Stoke City chairman Peter Coates hopes to do their transfer business early into the window.

Coates maintains that it will not necessarily be a similar scenario this time around, with manager Tony Pulis looking to bring in reinforcements.

"Football is uncertain and deals can be uncertain, so you just don't know when things will happen," he said in The Sentinel.

"Just because the deals happened later last year, doesn't mean it will be the same this time.

"It is not a plan to leave it late into the transfer window. We will just see what develops."