Xherdan Shaqiri was heavily linked to Liverpool for a number of windows before he eventually left Bayern Munich for Stoke via Inter Milan – but our former central defender Stephane Henchoz has slammed his Swiss counterpart for making the summer switch.
Henchoz reckons that the sole reason the talented playmaker agreed to a Britannia move is financial – proving that he’s not football ambition.
“(English) clubs have a tremendous amount of money, and that will be even more pronounced from the 2016-17 season,” Henchoz told the Echo.
“Why else would Xherdan Shaqiri sign a five-year contract with Stoke?”
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“He is certainly not there because Stoke have big ambitions to reach the Champions League, which will never be the case. It is only because of the money at Stoke.
“I find it incomprehensible. He’s at Stoke because he can get money there he can get nowhere else. That’s all.”
If we were Shaqiri, we wouldn’t be over the moon with the comments from his counterpart – although it’s be difficult to argue with them.
The 23-year-old has made two appearances for Stoke, and registered one assist for a Mame Biram Diouf goal – but has yet to show the Premier League the talents which earned him such a strong reputation.
At Liverpool, we’ll watch from a distance at Shaqiri’s development, and hope he doesn’t make us regret not taking the plunge.
In Coutinho, Roberto Firmino and Adam Lallana, we hopefully have better playmakers than him anyway.