Upon completing his move to Liverpool earlier this summer, winger Xherdan Shaqiri was criticised by former Stoke City teammate Charlie Adam. In an interview with the Evening Standard, Shaqiri responded to the comments made by the Scotsman.
Stoke City midfielder Charlie Adam had an interview with TalkSPORT back in July, discussing The Potters’ target to get back into the Premier League at the first time of asking and reflected on the club’s relegation season.
TalkSPORT’s Alan Brazil asked Adam if Shaqiri was one of the ‘so-called big players’ that didn’t perform when The Potters needed him to, the midfielder said:
“Was he one of them? Oh, definitely.
“When the chips are down you look at your big players, you want your big players to bring magic in one moment in the season, and it times we felt like the so-called big players in the squad never turned up for us and never performed.
“Yeah, everybody else could help, but for all the plaudits to so-called bigger players we getting from certain members of the management staff last season – they weren’t producing.
The comments angered Swiss winger Shaqiri, and he responded in an interview with the Evening Standard. He believes that Adam made the comments because of “jealousy”.
He said:
“I think it’s just frustration maybe or jealousy because I had a good move.
“I was surprised that he spoke like this about me but that is sometimes the character of a player.
“I know what he said was totally wrong because at that time I played there – especially when times were hard – I was there and I was scoring a lot of goals.
“I was one of the only ones who helped the team with goals in difficult games and he was that guy who took the red card in [important] league games (against Everton) and missed a penalty (against Brighton).”
Stoke haven’t started life in the Championship as they had first wished. Rowett’s men currently sit in 18th place, with only two wins under their belt after nine games this season. Potters fans will be hoping they can begin to get a decent run of form going, starting with this weekend’s match at Rotherham United.
