Stoke City chairman Peter Coates refuses to blame anyone for record signing Dave Kitson's failure to fire last season.

"I don't credit fault to anyone," he said of the Kitson deal. "Dave Kitson's experience with us wasn't what we would have all wished for, but that happens in football. It's not unique. Sometimes it works with a new player coming in, sometimes it doesn't. It's the nature of the game we're in."

Kitson is now set to rejoin Stoke in the summer after his proposed move back to Reading collapsed once they failed to win promotion.