Stoke City had reportedly completed the one-year loan signing of Manchester City striker Wilfried Bony on Wednesday.
Daily Mail Online indicated that the Potters are set to pay the 27-year-old Ivory Coast international's £120,000 weekly wage as part of the £2 million deal with the Citizens.
Bony was acquired by City in January of 2015 from fellow English top flight club Swansea City for an initial fee of £25 million plus £3 million more in bonuses, which made the 6-foot Bingerville, Ivory Coast native the most expensive African football player at that time.
He never met the expectations at the Etihad, though, as he only scored ten times in a total of 46 games in all competitions during his two seasons with City. New head coach Pep Guardiola had expressed before his taking over this summer that Bony "has no place" in his team and so the loan deal was pursued just before the summer transfer window closed, as per Caught Offside.
"It's a new day and I look forward to a new exciting challenge," Bony recently tweeted.
"Thank You to all the MCFC fans for the support & hello to @stokecity fans I look forward to a great season together," he tweeted again upon confirmation of his signing was announced by the Potters.
Stoke City head coach Mark Hughes reportedly thinks Bony's signing was a "no-brainer" and that the Ivorian will provide much-needed goalscoring and experience to his side this season.
"He knows the Premier League and has scored plenty of goals at this level," said Hughes. "He has power, speed and very good physical attributes which will undoubtedly help us, and his technical and finishing skills are outstanding too."
"Eighteen months ago he was being bought for a hugely significant amount of money, so we know that we are bringing in a top quality striker," he said.
"Everybody is aware of Wilfried and what he is capable of, and it was no surprise that one of the bigger clubs came in for him on the back of his performances for Swansea - the only surprise has been that he didn't enjoy the success with Manchester City that we all thought he would," the coach added.
