In June 1949 Stoke legend Freddie Steele left the club after spending 17 years with the club scoring 159 goals. And Stoke failed to find a suitable replacement and struggled throughout the season and ended up in a relegation battle. There was no end of season improvement in results and Stoke only stayed up due to the poor form of the relegated bottom two Birmingham City and Manchester City.

With the great Freddie Steele now moved on to Mansfield Town, the simmering unrest continued with Neil Franklin eager to move his family away from the Stoke-on-Trent area for health reasons. The local air at this time was far from clean due to the pottery industry at its peak and with kilns belching out smoke and fumes. With Steele gone manager Bob McGrory searched for a replacement and went out and spent £3,000 on Verdi Godwin from Manchester City, hoping that he would help the club find their goalscoring touch.

Franklin re-signed for the club in time for the 1949–50 season and his presence bolstered the defence whilst the forward line was struggling. By the end of October Stoke had just two wins to their name and were in deep relegation trouble so McGrory smashed the clubs transfer record by paying £9,000 to Celtic for Leslie Johnston. However whilst Johnston was a fine footballer in Scotland he was not really up to the standard in English football and although he scored 22 goals in 92 games he was not the right player for the number 9 shirt. On 15 October Frank Baker broke his leg for the fifth time in two years and he decided to retire.

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Wikipedia