New start for Kitson?

Dave Kitson seems to have come back from the Potters' Austrian training camp full of the joys of pre-season and determined to put last season's disaster behind him.

He's told Radio Stoke that he's on such a high that he feels as though he's only just signed for the Potters and the goal he scored in the 3-1 defeat against St. Pauli will have given him the confidence, even if it was only a friendly.

Certainly, he's given the impression that he thinks that he didn't settle in with the other players last season, but that this pre-season has given him the chance to finally gel with his teammates: 'I'm looking sharper in training and mingling better. It was probably my fault I wasn't more approachable last season.'

Let's hope so. Despite some poor performances last season and no goals to show, it'll all be water under the bridge if he takes his chances this time around and finally gets some goals under his belt. All he then needs is for Tone to give him a second chance and certainly the manager is making the right noises: 'You just hope Dave puts it all together. I still think he's a very good player, he just had a bad time because he never scored goals'.

If not, then we're very unlikely to see much of a return on the record breaking £5.5m he cost us last summer when he joined from Reading.

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