Xherdan Shaqiri joining Stoke was surprise, says Charlie Adam
Wednesday 9 September 2015 17:04, UK
Charlie Adam admits it was a big surprise to see Xherdan Shaqiri join Stoke City but says he has been impressed with the Switzerland international so far.
Shaqiri completed a £12m switch to the Britannia Stadium from Inter Milan last month after a lengthy pursuit by manager Mark Hughes.
He was one of eight summer signings to arrive at the club during the transfer window along with the likes of Glen Johnson and Ibrahim Afellay.
Adam, who joined Stoke from Liverpool in 2012, admits he was taken aback that the 23-year-old, who won the Champions League and two Bundesliga titles with Bayern Munich, joined the Potters but is delighted he did.
"Very surprising, coming from Inter Milan. He was at Bayern Munich after going there for big money from Basel," he told Sky Sports News HQ.
"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."
Adam is now keen to see Shaqiri regain full fitness after the international break and help push the side up the Premier League table.
"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 £12m for him."
Adam will miss Stoke's next two Premier League matches against Arsenal and Leicester City as well as the Capital One Cup clash with Fulham after being sent off for appearing to stamp on defender Craig Dawson during the 1-0 home defeat to West Bromwich Albion.
Despite accepting his punishment, the 29-year-old insists there was no malice behind the incident.
"It's a tangle of legs, you can see as I'm coming down the momentum takes me forward. I don't lift my leg to stamp on him but there's contact there," Adam added.
"It's gone now, we lost the game and I have to take part of the blame for that because I got sent off.
"We were never going to appeal given the history of things which have gone against me. There was a risk that it might even be increased to a four-game ban.
"I spoke to the manager a couple of days later and we decided we just had to take it on the chin and move on."
