It took Stoke City just short of three years and less than 30 words to cut out £18.3 million of record buy in releasing Gianelli Imbula from his contract at The Potteries with confirmation coming via the club’s official website.
Imbula arrived in a blaze of glory as Stoke’s record signing in early February 2016 with his deadline day deal being ratified as making it through on time – the Democratic Republic of Congo defender midfield lock becoming a Premier League player with City.
In total, Imbula made just 28 appearances for Stoke, scoring just two goals. His last actual appearance for The Potters came way back in early March 2017 where he played five minutes of the 0-0 draw with Manchester City.
Since then, after falling out of favour at the bet365 Stadium due to ill-discipline, his time in football has been out on loan at Toulouse, Rayo Vallecano and, lastly, at Lecce. In total that’s 60 games played whilst out on loan compared to the 28 in total for Stoke themselves.
His last loan club, Lecce, released a statement yesterday confirming that they’d reached a “consensual resolution” with Imbula that saw his loan at the Serie A club cut short after just three appearances totalling 129 minutes.
For their part, Stoke City’s statement (below) was both brief in scope and clipped in tone:
“Stoke City can confirm that Giannelli Imbula’s contract with the Club has been cancelled by mutual consent, subject to regulatory approval.
We wish Giannelli well in his future career.”
For Stoke, it represents accepting a loss on their outlay of £18.3million but that might be deemed as necessary bearing in mind any wage contributions that they could be paying him with his future, not at the club.
