by Martin Spinks
martin.spinks@thesentinel.co.uk

LIAM Lawrence, fresh from penning his own new four-contract, is now hoping his old mucker Dean Whitehead will soon be doing likewise.

The 27-year-old Sunderland midfielder remains high on Stoke’s summer shopping list after recent talks about joining no fewer than four former Black Cats currently residing at the Britannia Stadium.

Whitehead came close to rejoining old Sunderland boss Roy Keane at Ipswich, but was dissuaded with a bit of help from a certain Stoke winger.

Lawrence, a lapsed member of the Roy Keane fan club, confesses: “I said a few things which I had better not go into. I just said you want to be in the best league and this is a club going forward here at Stoke.

“I spoke to him the other day and I speak to him quite regularly. Obviously the gaffer fancies him and he asked me about him ... I gave it my full backing.

“Maybe it’s time he moved on from Sunderland for a new challenge. Yeah, it would be great if they thrash things out and he comes here.”

The pair arrived at Sunderland from lower-league football at a similar juncture five years ago, both savouring the joy of promotion to the top flight and the despair of relegation thereafter.

“He was one of the best midfielders I’d played with when he first went to Sunderland and now, with years of experience in the Premier League behind him, he will be ready for the challenge of Stoke.

“The players that have come here from Sunderland needed to move on and, to be fair, the manager gets the best out of us.”

Lawrence is anticipating no more than a 45-minute work out this evening when Stoke embark on their third pre-season friendly against German outfit St Pauli following those simultaneous defeats at Newcastle Town and Nantwich Town last Sunday.

He doesn’t want to offer excuses for those losses, but argues: “For three days running before those games we ran our socks off and it showed in our performances. I know we were very poor at Nantwich, but it’s no excuse.

“I think there will be two teams near enough tonight because we have got that many players here that we can do that.”

But he’d much rather be flogging his guts in a game than out on the training pitch in a manner seen yesterday when, during their first session on tour here in Austria, the first-team squad sweated their way through searing midday temperatures on shuttle runs and small-sided games.

“I’m a footballer,” he protests with a grin, “and I like to play football. All this running does my head in.

“That was a tough session and quite long, but the lads look really fit and have come back strong.

“They’re just struggling with stiffness and muscle aching, while I’m suffering with the blisters.”

But at least Lawrence and his shattered colleagues can recover in the Alpine air of deepest Austria after the club headed to this part of the world for a seventh time in the last nine years.

“The first three days back at the club last week were tough with bleep tests and shuttle runs, so it was nice to get out in the hills.

“Mind you, it’s tough sometimes getting your breath back. You can tell the difference when you’re running and panting for breath because of the thin air.”

Stoke are staying in an old castle in the mountainside overlooking the picturesque town of Irdning, their temporary base in 2004 and Real Madrid’s stopover for the past four years.

“The hotel is a bit better than last year,” says Lawrence. “We’re going up in the world. If it’s good enough for Real Madrid, then it’s good enough for us.”

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