As we found out thanks to Off The Ball's European football correspondent Graham Hunter last week, Stoke City have built a close relationship with European champions Barcelona. 

So much so that four former Barca players now ply their trade at the Britannia: Ibrahim Afellay, Bojan Krkic, Marc Muniesa and Moha El Ouriachi. 

That's not all though. Bojan, Muniesa and Afellay all have Champions League winners medals and when you factor in striker Marko Arnautovic and new signing Xherdan Shaqiri, who were part of Inter Milan and Bayern Munich squads respectively which won the tournament, it means Stoke have five former European champions on their books.

It is impressive when you put it like that until you dig a little deeper and point out that the quintet were fringe players at best during those triumphs - which our own Nathan Murphy helpfully explained: 

Stoke's "5 Champions League Winners" have played a grand total of 1 minute between them in those Champions League finals. #SCFC

— Nathan Murphy (@nathanmurf) August 11, 2015