Stoke City legend Mike Pejic explains what he wants to see next from Bae Junho and Million Manhoef as he also pays tribute to Willie Stevenson and Bill Asprey

I can understand if there is transfer talk about Bae Junho this summer because, if I was a scout, I would recommend him to my manager. As our player, I wouldn’t want to let him go – we’ve just got to work his brain a little bit more.

Junho is a naturally gifted worker and he’s a player who will give you passion and effort. That’s the kind of character you want in your team.

But sometimes enthusiasm gets the better of him. That’s not always a bad thing but positional sense is really important. You have to be in the right place at the right time, whether your team is attacking or defending, and that’s what he needs to work on with his coaches.

As a coach, I’d like to work with him. He’s a worker with good technical and athletic ability, and it’s up to the coaches to get the best out of him, to teach him where he needs to be in different scenarios and to nurture his game understanding.

We saw it a couple of times in the spring where he was able to dash into the penalty area to link up with play on the right, scoring one from doing that and forcing a good save another time. It’s not just in the box but in the mid-third and back third as well, making the right decisions if he gets the ball 25 yards from his own goal.

He’s still learning. He’s had less than a couple of years in England and he’s had four different managers, dozens of different teammates and a load of different voices. There’s still an absolute decision to be made about his best position, where he is going to feel most comfortable so we can get the best out of him.

That will depend on what system the team is playing, and it’s been no coincidence in the last season that he’s been at his best when he’s had Sam Gallagher as a foil. He will be at his most effective when the balance is right up there with him – and you could say the same for any forward. The mistake we see too often is looking at each player in isolation. There is always context.

Million Manhoef might get some column inches too over the next few weeks, particularly as he plays for the Netherlands side that could do well at the under-21s European Championships.

He’s got a busy summer but for extra homework I’d want him to watch video after video of Mo Salah because that’s a player he should identify with. Look at where and how Salah picks up the ball and how he can get into the pockets of space where he can receive and do damage.

Critics suggest that Salah always goes inside onto his left foot but that’s not true. He goes on the outside too and he can use his right foot. The secret is how he can manoeuvre defenders to then make that killer touch.

It’s not just what you do when you have the ball but what you do before you get it that’s important, creating space for yourself or others to exploit.

You can say that Manhoef is a wide player but his potential is sometimes coming infield on a diagonal to receive the ball in pockets of space – or sitting in there for a while and making defenders panic about whether they should go or sit. Sometimes you can spin in to receive the ball behind a defender, which we haven’t seen him do enough because he wants it to his feet.

Those decisions will have a knock-on effect for the players next to him as well. A better Manhoef will make life easier for Gallagher or Nathan Lowe or maybe the 30-goal striker that Mark Robins might bring in this summer. The point is that there’s a bigger chance of a striker getting more goals if Junho and Manhoef, if they’re still around, can improve their positional sense.

I can think back to how I learned about the importance of all that when I was a young player. We didn’t have specific coaches in those days – no one explaining that if you did X, then Y, then Z, the opposition would do this and it would be checkmate.

Instead, you picked things up from those around you – and I had a great upbringing thanks to players like George Eastham, Peter Dobing and Willie Stevenson.

Willie had won the league and FA Cup with Liverpool when he joined Stoke and he must have wondered who on earth this upstart defender was who would always try to argue with him. He wasn’t a winger who particularly tracked back, I could say.

But, as I grew, I realised the importance of a balanced team and what he could do that others couldn’t. He was excellent at receiving the ball and he was a good passer. His movement off the ball in a forward sense made him a terrific asset – perhaps Bill Shankly knew what he was doing when he signed him from Rangers!

Bill Asprey was different, a quite formidable full-back although he was a decent footballer too. There were hardly any rules when he was in the Stoke defence and I was in the stands as a fan. I watched him with eyes wide open, hoping to take in as much as I could.

Football in those days was full of strong characters and it nurtured strong characters. As a kid you would be thrown into a practice match with people like Maurice Setters, Calvin Palmer and Roy Vernon. Flipping heck, that was a fast learning curve

Willie had won the league and FA Cup with Liverpool when he joined Stoke and he must have wondered who on earth this upstart defender was who would always try to argue with him. He wasn’t a winger who particularly tracked back, I could say.

But, as I grew, I realised the importance of a balanced team and what he could do that others couldn’t. He was excellent at receiving the ball and he was a good passer. His movement off the ball in a forward sense made him a terrific asset – perhaps Bill Shankly knew what he was doing when he signed him from Rangers!

Bill Asprey was different, a quite formidable full-back although he was a decent footballer too. There were hardly any rules when he was in the Stoke defence and I was in the stands as a fan. I watched him with eyes wide open, hoping to take in as much as I could.

Football in those days was full of strong characters and it nurtured strong characters. As a kid you would be thrown into a practice match with people like Maurice Setters, Calvin Palmer and Roy Vernon. Flipping heck, that was a fast learning curve