I OFTEN think transfer deadline day is a bit like going to a car boot sale, writes Robbie Earle.

Everyone is scrambling around and no-one is quite sure of the value of their goods until they get them home.

But I reckon Stoke and their fans will be pretty satisfied with what the final day of summer transfer dealing has brought them.

People will remember Eidur Gudjohnsen playing in Europe and go on about that, but I can remember playing against an extremely impressive young Icelander earlier in his career at Bolton.

So when you see someone who's played for that kind of club, you know it's someone who's prepared to get his hands dirty.

He will feel he has a big point to prove because he'll know there will be plenty looking on wondering whether he's going to just use Stoke as a retirement home at this stage of his career.

So hopefully, for Stoke's sake, that will sort out his motivation while his ability takes care of itself.

He's an intelligent player who can play in a number of positions, giving Stoke that bit of subtlety after being labelled for so long as a battering-ram team preferring to go the direct route to goal.

He's a bit in the Teddy Sheringham mould, in so far as he's not so much an athlete because the first yard is in his head.

He's a player who can keep the ball and bring others into play – and that doesn't half give confidence to the players around you.

His signing shows that Tony Pulis is trying to evolve his team – and quite rightly so – because any team which stays static gets found out in the Premier League and that's when you're in trouble.

If you'd said three years ago that Eidur Gudjohnsen would be a Stoke player, the men in white coats would have come looking for you.

And that's a measure of the progress being made at the Britannia.

Jermaine Pennant, pictured below, had been mentioned with regard to Stoke once or twice in the past, so I suppose we shouldn't be that surprised to see him popping up on a four-month loan.

Again, I see a player who should be motivated because he'll want to prove that he still has what it takes in the Premier League.

He had a good spell at Birmingham but we only saw a few glimpses of his best at Liverpool. He would say that was because he never got enough match time – Liverpool would say it was because he wasn't consistent enough.

Playing week in, week out at Stoke will give him the confidence he needs to reproduce his best again.

Going to Spain might have seemed like a strange move in his career, but sometimes a move of country and being away from family and friends can make you do a lot of growing up.

There's certainly been a lot of water under the bridge since we first saw him as a raw teenager at Arsenal and now he is coming towards what should be his peak years.

He's in the shop window and knows that if he doesn't show at the Britannia, then Premier League clubs won't be queuing up to take a gamble on him.

And for Stoke, they really have nothing to lose by taking him for just the four months initially.

I saw Marc Wilson a couple of times during Portsmouth's FA Cup run last season and he's a Pulis player in many ways because he's coming with potential from the lower leagues.

I don't suppose he will be a regular to begin with – though you never know – but he's one who can grow with the club and around whom you can build a team over the next five or six years if he fulfils his promise.

Salif Diao's return seemed to catch everyone out, as that one seemed done and dusted when he packed his bags at the end of last season.

I'm not sure how much we will see of him on the pitch but clearly Tony has big ideas for him off the field, by giving him this role of ambassador.

You need good people in and around a football club creating the right spirit and that's obviously what Salif brings.

He's someone who can help pull people together, someone the manager can lean on and be a kind of go-between, linking the management team with the dressing room.

Stoke are not a fully established Premier League club and are still a bit rough round the edges, so you still need the building blocks to get there – and that's what Salif Diao represents.