Stoke manager Mark Hughes determined to keep hold of Spanish star

The 25-year-old striker has again been in superb this season, proving himself to be one of the best coups of recent seasons, after Stoke City signed the forward from Barcelona for only £800k at the start of last season.

The Spaniard declared himself “very happy” in an interview with The Sentinel earlier this week and Hughes thinks that has contributed towards his fine form.

“It doesn’t surprise me, I don’t think it’s with any foundation”. “I want the two boys to be here for a significant length of time”.

Stoke host Crystal palace at the Britannia Stadium in the Premier League on Saturday trading as bet365’s 6/4 favourites to come away with three points.

“We could have scored any number of goals against Manchester City and West Ham (United)”.

Geoff Cameron is out with a hamstring problem but could be fit to face Manchester United on Boxing Day. “It’s important. They are key players in terms of what we’re trying to do here, so it would be good to get them signed up again”.

In fact, since Pardew took charge of his first Palace game on January 10, the South London side have won 10 Premier League away games – only Arsenal have collected more (12) in this period. “We have to be in the majority and not the minority when they look to break”.

Like Stoke, Palace have only tasted defeat once in their last six league games and, also like Stoke, Sunderland were the team to beat them. I needed to be part of that to understand what Steve Parish’s vision for the football club was.

“I am really enjoying every training session and every game and I want to keep improving”.

Now, it wouldn’t be a transfer window without Emmanuel Adebayor being linked to a Premier League club would it?

But Pardew does not expect to be splashing the cash on new players when the transfer window re-opens next month.

But the Potters boss warned them of the pitfalls in swapping a place in his first team for a seat on the bench elsewhere. “I am quite happy with the squad. We need to be vigilant tomorrow and make sure we don’t over commit”.