Allen eager to be the main man at Stoke

Stoke City have undergone an image change under Mark Hughes and Wales midfielder Joe Allen has fully bought into the Potters project after being cast aside by Liverpool.

Allen – who is either the Welsh Xavi or the Welsh Pirlo depending on which part of his homeland you’re in – returned from Euro 2016 to find himself not so revered on Merseyside.

The 26-year-old had initially hoped that his creative streak in midfield would find favour with Jurgen Klopp, but the German instead decided to ship him to Stoke for £13.5m last month.

Traditionally, grit rather than grace has been a hallmark of Stoke teams though Hughes has started to peel away that stereotype by signing players such as Bojan, Xherdan Shaqiri and Ibrahim Afellay.

And Allen believes the Potteries will benefit from the best of him when he starts playing regularly once again.

“When a new manager comes in, you’re hoping you can impress and get in the team,” he said. “I thought that his style would suit me, but it wasn’t quite to be. In all fairness, the competition in midfield was tough all season so there’s not too many complaints on my part.

“I don’t want to be sat twiddling my thumbs on the bench, and I wanted to make sure if I could change it I would.

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“It wasn’t a difficult decision to move and I’m not looking back with any regrets.

“I’m excited about the future in my career. At 26, the best years are still in front of me and naturally I’m looking forward to them.

“I could see the quality of players they already had and the types they were also identifying to try and bring in, and I was really looking forward to getting here and linking up with those players. I think this is a team that’s capable of doing really good things.”