Stoke City are set to beat off competitions from Premier League rivals to the signature of Chelsea winger Victor Moses.
According to Sky Sports News, Stoke are close to securing the services of the Nigeria international winger on a season-long loan.
Moses is set to undergo medical at the Britannia, where he will join forces with his compatriot Osaze Odemwingie.
Aston Villa are keen to hijack the ex-England U-21’s move to Stoke-on-Trent, as Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho plans to settle the winger’s future before September 1st.
Moses is yet to force his way into the Portuguese boss’ plans, since his return last summer. He spent last season on loan at Liverpool, starting just six Premier League games.
Mourinho is understood to be weighing up his choices about Moses whom he counts as a home grown player in the Premier League and Champions League. However, the Stamford Bridge boss intimated in his pre-Burnley match presser that the Nigerian is once more into the fray of a potential departure, after admitting the 23-year-old could be surplus to requirements on his preferred position.
“Victor’s best position is on the wings where we have many solutions. We have (Eden) Hazard, Willian, (Mohammed) Salah and (Andre) Schurrle but he (Moses) is English and at this moment we have one foreign player who has to leave.
“So until the end of the month, we have to make that decision and Victor is involved in this process. Maybe he stays or maybe he leaves. Because he is English, it is something we have to analyse as well.”
Mark Hughes is believed to have hit bottleneck in his summer-long pursuit of Liverpool’s Moroccan winger Oussama Assaidi, 25, who impressed on-loan at the club last time out. His recent £6m bid for Norwich’s Nathan Redmond was rejected.
The Welshman has turned to Moses to secure the natural pace he wants on the forward line.
The ex-Crystal Palace winger joined Chelsea in the summer of 2012 from Wigan for £9m.
On completion of transfer formalities, he will be Stoke’s sixth summer signing, after Mame Biram Diouf, Steve Sidwell, Phil Bardsley, Dionatan Teixeira and Bojan Krkic.
Moses featured for the Super Eagles at the 2014 World Cup and started against Iran and France, as the African champions lost 2-1 in the last 16 to the latter.
