Giannelli Imbula is ready to leave Stoke after just more than 12 months at the club following a club-record £18.3m move from Porto.
The 24-year-old has struggled to impose himself as the battling and dynamic midfielder Stoke believed they had signed when they broke the bank to land him at the start of last year.
Imbula has struggled to nail down a regular starting berth under Mark Hughes and currently finds himself below the likes of Charlie Adam and Glenn Whelan in the pecking order.
The former France U21 international was even included in the squad for Saturday’s 2-0 win over Middlesbrough and has now revealed he will be forced to consider his future if things do not improve over the rest of the season.
“I’ve already spoken to the manager about what is happening but it didn’t come to much,” The Sun quote Imbula as saying. “Things haven’t turned out quite how I wanted at Stoke and it’s certain that I’ll need to have more discussions with the club.
“I still have ambitions and objectives and we will have to see what happens at the end of the season. All I can do at the moment is keep working hard in training and wait for my chance. I’m in good shape physically but picking the team is the choice of the coach.”
Results would suggest Hughes has been right to drop Imbula from the team this season. With Imbula in the starting XI, Stoke have only won 22.2% of their league games and have lost as many of their league matches in his nine starts as they’d managed in the 18 games he has not started (5).
For more stats on Giannelli Imbula, click here to visit his WhoScored player page
