Brek Shea: What Went Wrong for the USMNT Winger at Stoke City?

Brek Shea's Stoke City nightmare is reportedly coming to a close, with MLS side Orlando City set to sign the 24-year-old in time for the upcoming new season, but the midfielder's Premier League misery still remains somewhat unclarified.

Paul Tenorio, of the Orlando Sentinel, wrote that "Shea is coming back to MLS, and this time he’ll be wearing Orlando City purple."

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Tenorio continued: "Orlando City is finalizing a move to sign the U.S. winger from Stoke City, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the move."

Perhaps most importantly, Tenorio noted that the move "could reinvigorate the career of a top U.S. prospect."

Despite his immense potential prior to a £2.5 million move at the end of the 2013 January transfer window, per StokeCity.com, Shea's time with Stoke in the Premier League can only be regarded as a miserable failure.

But what went wrong for the USMNT star at Stoke?

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Freddy Adu

The obvious comparison to be made with any player to have failed to successfully migrate from MLS is the phenomenally hyped Freddy Adu.

In May of this year, Bleacher Report's Joe Tansey detailed the fall of Adu.

Tansey wrote: "The journey of Adu is one that started off well with D.C. United, but once he left the nation's capital, his career burst into flames and never recovered."

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Furthermore, in an exceptional overview of Adu's failures, Ben Dirs of BBC Sport quoted the once-wunderkind on his ill-fated move to Benfica as an 18-year-old.

Adu outlined: "When you're making a decision to play in Europe, you have to make the right decision, make sure it's the right team, the right coach. Going to Benfica was not a good decision for me."

In September, Shea gave an interview with Sports Illustrated, where he outlined a similar misguided eagerness to move to a European club.

Shea told writer Brian Straus: "When I was younger, the first European club that jumped at me, obviously I wanted to sign. We see the highlight shows and it looks like the greatest thing in the world."

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But this was a shaded reality, as Shea soon found out: "Now that I’ve been over here and seen it, I realize you’ve got to fight for the right opportunity, the right team, the right players—instead of just the first opportunity."

The attraction of the Premier League is understandable—as far as wages go, a move to English football would represent a significant pay rise for all but the highest profile MLS players.

But Shea's eagerness was surely misguided in choosing Stoke.

However, while Stoke was a surprising destination for the winger at the time, from then-manager Tony Pulis' perspective, it is understandable why he took the punt on Shea at the time, given his previous performances in MLS. 

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MLS Potential

Despite taking a slightly different route to Adu, and with a larger measure of patience, the journey of Shea to Stoke was preceded, too, by significant hyperbole; the winger was one of MLS' hottest prospects.

Spending five seasons in MLS with FC Dallas, Shea made his name as one of the league's most exciting midfielders.

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Shea's most prolific season came in 2011, which saw the winger make 31 appearances, including 30 MLS starts, and score 11 goals, with a further four assists.

According to MLSSoccer.com, in that season Shea was a "finalist for the Volkswagen MLS MVP award [and] was named to the MLS All-Star team and MLS Best XI."

Overall, Shea scored 19 goals and made 14 assists in 98 games for FC Dallas.

Before signing Shea, Pulis told StokeCity.com about his admiration for the midfielder: "Brek is a very, very exciting player, and one who we believe could go on to become a very good player for the football club."

Pulis continued, stating: "He has terrific pace, a very good left foot and he is capable of scoring goals."

It was this, paired with a surprising physical strength, which made Shea an exciting prospect when he finally moved to the Premier League, but it unfortunately didn't work out at Stoke.

But why?

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Stoke City

The adage "but can he do it on a wet, windy November night in Stoke?" is often jokingly attributed to the all-round footballing majesty of Lionel Messi, but perhaps it applies to Shea, too.

It is clear, as with Messi's home of La Liga, that MLS is a vastly different beast to the Premier League.

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Stoke City seemed a bemusing prospect for Shea when he signed, given the functional, long-ball style of play Pulis favoured, although the manager clearly saw a fit.

There was also a difficult climate adjustment, with Shea telling Straus: "It’s very different [in England], first with the weather being so grey all the time." Perhaps too much of a culture shock.

Elsewhere, a significant managerial change, which saw Mark Hughes take over at the Britannia, hampered Shea's Stoke prospects even further.

After struggling with injuries and form in his first season, making just two substitute appearances in six months, the introduction of Hughes, and a different style of football, in 2013 went further against Shea's hopes for an impact in the Premier League.

Shea continued, in his interview, to outline the differences between life in the Premier League and the MLS.

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He told Straus: "From what I’ve seen here, it’s just different. It’s a job. You go in and you go home and in MLS, you have a team barbecue once a week. You hang with people outside the facility. You don’t really do that here. Everyone has their family, their own friends."

Perhaps Brek Shea's MLS-tailored professionalism played a major factor in his failure to make an impact at Stoke City.

Or perhaps it was the more myriad, physical and situational issues—injuries, form and managerial changes.

Either way, a move to Orlando City represents the end of his European nightmare.

Statistics via WhoScored.com, unless specified.

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