Stoke City struck gold with Chelsea transfer - he plays elsewhere in the Championship now | OneFootball

Victor Moses enjoyed a successful loan spell with the Potters in 2014/15 and he now plies his trade with fellow relegation strugglers Luton Town

Stoke City often struggled to sign impactful loanees while they were in the Premier League, but Victor Moses was a real hit in ST4 after he joined for the 2014/15 campaign from Chelsea, and ten years on, he could return to the bet365 Stadium next month for a fellow Championship side.

The Potters' underwent a real change of style under Mark Hughes, compared to that of legendary boss Tony Pulis, and his maiden season in charge saw them begin to play with a much more expansive, slick style that got the best out of quick, tricky wide players.

It came as little surprise, then, to see Victor Moses join Stoke on loan from Chelsea in the summer of 2014 after he had struggled to break through at Stamford Bridge following a 2012 move from Wigan Athletic.

Stoke's fortunes with loan players had certainly been mixed prior to the forward's arrival, but his performances for the Potters made him a fan-favourite in North Staffordshire, and one who is still regarded as one of the club's best temporary arrivals to this day.

Moses did not join Stoke on a permanent deal after his loan spell, despite Hughes' desire to see him make a full-time move. He went on to become a regular with the Blues, and now, ten years on from his time in ST4, he plies his trade at Luton Town in the same league as the Potters.

Victor Moses impressed so much at Stoke that they wanted him permanently

Chelsea forked out £9m to sign a 21-year-old Moses from Wigan in 2012, but he struggled to impact league games in his first season at Stamford Bridge, then endured a tough loan spell at Liverpool in the 2013/14 campaign as Raheem Sterling burst onto the scene to regularly play ahead of him.

It was still regarded as a great coup for Stoke to have secured his capture on loan for the following season, and he certainly lived up to expectations in ST4 with numerous star turns to help them achieve a second successive ninth-placed finish in the Premier League.

Moses' immediate impact was clear, as the Potters beat reigning champions Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium on his debut for the club after Mame Diouf's second-half strike.

He soon notched assists in three consecutive games against QPR, Newcastle United and Sunderland, and scored his first Stoke goal in a November draw against West Ham, but then suffered a hamstring injury that ruled him out for six weeks around the Christmas period.

Moses returned to action after the turn of the year, and his reintroduction to the team saw the Potters go on a fantastic run of just one loss in seven league outings, as he fired home further strikes against Aston Villa, Everton and Rochdale in the FA Cup.

It was no coincidence that Hughes' side improved with him in the starting eleven, and the ex-Manchester City boss hailed him as playing "exceptionally well" during that fruitful January and February period.

Unfortunately for both Moses and Stoke, that run of games was the best it got for him on a personal level at the club, as he suffered a season-ending hamstring injury in mid-April following a reoccurrence of the issue that had previously ruled him out. He returned to Chelsea for pre-season, but Hughes was determined to get him back after such an impressive loan period.

The Welsh manager had already expressed his desire to bring the Nigerian international back to the club permanently before the campaign had even finished, and reports in April had stated that the Potters were planning a £5m bid for his services that summer.

He commented again in May, after the season was over, that the club were hoping to strike a deal with the Blues for Moses, but reports soon went quiet until it was revealed by The Guardian a month later that the then-24-year-old was reluctant to join Stoke or act as a makeweight in a deal for Potters keeper Asmir Begovic to move to West London.

Moses has had a successful career and could cross paths with the Potters again soon

Moses stayed at Chelsea that summer, and instead went out on loan to West Ham for the 2015/16 campaign as the Potters signed Inter Milan winger Xherdan Shaqiri and Marko Arnautovic moved onto playing in Moses' left-wing spot.

The Nigerian attacker did not exactly pull up any trees with the Hammers, but the arrival of Italian boss Antonio Conte at Chelsea in the summer of 2016 saw his career revitalised as a right-wing-back in his 3-4-3 system.

Conte utilised Moses in that position throughout his debut season in charge at Stamford Bridge, and he scored four times in 40 games as the Blues cruised to the Premier League title with the Nigerian playing a starring role.

The following season was not quite so fruitful on a personal level for Moses though, and he began to play a lot less under Conte and Maurizio Sarri before a loan switch to Fenerbahçe in January 2019 took him abroad for the first time in his career.

He later joined both Inter Milan and Spartak Moscow on loan, before a permanent move to the Russian club in 2021 as his nine-year association with Chelsea came to an end. Moses played over 80 games for Spartak prior to his exit at the end of his contract last summer.

Stoke fans would no doubt have loved him to return to the bet365 Stadium at the start of the season for old time's sake, if nothing else, but while he did make the move to the Championship, it was not back to the Potteries.

At 34-years-old, Moses now plays for Luton Town, who, much like Stoke, are currently fighting to survive in the second-tier amid genuine relegation concerns. He played his part in the Hatters' win over the Potters earlier in the campaign, and is set to return to ST4 for the first time since September 2017 when the two teams face off in a crucial six-pointer relegation clash in April.

Moses will always be remembered for his brilliant loan exploits at the bet365 Stadium, but Stoke supporters will hope their former favourite does not come back to haunt them, nearly ten years on from his time at the club.