

Etebo would have been brought back in post-deadline day if he hadn’t secured that move but different countries have different deadlines and Greece’s window remains open until September 15.

So he is being taken to Aris, who finished third in the Super League last season with an average crowd knocking on 9,000. It is the same club where Badou actually ended up when he ended a loan odyssey last summer.

There aren’t many agents who see the Greek league as a better bet than an ambitious club in the Championship but Stoke managed to find one and work with him twice. You can bet they won’t be in a hurry to do it again.