The manager of Stoke City, Tony Pulis, has denied the fact that a few clubs have approached him to buy the Bosnian goalkeeper Asmir Begovic.
There have been some reports recently that Arsenal and Manchester United are interested in Begovic and both the clubs have approached Pulis for that.
Stoke City bought the young English goalie Jack Butland during the mid season transfer window and that led to the speculations that the club might put Begovic on sale in the upcoming summer, but, Pulis has denied that.
When asked if Arsenal and Manchester United have approached him for Begovic, Pulis said, “No, I haven’t got a call from anyone regarding Begovic. If anyone wants to buy him, well, they must be ready to spend a huge amount of money. We are not going to let a world class goalie go at a small amount.”
“We have bought Jack Butland, this doesn’t mean that we are in a mood to put Asmir on sale. We want him to stay at the club. He is a high class goalie and he is getting better and better with every season. Even in this season, he has been superb for us.”
Stoke City’s performance in the ongoing Premier League hasn’t been that good. They were in danger of finishing in the relegation zone a couple of weeks back.
At the moment, Stoke City is at no. 11 in the points table with 41 points in 37 matches. They have won 9 games, have lost 14 and the rest 14 games have been draws.
Pulis has been criticized for team’s dismal performance in the ongoing Premier League. Some experts have even said that he should be sacked.
When asked about that, Pulis said, “People who are criticizing me should have a look at my record. The team has performed wonderfully in the last few years. We earned promotion to the Premier League; we reached the finals of FA Cup and round of 32 in Europa League. People must look at these achievements before having a go at me.”