Stoke City landed on their feet with £3.5m Blackburn Rovers transfer | OneFootball

Stoke City's signing of Steven Nzonzi from Blackburn Rovers proved to be a masterstroke

Stoke City continued to upset the apple cart in the late noughties and early twenty-tens, and by the time the 2012/13 season rolled around, the Potters were well and truly an established Premier League side and were looking to continue to progress.

In the summer of 2012, Stoke had just survived in the Premier League for the fourth time in a row, reached an FA Cup final the year prior, and had just played Valencia in the knockout stages of the Europa League.

It was a fever dream for most Potters supporters, with many not realising the extraordinary times their club was going through, and under Tony Pulis, there was a feeling that anything was possible.

With the likes of Peter Crouch, Jon Walters, Ryan Shawcross, Glenn Whelan, and Asmir Begovic in their ranks, Stoke were aiming to continue to cement their place in England's top flight, and in the summer of 2012, made the additions of the likes of Charlie Adam from Liverpool, Michael Kightly from Wolverhampton Wanderers, Geoff Cameron from Houston Dynamo, and Ballon d'Or winner Michael Owen on a free transfer.

These moves signified that Stoke were not here to merely make up the numbers, but to disrupt the establishment, with their move for a certain Blackburn Rovers midfielder that window being undoubtedly the best of the lot.

Stoke City signed Steven Nzonzi from Blackburn Rovers for just £3.5m

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Along with Adam, Kightly, Cameron, and Owen, Steven Nzonzi made the move to the Potteries in the 2012 summer window, joining the North Staffordshire outfit in a deal worth around an initial £3.5 million, potentially rising to £5 million.

Nzonzi was just 23 at the time, and had made his intentions to leave Blackburn clear following their relegation to the Championship, not featuring in a single league game for the club following their demotion, and completed a deadline day move to the Potteries under Pulis alongside Adam.

The French midfielder quickly became a crucial member of Stoke's side, making his debut in a 1-1 home draw to Manchester City, and from there, he would play ninety minutes in all but one of the rest of the Potters' league games that season, starting each one, much was his importance to the side.

He'd score his first goal for the club in the penultimate game of the season, a 2-1 home defeat to Tottenham Hotspur in which goals from Clint Dempsey and Emmanuel Adebayor clinched all three points for the away side, as Stoke went on to finish in 13th during his first year at the club.

Following that campaign, Pulis' time in the Potteries finally came to an end, as Mark Hughes was appointed as his replacement.

Under the former Manchester United and Chelsea forward, Nzonzi continued as a permanent fixture in the starting 11, predominantly alongside Adam in the middle of the park, with Hughes adding the likes of Erik Pieters, Marko Arnautovic, Stephen Ireland, and Oussama Assaidi to the mix in the 2013 summer window.

Nzonzi would go on to make a further 36 appearances for the Potters across the 2013/14 campaign, as Stoke went on to achieve their first ninth-placed finish in the Premier League under Hughes, with the Frenchman once again integral.

The 2014/15 season would be Nzonzi's last at the club, but he ensured it would be a memorable one for Potters supporters.

Each of Mame Biram Diouf, Bojan Krkic, Phil Bardsley, and Victor Moses were added to the mix, and once again under Hughes, Stoke would go on to finish 9th in the Premier League, with Nzonzi missing just 45 minutes of league football that campaign due to being substituted off at half-time in a 3-0 defeat at Arsenal.

Under Hughes, Stoke would achieve their second ninth-placed finish in a row, with Nzonzi once again integral to those efforts.

In what would be his final game for the club, at least in his first spell, the Frenchman would curl a wicked effort in the top right corner to put Stoke 5-0 up before half-time against Liverpool, in what was Steven Gerrard's last game for the Reds, which the Potters would go on to win 6-1.

Sevilla would come calling that summer, and Nzonzi jetted off to Spain in a deal worth around £7 million, as he would leave the Potteries as one of the best players to ever grace the red and white stripes.

Steven Nzonzi would have a wonderful career after leaving Stoke before returning to the Potteries

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In his first season with Sevilla, Nzonzi would play a big role in the club's Europa League triumph under Unai Emery, and would spend the next three seasons with the club before joining Roma in 2018, but not before lifting the World Cup with France, playing 35 minutes in the final in Les Bleus 4-2 victory over Croatia.

Spells with Galatasaray, Al-Rayyan, Konyaspor, Sepahan, and finally one last trip back down memory lane with Stoke followed, this time in the Championship, where he would make 30 league appearances, scoring once before departing the club once more.

It would be fair to suggest that, as far as careers go, Nzonzi's is one of a kind, and though lifting the World Cup and Europa League will be highlights of his career, it was with Stoke where he was most loved, with the love for the club and it's supporters well and truly reciprocated.