TIMES have certainly changed at Stoke City.

The Potters sealed the biggest deal of deadline day when they splashed out £18.3million on Porto midfielder Giannelli Imbula.

That deal shattering the previous club-record fee of £12m which the club had spent on former Inter Milan and Bayern Munich star Xherdan Shaqiri five months previously.

Imbula may be little known on these shores but he became Portuguese football's record signing when Porto recruited him for £15.1m in July last summer.

The Belgium-born 23-year-old, who has played for France at under-20 and under-21 level, was a rare bright spot for Stoke on his debut in the 3-0 defeat to Everton last Saturday.

Mark Hughes's men had the combined talents of Shaqiri, Ibrahim Afellay and Marko Arnautovic supporting Mame Biram Diouf but the attacking quartet could not pick apart the Toffees' defence, the hosts registering just three shots on target.

That result took to just one goal in six games the Potters' scoring run, their only effort in that time coming from Marko Arnautovic in the League Cup semi-final second-leg victory over Liverpool.

Stoke could find their frontline efforts against Cherries boosted by Spanish attacking ace Bojan, whose agent is former Barcelona defender Carles Puyol, and who yesterday penned a new four-and-a-half year contract.