Stoke trialing Ghanaian winger

Stoke City are reported to be trialing Ghanaian international winger, Haminu Dramani.

The 22 year old currently plays for Moscow Lokomotiv, but his agent told ghanasoccernet.com that the Potters could be ready to sign him as early as Wednesday after he was watched by Stoke scouts during a pre-season tournament against Chelsea two weeks ago.

He said: ‘Haminu trained with Stoke this morning and we expect the deal to be finished within 24 hours, I am here at the Stoke training ground and he is still showing the qualities they saw in him two weeks ago.’

Even this deal does happen, he’s unlikely to be available for Saturday’s match against Aston Villa as the Potters will have to apply for a work permit, but will be a welcome boost to Tony Pulis’ options on the wing.

There seems confusion as to whether he will sign a permanent deal or come on loan. Teamtalk, although reporting the same story, state that he will come on loan, whilst ghanasoccernet say that he will sign a three year contract.

To bring Dramani in on loan could make more sense and confirm the manager’s comments a few weeks ago that he would exploit the loan rules to try and gain maximum benefit as he has done the previous two years in the Championship. Whilst Premier League clubs are only allowed to have two players on loan from other English clubs, they are allowed an unlimited number of foreign loan players, which goes some way to explaining why the Potters had been keen to sign players like Zigic on loan, but backed away when such a deal proved impossible.