Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Stoke City are hopeful of completing the club-record signing of Xherdan Shaqiri from Inter Milan on Tuesday.
The Switzerland winger, 23, was at the Britannia Stadium on Sunday and watched as Stoke lost 1-0 to Liverpool.
The fee for Shaqiri, who has 46 international caps, will be higher than the £10m the Potters paid Tottenham for striker Peter Crouch in 2011.
He will be the Premier League club’s ninth summer signing, just a month after the deal appeared to be off.
He joined the Serie A side from German champions Bayern Munich in January and scored three goals in 20 games for the Italians. He has scored 17 times for his country.
Editor’s Note: If Shaqiri does actually have a change of heart then it would make for another decent signing for Stoke City. It seems as if Mark Hughes’ gradual change of playing philosophy for The Potteries is finally coming to completion and Shaqiri could be the final piece of the jigsaw. For Stoke how do you gauge success this season? A top 8 finish possibly, A top 10 finish definitely. Whether Shaqiri actually knows what Stoke is like remains to be seen, I’m sure that’s why he turned down the move in the first place because Stoke is actually in Stoke.
