Adam surprised by Stoke´s Shaqiri signing

Xherdan Shaqiri’s move to Stoke City came as a surprise to team-mate Charlie Adam, who praised the impact of the Switzerland international.

Stoke’s lengthy pursuit of Shaqiri came to fruition when the winger moved to the Britannia Stadium from Inter for a £12million fee last month.

The move for Shaqiri, who penned a five-year deal, represented a coup for Mark Hughes’ side and Adam is impressed by the former Bayern Munich star’s quality.

“Very surprising, coming from Inter Milan. He was at Bayern Munich after going there for big money from Basel,” he told Sky Sports News.

“Roberto Mancini went to Inter and never played him really and he’s been frustrated there.

“I think we’ve been chasing him for a number of months. I think we tried to get him last January and it fell through and the manager has done a lot of homework and put a lot of hard work into getting him.

“He’s shown in the first couple of games that he has got good qualities, adds something a bit different to our team.”

Shaqiri has made two Premier League appearances for Stoke so far and Adam believes the 23-year-old will have plenty more to offer once he reaches peak fitness.

“The international games disrupt the Premier League at the moment because you have an international game in August, September, October, and then the international in November as well so it is not really until December that the Premier League gets going,” he added.

“So hopefully in the games from now to then he can pick up his fitness and get going and score a few goals and show why the club paid £12million for him.”