Stoke announce signing of £18m Kevin Wimmer from Tottenham on a five-year deal

STOKE have announced the signing of Kevin Wimmer from Tottenham after sealing an £18million deal.

The Austria international has signed a five-year contract at the Bet365 Stadium.

Mark Hughes' side have picked up four points from their opening three games and beat Arsenal 1-0 in their second game with new man Jese grabbing the winner.

Wimmer played ten games last year for Spurs, but the centre back was behind Jan Vertonghen, Toby Alderweireld and Ben Davies in defence, despite Mauricio Pochettino flipping between three and four at the back.

The 24-year-old said: "I had some really good conversations with the manager, Mark Hughes, and they were important for me.

"He is a very good manager and I like the way he approaches the game, his style of play suits the way I like to play too - he likes his defenders to be able to play out with the ball.

"I am just so happy to be at Stoke now because I really wanted to come here, to a club with such big tradition.

"So I feel really good and am very excited about meeting up with everybody and getting ready for the matches ahead."

It completes a promising summer for Stoke, with Darren Fletcher, Jese, Bruno Martins Indi and Kurt Zouma among the players arriving - with Wimmer by far the most expensive.

Potters boss Hughes said: "We are really pleased with what we have done this summer, especially in the defensive positions.

"Bringing Kevin here is a real coup in my view, because he is a hugely talented young player who will undoubtedly add further quality to the group.

"We have already brought Kurt (Zouma) into the club this summer and managed to get Bruno (Martins Indi) back on a permanent deal as well, which was important to us, and we have Ryan (Shawcross) here too.

"Obviously this deal was with a view to the future because we know that Kurt is a Chelsea player.

"But Kevin is our player now and we knew that this deal wouldn’t have been available to us this time next year.

"As soon as the possibility of bringing Kevin here presented itself to us we moved quickly on it, and have managed to get the deal done, so we are understandably delighted to have brought him in."

Hughes might want to lock Wimmer in a cupboard for the next week though - Austria face Hughes' home country Wales in a massive World Cup qualifier on Saturday in Cardiff.

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