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There was a headline in France this week along the lines of: Giannelli Imbula is making Marcelo Bielsa look ridiculous.

It doesn’t quite ring true and the reason why is a contender for one of the most frustrating chapters in the history of Stoke City.

“In 2015, Marcelo Bielsa, then coach of Marseille, explained that Imbula had everything to become one of the best midfielders in the world,” report But.

“Since then Imbula has gone through Porto and been transferred for €24m to Stoke City, who loaned him to Toulouse two years ago and Rayo Vallecano last summer and will now lend him to… Lecce! With a purchase option set at €4m. Far, so far from the prediction of Bielsa.”

Ok, that’s all true.

But the niggling thing is that Bielsa had a point.

Imbula could have been a superstar, instead he has been outcast to train with the under-23s at a club which is currently bottom of England’s second division.

What has happened?

Let’s go back to the spring of 2014 and the start of what turned out to be Bielsa’s only season at Marseille. It would be a rollercoaster.

Imbula had only joined the previous year having impressed against them in the cup for Guingamp but he had already been almost written off, tagged with the embarrassing nickname Imboulard. ‘Boulard’ means to have a big head.

He had been bombed out of France under-21s after reportedly insulting a physio and coach and he had been shunted into the shadows at club level by short-lived manager Jose Anigo.

Yet Bielsa saw potential – and, perhaps crucially, that he did not fit a mould.

He put the 22-year-old at the heart of a surreal 3-3-3-1 formation, in a unique role sitting in front of the defenders with a licence to roam.

They had finished 29 points behind Paris-St Germain in 2014 but eight wins in a row in the autumn on a wave of incredible, attacking football gave fans hope that they might mount a remarkable challenge for the title.

Benjamin Mendy, Florian Thauvin, Dimitri Payet and Michy Batshuayi also came to the fore, even if a small squad and injuries eventually contributed to the team slipping off the pace and finishing in fourth.

Suitors for Imbula reportedly included Arsene Wenger, then at Arsenal; Jose Mourinho, back at Chelsea; and Carlo Ancelotti, at Real Madrid. There was talk of interest from Tottenham, Valencia and Inter.

Bielsa said: “Let's look at what will happen in the future. This year it's Imbula and Mendy, next year it will be (Mario) Lemina and Thauvin, or Michy and (Brice) Dja Djédjé. All will end up having the same €30m value as Mendy and Imbula – and obviously nobody would pay €30m for players who would not be good enough.”

But it wasn’t entirely smooth.

Imbula was reportedly kicked off a flight in March for refusing to get off his phone at take-off, his form tailed off and Chelsea scout Guy Hillion apparently ruled out a move citing 'a peculiar personality'.

There were claims in France that behind the scenes, Bielsa – who had identified Caen’s Ngolo Kante as a potential replacement – told his bosses to cash in.

Liberation reporter Grégory Schneider said: “Bielsa told Labrune (Marseille president), ‘Imbula, you have to sell him right now. He will never be better than he was. He will not go further.’”

There was still plenty of speculation and a departure became inevitable but in the end, it was to Porto, for €20m.

There were moments when he showed his potential, including 41 thunderous minutes in a 3-0 pre-season friendly win over Stoke in Cologne and a 2-0 defeat at Chelsea in the Champions League.

Yet he had only played 15 times by the turn of the year when Porto were prepared to let him go – for a £4m profit.

"He was faced with the explosion of Ruben Neves and André André who are internationals," explained team-mate Aly Cissokho, the former Aston Villa and Liverpool player.

"The situation got tricky and there was not much dialogue with (manager) Julen Lopetegui. Porto also attaches much importance to what is said in the media and the words of his agent (and father Willy Ndangi) did not help matters."

Stoke took advantage of his falling stock - but higher price tag - and broke their transfer record – set at £12m the previous summer to sign Xherdan Shaqiri – to get a deal over the line on deadline day, February 1, 2016.

They had just reached the League Cup semi-final, winning on the night at Liverpool but losing the two-legged tie on a penalty shoot-out, and Hughes had been prepared to send loanee Marco van Ginkel back to Chelsea if he could bring in a permanent talisman.

(Image: Malcolm Hart)

The manager had wanted Axel Witsel, then at Zenit St Petersburg, but was happy to make Imbula the most expensive signing anywhere in Europe during that window.

He said: “We've had a decent day with a significant result.

"It's a five-and-a-half year contract and that shows our commitment to Giannelli and the player we think he is. There's a lot more to come from him as well so we want to benefit from that.

"We're really looking forward to working with him. He's a player of great talent and we've just got to get the best out of him."

