This is Staffordshire -- JACK Butland has defended his decision to snub Chelsea for Stoke City by insisting his career will benefit in the short term.
Not since Alan Hudson memorably quit Chelsea for the bright lights of the Potteries nearly 40 years ago have the two clubs been caught up in such an eye-catching transfer.
Butland, who is pencilled in to play in goal for England under-21s in a friendly against Austria at Brighton tonight, says a move to Stoke offers him more chance of furthering his career by playing regularly in the Premier League.
Butland, who was loaned back to Birmingham after joining Stoke seven weeks ago, explained: "Chelsea is a fantastic club and attracted me, but Stoke is a fantastic club for different reasons.
"I feel I can better develop my game at Stoke than I can at Chelsea at the minute. It is as simple as that. Chelsea didn't do anything wrong, I just didn't think it suited me right now.
"It was a very important decision to make in terms of when and where. I feel if I really want to push Joe Hart and the other senior keepers for an England spot, I need to be playing Premier League football."
He also paid tribute to Stoke's goalkeeping coach Andy Quy after several training sessions at Clayton Wood, while his advisers at Potteries law firm Beswicks have also played their part in the 20 year-old's early development.
"Stoke have a very good set-up with a very good goalkeeping coach," said Butland.
"Every decision I've made has been helped out by a lot of other people and I feel that they've all been the right decisions. At the end of the day it's led me to where I am and I really can't complain."
England under-21s go into this evening's game unbeaten in their last eight fixtures after as astonishing run of eight successive clean sheets. Reported by This is 13 hours ago. ~Chelsea Headlines on One News Page [United Kingdom]~
Read more... http://www.chelseamashup.com/2013/03/26/jack-butland-why-i-chose-stoke-over-chelsea/
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