It doesn’t come as a great surprise really if you’ve been paying any attention to the rumour mill this summer, but within the last hour Stoke City have confirmed that midfielder Badou Ndiaye has packed his bags and re-joined Turkish side Galatasaray.
📤 @10BadouNdiaye has today rejoined Turkish side @GalatasaraySK for the remainder of the 2018/19 season.#SCFC 🔴⚪️ pic.twitter.com/8tsjQ5Sxww
— Stoke City FC (@stokecity) August 28, 2018
The 27-year-old returns to his former side on a season-long loan deal and plenty are hoping it includes a forced option to buy.
He joined us from them back on deadline day in the January transfer window for a reported £14million and he made a total of 14 appearances, with the return of two goals as we suffered relegation. He made an appearance against Leeds United as we opened our Championship campaign in 2018/19 but he hasn’t featured since for manager Gary Rowett.
I don’t believe it was a massive secret he didn’t want to play in the second tier, he came for the Premier League lights and rewards – and that’s fine, he’s not a fan – and few in his position suffering relegation plus managerial changes would stick around if an option presents itself, so I have no blame there.
Etebo > Badou
— Rob G (@gillman_r) August 28, 2018
He’s found his level in the Turkish League. Nowhere near mentally strong enough over here.
— Dav (@Brim1863) August 28, 2018
Don't come back you little RAT
— Gaz Hall ????⚪ (@GazHall8) August 28, 2018
Bye bye
— Ewan James (@_ewanjames) August 28, 2018
We've got Ryan Woods, don't care
— Brandon Hilton (@brandonhilton_) August 28, 2018
Good riddance
— James Preece (@JPreeceSCFC) August 28, 2018
Oh no, I am really upset about this.
— Frosty (@FrostyT2T) August 28, 2018
Another one added to the list of signings gone wrong
— Matt Doherty (@Doh26) August 28, 2018
As the sample of social media responses above demonstrate, others aren’t quite as forgiving but undoubtedly we didn’t see the best of him whilst he was adjusting and that wouldn’t have helped the performances we did see given the panic stations around the club.
Probably no great loss though given our recent strengthening and the potential they carry.
