Impressive Morocco international too expensive for the Potters.
Stoke City chief executive Tony Scholes has admitted that it will be very difficult for the Potters to land Liverpool winger Oussama Assaidi on a permanent basis.
Assaidi spent this season on loan at the Britannia Stadium and was impressive, despite playing just 19 Premier League games because of knee problems.
The Staffordshire club are keen to sign Assaidi, but they do not want to pay over the odds for 25-year-old because of his injury record.
It seems that Liverpool are holding out for a bigger offer, with Italian duo Fiorentina and Lazio likely to be interested.
Scholes told The Sentinel: “We’ve spoken to Liverpool about Oussama and we’ve spoken to his agent. Sometimes deals look difficult to do and this one, if I’m frank, this is in the very difficult section.
“We’ll see. He had a great season with us last year. We like him a lot, we know what he can bring to the club and he knows the club – that’s an advantage.
“There is always a risk with any purchase of a player, but those are reduced substantially when you have had that player with you.
“It’s a deal we would like to do, but we will have to wait and see.”
Assaidi scored four goals in his 19 league outings for Stoke. He completed 27 dribbles, made 21 successful crosses and found the right man with 248 of his 283 attempted passes.
He has two years left to run on his current Liverpool contract, but he does not appear to be part of manager Brendan Rodgers’ plans at Anfield.
Assaidi has represented Morocco 13 times at senior international level, scoring one goal.
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