Stoke City will surely want to avoid repeat of £18.3m transfer - He was earning £50k-a-week at one point | OneFootball

Stoke splashed out a club record fee on this midfielder, but he never came close to repaying the fee.

Stoke City will surely want to avoid a repeat of the deal that saw them splash £18.3million on Giannelli Imbula in their future transfer dealings.

The midfielder moved to the Potteries from Porto for a club-record fee but never properly found his feet and ended up being a hugely underwhelming addition.

He made just 28 appearances in all competitions, but at one point was commanding a weekly wage understood to be around £50,000.

Imbula’s spell at the bet365 Stadium was indicative of a disappointing period that saw the club make several poor decisions and ultimately pay the price by losing their Premier League status.

Imbula was a huge disappointment at Stoke

Despite the way that Imbula’s career at Stoke ended, it actually started in a fairly positive fashion.

The then-23-year-old arrived at the club during the 2015/16 winter transfer window. Described by Potters boss Mark Hughes as a “big signing” for the club, he was the most expensive purchase of any Premier League club that window, a far cry from the eye-watering sums that have become the norm now.

Expectations were high for a man who had moved to Porto for €20m just six months prior. Porto were only willing to offload him so quickly into his time with them as Imbula struggled to settle in the country.

He agreed terms on a hefty five-and-a-half year contract with the Potters, which made him one of the club’s highest earners. According to Capology estimates, his weekly wage rose as high as £50,000 during the 2016/17 campaign.

The former French under-21 international initially showed positive signs in English football, helping Stoke to a ninth-placed top-flight finish in 2015/16, with two goals from 14 league games.

However, his form was poor at the start of the following season, prompting Hughes to exile him from the squad on multiple occasions throughout the campaign. He was then sent out on loan to Ligue 1 side Toulouse for the 2017/18 season, while spells with Rayo Vallecano and Lecce came in the subsequent years.

During that time, the Potters were relegated to the Championship at the end of the 2017/18 season, putting an end to a 10-year stay in the Premier League in which they had never previously finished lower than 14th.

Incredibly, Imbula only actually departed the club as recently as February 2020. Now 32, the midfielder is a free agent having had brief spells with Russian outfit PFC Sochi, Portimonense, and Turkish clubs Tuzlaspor and Istanbulspor.

With the way his Potters career played out, it’s fair to say that their club-record signing became one of their most high-profile blunders.

Imbula’s Stoke career summed up a poor few years at the club

After gradually establishing themselves as a Premier League club, Imbula’s spell at Stoke came during a period of time when the club made countless poor decisions that they eventually paid the ultimate price for.

2017-18 was the first time they had been relegated from the top flight since 1985, and was made all the more frustrating by the fact they had finished ninth in three of the prior four seasons.

Speaking in a 2022 interview with the Stoke Sentinel, former Potters defender Glen Johnson delivered a damning assessment of both the decisions made by the club in those few seasons, and the attitude displayed by players such as Imbula.

The former Liverpool and Portsmouth man said: “Stoke took it away from the genuine lads to try and sign superstars and got it horribly wrong. You had players who didn’t want to be at training, walking off the pitch, kicking balls about. I’ve seen stuff that I hadn’t seen before in my life.

“Giannelli Imbula subbed himself because someone didn’t pass him the ball. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It was in a pre-season game and in training, I swear to you. Record signing.”

Imbula’s spell was indicative of a period where everything seemingly began to unravel at Stoke, and it’s fair to argue they have never really recovered from it as a club.

They are now into their seventh season since they were relegated from the Premier League and are yet to finish higher than 14th in the second tier. They are even at threat of becoming a League One side next term.

While their decline as a club can certainly not solely be blamed on Imbula, his signing summed up a period where very little went right.