Stoke City are close to signing Augsburg full-back Kostas Stafylidis, according to new manager Paul Lambert.
Greece international Stafylidis reportedly attended Stoke's training ground on Wednesday for a medical after an agreement over a loan move was reached.
The 24-year-old will be Lambert's first signing since he was appointed as Mark Hughes' successor this week.
"Hopefully that'll go through, I think he's a really good left-back and I think he's got loads of energy which I think we need," Lambert told a news conference when asked about the deal.
Paul Lambert discusses potential new signing Kostas Stafylidis in his pre-match press conference earlier this morning. January 18, 2018
"It puts competition into the team which I think is really important, so he's going to come here and hopefully everything goes okay.
"He'll be in competition with the other lads but I think that's important to generate and hopefully later on today that'll go through.
"It's funny how football works: I was in Augsburg watching him train, it was really nice of them to let me in to watch.
"I think he trained that day, but I never paid too much significance to individual players, it was more just to watch the team train and see what they do.
"The club [Stoke] had been following him for a little bit and I watched him myself and I thought he looked very good."
Stoke face Huddersfield Town at the bet365 Stadium on Saturday.
