Club president has a go at Stoke for ‘suddenly’ changing transfer agreement

 

On transfer deadline day, we covered the rather surprising story that Giannelli Imbula was a target for Torino in Serie A.

The Italian side, who already have one Premier League loan player in Manchester City’s Joe Hart, were keen on bringing the Stoke City midfielder to the south of Europe on a paid loan with a view to buy deal.

However, as you might be aware due to the lack of stories covering the transfer, no agreement was reached, and Imbula will now have to convince Mark Hughes to use him regularly during the second half of the season if he wants to play football.

On Thursday, Torino’s president, Urbano Cairo, told Sky Italia, relayed by Goal, exactly why the deal never went through: “We’d been following Imbula for a time, but the conditions changed very quickly. The loan was meant to be €1.75m up front, with an option to buy at €10m. I said ‘done deal’.

“Yet, the amount of the option, which became compulsory, ended up being fixed at €15m.”

With such demands, Torino felt the deal didn’t make financial sense, especially, as Cairo put it, for a player ‘who doesn’t play at Stoke’.

Imbula, who arrived at the bet365 Stadium for £20m after a failed six months at Porto, has only made 12 appearances for Stoke this season.