Medical Passed, Free Agreed, £65,000-A-Week Liverpool Target OFFICIALLY Signs

Liverpool have missed out on the signing and pacey Inter Milan attacker Xherdan Shaqiri, with BBC reporting that Stoke are hopeful of completing a swoop for the 23-year old on Tuesday.

Reports in Italy also suggest Shaqiri – who was present at the Britannia on Sunday as Stoke narrowly lost to Liverpool – is a step away from signing for the Potters after successfully going through medical assessment on Monday. Although the player is expected to have signed his contract after the medical, Sport Witness says the finer details of the deal need to be sorted out and it all depends on Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich.

Shaqiri’s move to Stoke City had been on the cards throughout the summer and now it seems Mark Hughes has finally got his man after talks broke down at some point earlier in the summer. However, as per TuttoMercatoweb, Bayern want a number of clauses inserted into the deal which would be of huge benefit to them financially in future. The BuLi kings also need to give consent to the transfer for Inter Milan to let the Swiss join Stoke City. Inter also want to see Shaqiri gone as soon as possible after he became out of favour at the San Siro.

Despite only joining the Serie A side in January, he has had some problems with boss Roberto Mancini and was no longer in the plans of the erstwhile Manchester City and Galatasaray manager.

BBC confirms that the fee for Shaqiri will be higher than the £10m Stoke paid to Tottenham for Peter Crouch in 2011.

The former Basel and Bayern speedster – who has 46 caps for Switzerland and who could have been Liverpool’s eighth signing of the transfer window this summer – will now be the Potters’ club’s ninth summer signing.

The Reds could have made a swoop for Shaqiri if they had wanted him but boss Brendan Rodgers had other plans. The Irishman is said to be closing in on bringing Barcelona’s flying winger, Adama Traore to Anfield.

Maybe Rodgers decided to pass seeing he already has seven new arrivals and the club’s young winger Jordan Ibe is whom he reportedly sees as the replacement for Sterling, who joined Manchester City in the summer for £49m.

Liverpool missing out on Shaqiri seems better for both parties. If the 23-year old had joined the club, his game time would be limited and for Liverpool it would only mean another waste of funds. Hence, good choice by the Kops!