Stoke City hit the jackpot with cheap Blackburn Rovers transfer | OneFootball

Steven Nzonzi established himself as the key man at Stoke City after his move from Blackburn Rovers in the summer of 2012.

In the summer of 2012, Stoke City produced a largely unheralded and under the radar signing with the arrival of Steven Nzonzi from Blackburn Rovers, but he would go on to become a key figure for the Potters, whilst also earning them a tidy profit.

Nzonzi had arrived in England at Ewood Park three years previously, when he joined Rovers after beginning his professional career with French outfit Amiens.

A 6 ft 5 in defensive midfielder, he thrived in Lancashire when under the management of Sam Allardyce, and quietly established himself as a Premier League stalwart as he made 86 top-flight appearances for the club before their relegation at the end of the 2011/12 season.

That relegation signalled the inevitable end of Nzonzi’s time at Blackburn, and it was to be Stoke City who would win the race to sign the Frenchman for a fee in the region of £3 million.

Having been promoted to the Premier League back in 2007 and established themselves as a part of the furniture in England’s top level, whilst also embarking upon a UEFA Europa League run the previous season having been FA Cup runners’ up in 2011, Nzonzi was tasked with being a fulcrum of a side that would now try to challenge and kick on.

Nzonzi was an instant success at Stoke

That physique and playing style that made him such a brilliant asset for Allardyce was then immediately replicated with Tony Pulis at Stoke, who had built a hard-working and always aggressive Potters side that had become the headache for the bigger teams in the division.

Within a month or so of his move to the then Britannia Stadium, Nzonzi was a key player for Stoke, having earned the Man of the Match award on debut against Manchester City in a 1-1 draw and Pulis lavished him with praise, believing he will go on to one day play in the UEFA Champions League.

As Stoke finished 13th in the Premier League in the 2012/13 campaign, Nzonzi made the third most appearances of any player at the club, behind goalkeeper Asmir Begovic and striker Jon Walters, with the only games he missed being ones he was actually suspended for.

Whether it be alongside Charlie Adam, Glenn Whelan or Geoff Cameron; Nzonzi matched their tenacity and defensive endeavour with a higher level of technical ability that saw him become a menace and a nuisance for opposition teams to deal with and get around.

The summer of 2013 saw Pulis depart Stoke and be replaced by Mark Hughes, as the club sought to kick on and push into the top-half of the table, aiming for the European spots but, more importantly, evolve the style of football to become more progressive and proactive.

All of those things more or less came to fruition as Stoke finished ninth and played a lot more easier on the eye football 45 goals scored in their 38 games, in comparison to 34 in Pulis’ final campaign.

Despite the evolution of their style seeing more technical players brought in, such as Marc Muniesa, Marko Arnautovic, Stephen Ireland and Oussama Assaidi; Nzonzi remained the pillar for which their improvement was built upon.

Almost an unsung hero for the club, Nzonzi eventually got his flowers in what was to be his final campaign in Staffordshire when he played every minute of the 2014/15 Premier League campaign and won the club’s Player of the Year award as they again finished ninth, but collected four more points than the season before and again improved their goals for column by three – which was the same number that Nzonzi actually scored that season.

His final game for the club perhaps best showed his range of attributes as Stoke fiercely bullied a lacklustre Liverpool side, hammering them by six goals to one with Nzonzi instrumental to their victory, even getting on the scoresheet in what was Steven Gerrard’s final game for the Reds.

Nzonzi had arrived at Stoke as a side that could punch above their weight but the ceiling appeared to be a perennial top-of-the-bottom-half outfit, but his influence was a driving force in them becoming a team that could realistically look at pushing into the top seven and the European spots upon his departure

Stoke made a profit but may regret his sale

That unsung nature of Nzonzi’s influence and ability was no more, hence the end of season Player of the Year award, and interest in Nzonzi mounted with Stoke eventually sanctioning his £7 million sale to Sevilla.

With Sevilla, he made 137 appearances for the Andalusians across all competitions and went on to win the 2015/16 UEFA Europa League, before being a part of France’s 2018 FIFA World Cup winning squad.

Nzonzi has most recently spent a season in Iran with Sepahan, having played for Roma, Galatasaray, Rennes, Konyaspor and Al Rayyan since his departure from Sevilla in that 2018 summer.

Despite Nzonzi proving Pulis right in terms of being able to play UEFA Champions League football, and perhaps further demonstrating more technical qualities that made some neutrals look differently upon Stoke in the Premier League, his sale may well have been the catalyst for their demise.

In the season following his departure, they finished ninth again but with three fewer points and without his presence in defensive midfield, they become a lot leakier through the middle of the pitch and at the back with ten more goals conceded than in Nzonzi’s final campaign.

Then, after a decline to 13th in the 2016/17 campaign, Stoke were eventually relegated from the Premier League at the end of the 2017/18 season.

Their decline to their eventual relegation can quite reasonably be tracked from the departure of their ultimate key man in the summer of 2015, and it could well be that his sale is what prompted them to become what they are today: a Championship also-ran.

All in all, though, Stoke took advantage of Blackburn’s demise to bring in one of the better defensive midfielders in the Premier League for a bargain fee that would be more than doubled by his sale, and in the process they signed someone who could mix it with their old style and play a pivotal role in evolving it to the new style that saw them flirt with European qualification once again.