Stoke’s £18m defensive flop joins Hannover on loan

 

Stoke have announced Kevin Wimmer has joined Bundesliga side Hannover on a season-long loan deal until the end of next season.

 

Wimmer only joined Stoke from Tottenham last summer, becoming the club’s second most expensive player of all-time in an £18m deal.

 

However, it’s been a disastrous 12 months for Wimmer and Stoke are even willing to take a huge hit to get the 25-year-old off their books.

 

Wimmer failed to convince during his two year-stint at Tottenham and Stoke’s decision to splash out so much money to sign him raised eyebrows.

 

Hannover, however, have handed Wimmer a route back to the Bundesliga after identifying the Austria international as the ideal replacement for out-going defender Salif Sane, who joins Schalke this summer. 

 

Stoke’s £18m defensive flop joins Hannover on loan

 

Andre Breitenreiter’s side have an option to make the switch permanent and Wimmer is not expected to play for Stoke again.

 

Surprisingly, Stoke had a marginally better win ratio in the league with Wimmer in the starting XI (21.4%) compared to when he did not feature from the off (16.7%) this season.