Mark Hughes expressed his delight at Stoke City's capture of Giannelli Imbula on Monday evening.

The Potters paid a club-record fee of £18.3million to sign the 23-year-old French midfielder from FC Porto on deadline day and his arrival at the Britannia Stadium was warmly welcomed by Hughes who has been watching the player for some time.

"We've brought a really good player to the club and that is obviously the intention," Hughes told Stoke City Player.

"We are really, really pleased with the quality that he will bring. I think everybody will see that very, very quickly.

"He's still at a very good age, lots of development to come as well. We feel bringing him to the Premier League will bring him on as a player ands fulfil his potential and we are going to have the benefit of that."

Regarding the qualities of Imbula, who started his career with Guiingamp before spending time with Marseille, Hughes added: "I like his presence on the field. His ability on the ball and his understanding of the game is good.

"He's very good in terms of driving with the ball and I like my teams and players to be dynamic and he'll only add to our potential in that regard.

"He's got a good range of passing. He can play short and can see creative runs of players in front of him and he can pick passes from 50-6- yards away.

"We are delighted as he's an outstanding young player."