Stoke City chairman Peter Coates has hailed the impact Bojan Krkic has made at the Britannia Stadium.

Stoke pulled off a major coup by landing the services of Bojan from Barcelona at the start of last season and the striker managed to win over the imagination of the Potters' faithful by putting in a host of fantastic performances.

Unfortunately for Bojan, his season was cut short due to a serious knee injury but despite making only 14 Premier League appearances last term, the Spaniard's impact has been hailed by Coates.

Coates told the Stoke Sentinel: "I think you would have to dig deep into the archives to remember another player having a similar impact over such a short space of time. His ability to find space and find a pass, a telling pass, marked him apart because not everybody can do that.

"Everybody can pass back or sideways, but not everybody can provide that through ball to create chances for others like he is able to do. It's fair to say he has an all-round game, including the ability to finish, as we saw for ourselves before his injury.

"The injury seemed to be nothing at the time, I remember, but clearly it turned out to be very serious and you have to say he was very, very unlucky. We only saw him at his best for a relatively short spell, but it was long enough to leave us wanting more."