Stoke City failed to strike gold with £900k record signing - Peter Coates called him a “disgrace” | OneFootball

Stoke City signed Sambegou Bangoura from Belgian side Standard Liege in August 2005 for a then club-record fee - it did not go to plan though

In August 2005, EFL Championship side Stoke City smashed their transfer record to sign Guinea forward Sambegou Bangoura from Belgian side Standard Liege, in a move which remains infamous in Stoke-on-Trent to this day.

The Potters had just finished their third consecutive season in the second tier of English football before heading into the summer transfer window in 2005, where Tony Pulis was relieved of his duties and replaced by Dutch boss Johan Boskamp.

Stoke's Icelandic ownership at the time cited the main reason for Pulis's sacking was largely down to the Welshman not utilising the European market well enough, and in came Boskamp, who sought not to make the same mistake Pulis did.

The Belgian Pro League was a particularly targeted area by the Potters, who brought in the likes of Carl Hoefkens, Gabriel N'Galula, Martin Kolar, and, most notably, Bangoura, who joined the club for a then club-record fee from Standard Liege worth £900,000.

Bangoura arrived with a decent goalscoring record in Belgium, and after two months of waiting to be granted a work permit, the forward would land in Staffordshire with a bang.

The African attacker's start to life in the Potteries began brightly, but if City fans were thinking that it was a sign of things to come, they would be sorely mistaken.

Sambegou Bangoura had a bright start to his Stoke City career - it would not last though

Having made his first-team debut for Stoke as a substitute away at Derby County, two months after the club had initially signed him, Bangoura launched himself into manager Boskamp's starting eleven.

He would score his first goal for the club in a 2-0 home win over local rivals Crewe Alexandra, endearing himself to the Potters faithful with one kick of the ball.

Nine games later, Bangoura added a further seven goals to his Stoke tally, including scoring in six consecutive games, as fans of the club began to wonder how they had even signed him in the first place.

As it so happened, their questions would shortly be answered.

Bangoura failed to score in the next four games that followed, before heading back to his home continent to represent Guinea in the African Cup of Nations - which is where the downfall began.

Following Guinea being knocked out of AFCON in 2006, Bangoura was due to return to Stoke, but that's not exactly what transpired.

The striker was technically available to join the Potters squad to face Preston North End on February 4, but there was still no sign of Bangoura. He'd miss the game after that against Cardiff, with manager Boskamp, understandably, furious at the forward.

He finally reappeared nine days after his country was knocked out of the tournament, with Boskamp saying: "He said sorry, but I'm still so angry as this is unacceptable.

"He says he has problems in this country with his family, but he should still have had the dignity to call the people he works for.

"For now, the best way he way can repay me and the players is to score goals. Everybody knows he is a key player for us."

Bangoura's controversial nature continued, as he turned up over a month late after Stoke's summer break ended in 2006, and a few weeks into the 2006-07 campaign, he once again went AWOL before a Championship clash with Barnsley.

At this point, Stoke were under new management and ownership, with Tony Pulis returning in the dugout and the Coates family in as owners, and neither took too kindly to the Guinean - he played just three times for the club under the Pulis regime, before being shipped out to Brussels on loan.

Come the summer of 2007, Stoke had sold Bangoura to Boavista for a loss at £270,000, and chairman Peter Coates reportedly branded him "a disgrace" for his actions.