The debut that followed was certainly eye-catching. In awful weather against Everton, Imbula ran over to the touchline to rip off his vest in the opening minutes and showed glimpses of his best attributes even in a 3-0 defeat.

Then he scored a belter in a 3-1 win at Bournemouth and Shaqiri said: “I think you can compare him to Patrick Vieira."

Ibrahim Afellay added: “He's an incredible player. I'm very happy to play with this kind of player – he's the kind of player who makes your team.

“In football language you speak with your feet and your legs and he's already showing us he's a fantastic talent.

“It's a privilege to have players like that in your team because they make the difference.”

(Image: Paul Gilham)

Imbula would play every game for the rest of the season and although he couldn’t maintain that level of impact, he was swashbuckling at Chelsea and instrumental in a final day win over West Ham.

We wrote at that time: “Is he a defensive midfielder, a box-to-boxer or something out of left field? Four months on from his arrival and we're not really all that much the wiser.

“At his best, he is like a bigger boy toying with everyone else in the playground, breaking through the lines, albeit in a very different way than Steven Nzonzi ever did. He has a crackerjack low shot on him too, as seen again (against West Ham).

“But Ryan Shawcross had to give him a blasting in the first half when he was caught day-dreaming up field. Next season will be the real test of whether he can sustain a serious impact over 90 minutes every week.”

Everyone knows what happened next.

Imbula started to fall drastically out of favour in pre-season. Teammates have bemoaned his attitude, with Glen Johnson still sounding startled when he recalled Imbula apparently storming in and out of a friendly match.

Stoke had a bad start – one point from four games including 4-1 and 4-0 defeats to Man City and Spurs. He was dumped to the bench for a 4-1 loss at Crystal Palace and there he stayed.

That autumn he spoke to the Sentinel, saying: “I don't like being a spectator but if I play bad I get so angry with myself. To sit on the bench is very difficult but worse is playing bad and I think I played bad at the start of the season. I know I played very badly.

“I have to work hard to get back in the team but I do not want to change my style. I think I have a unique style. It's not that, it's the application that I have to change.”

He had received criticism for quitting English lessons after two classes but said: “The language is difficult for me and when I came I couldn't speak any English at all. I have worked hard to learn but I only had two actual lessons and I didn't like it. I prefer to learn on my own. I talk with you or anyone and watch television series or movies.”

(Image: Jordan Mansfield/Getty Images)

And that weekend he was thrown back in, away at Watford, because Joe Allen was serving a one-match ban.

He was man of the match in front of the TV cameras and Jon Walters, captain for the day, said: "Giannelli is a brilliant player. He's new to the country and he came without much English – us boys that live over here probably take that for granted.

"But I think he's up there with one of the best I've played with; he's very, very good. He just needs a bit of direction really and today I thought he was excellent.

"He was getting on the ball and moving it around quickly. His feet are excellent, one-on-one if you go up against him he'll get past you. You should see him in training, what he does. I think he's excellent and he's got a big future ahead of him here. He's only a young guy so fair play, he's been sitting out for a while and he's come in and straight away been excellent."

Imbula kept Allen on the bench for the next game, a home win over Burnley when Marc Muniesa scored a super goal, but he was dropped after the 3-1 away loss that followed at Arsenal.

In the three years that have followed he has only started two of the subsequent 113 league games for the club. Stoke have only won back-to-back league games twice in that time.

(Image: Phil Radcliffe)

Hughes told the Sentinel in the summer of 2017: "Giannelli is a good player. There are elements of his game where he needs to be stronger in and he understands that – and he's working to try to address that. That's what he has to do. He lost his way somewhat during the season and I couldn't really justify to myself or the other guys in the team to play him, given what he was able to produce.

"He understands he has to be better this year."

Stoke rejected loan offers.

Hughes said: "We've invested a lot of money in G. If a club comes and a bid is on the table that we think makes sense to us then we would consider it but at the moment no one has come up with anything that is attractive to us.

"It's more loans, which really we're not interested in to be perfectly honest."

But then, well, Imbula did go and spend 2017/18 on loan at Toulose, winning a relegation play-off as Stoke went down and Hughes was sacked, then last year he went to Rayo Vallecano, who were relegated from La Liga.

He has not been anywhere near the agenda under Paul Lambert, Gary Rowett or Nathan Jones and now it is looking like he is joining a relegation battle at Lecce, just promoted to Serie A. Three is a reported €4m purchase clause if he keeps them up or plays 45 minutes on 25 occasions.

He is still only 26 and has two years left on his Stoke contract.

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