Stoke City and Xherdan Shaqiri was a curious fit when the Swiss swapped Inter Milan for the Potteries in 2015, but for three seasons, he operated as the club’s talisman, adding some style to the steel that boss Mark Hughes and his predecessor Tony Pulis had installed at the club.
But even Shaqiri’s individual brilliance was unable to prevent the Potters from dropping down to the Championship at the end of the 2017/18 season as their ten-year Premier League stay came to an end.
