Stoke close to Stafylidis signing

Paul Lambert hopes to make Kostas Stafylidis his first Stoke City signing in the coming days.

Kostas Stafylidis will be Paul Lambert's first signing since he was appointed as Mark Hughes' successor this week.

Stoke City is close to signing Augsburg full-back Kostas Stafylidis, according to new manager Paul Lambert.

Greece international Stafylidis reportedly attended Stoke's training ground on Wednesday for a medical after an agreement over a loan move was reached.

The 24-year-old will be Lambert's first signing since he was appointed as Mark Hughes' successor this week. The former Aston Villa boss hopes Stafylidis can breathe some life into his squad as he looks to steer it away from the Premier League relegation zone.

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"Hopefully that'll go through, I think he's a really good left-back and I think he's got loads of energy which I think we need," Lambert told a news conference when asked about the deal.

"It puts competition into the team which I think is really important, so he's going to come here and hopefully everything goes okay.

"He'll be in competition with the other lads but I think that's important to generate and hopefully later on today that'll go through.

"It's funny how football works: I was in Augsburg watching him train, it was really nice of them to let me in to watch.

"I think he trained that day, but I never paid too much significance to individual players, it was more just to watch the team train and see what they do.

"The club [Stoke] had been following him for a little bit and I watched him myself and I thought he looked very good."

Stoke faces Huddersfield Town at the bet365 Stadium on Saturday.