Premier League: Stoke City sign Kevin Wimmer

Stoke City have completed the signing of central defender Kevin Wimmer from Tottenham for 18 million pounds. The Austrian international signed a five-year contract with Stoke City, becoming the fourth defender they have signed this summer after Bruno Martins Indi from Porto, Josh Tymon on a free transfer and Kurt Zouma on loan from Chelsea. Wimmer had joined Tottenham from FC Koln in 2015 but never managed to become more than a backup player at White Hart Lane. Wimmer made 10 appearances in all competitions during his first season at Tottenham, while last season he only managed to make five appearances. However, Stoke City manager Mark Hughes believes in the 24-year-old Austrian: "Kevin is an undoubted talent. He will significantly add to the quality of the group of players that I already have." Wimmer also had some words of praise about Hughes: “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." "There are players of real quality here in every position, and for me that is good, it helps generate good competition for places and drives us on to hopefully progress even further," Wimmer added. "We have a good talented group of young players here, some very big names too, so it is an exciting time to be part of this Club, I can’t wait to get going now." Stoke City have also signed forward Jese Rodriguez on a season-long loan from Paris St-Germain, plus midfielder Darren Fletcher and winger Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting on free transfers. Stoke City are 7/4 at Bet365 to finish inside the Premier League top 10 this season after having recorded a win, a draw and a loss so far.