Agent Gary Mellor told a story about how he tried to formalize the transfer of Ukrainian striker Andrei Yarmolenko from Dynamo to Stoke City.

British agent Gary Mellor said that in 2015 he managed to convince Andrei Yarmolenko to go to Stoke City, but Dynamo Kiev refused to release his star.

"For some reason Yarmolenko got in touch with us (Beswicks agency) and we fought for the right to represent his interests with the agent Paul Pogba and several other agencies," Mellor said. Stoke Sentinel.

"We looked at him in the match of the Ukrainian national team against the United States, and he demonstrated that he possesses all the necessary qualities for playing at the highest level and is a phenomenal player. Everyone knows what he's capable of, but when you watch him live, he's a special player ".

"For the first time I went to Ukraine at the height of the war with Russia, when the plane was shot down. I thought that I made a mistake when I looked around and realized that I was the only passenger on board from Heathrow to Kiev ".

"Whatever it was, I met with Andrei and, fortunately, arranged him to myself. As a result, he gave us permission to represent his interests, after which I offered his services to Stoke ".

"In truth, during our first meeting, he was more thinking about moving to Manchester United, not to Stoke City or even Tottenham. But we began to discuss the transition to Stoke, and after several meetings he was interested in this option ".

"Then Stoke made a good offer to his club, which was supposed to activate the amount of compensation in his contract (about 20 million euros)".

"I will not go into all the details, but I think the club owner thought that Dynamo Kiev would be disgraced to the whole world, selling its best player to Stoke City".

"If they sell it, then only in a club like Chelsea or Manchester City".

"He was 100% interested in going to Stoke and I would be happy to see him in a red and white T-shirt. I believe that in the Premier League it would be a success ".