Xherdan Shaqiri has been the sole bright spot in a pretty grim season for Stoke City. They are currently lying in the dreaded relegation zone and are looking likely to go down in the Championship. If something like that goes on to happen then the Potters can lose out on their starman as quite a few Premier League clubs will be lining up for his signature.
According to reports, Shaqiri is being eyed by the Merseyside club, Everton. Everton will have to compete with the likes of Crystal Palace and West Ham as they are also in the running to sign the Swiss winger. Everton has made some big money signing in the last few transfer windows, but their season hasn’t exactly gone according to plan.
Everton were expected to fight for a Europa League spot at least this season when they started under the highly rated manager, Ronald Koeman. Things soon went downhill as they were into the relegation zone and Koeman was sacked and the experienced Sam Allardyce took over from him. Big Sam has guided them in the top half of the table but next year Everton fans and board will be looking for something more.
Shaqiri is having a pretty good individual campaign as he has managed to score seven goals and has also provided six assists. The Swiss winger is usually the one who starts pretty much every attacking move for the Potters and also takes the responsibility of taking set pieces. Stoke are currently on the 19th spot with 28 points, five away from the 17th placed Swansea City. At present, one can safely say that they are favourites for the drop.
When a team gets relegated to lower division, it often loses out on some of their key players as players will harbour ambitions of playing football at the top level. So it will be no surprise if we see Shaqiri make a move to a Premier League regular like Everton. Everton might not have had a good season but one can feel that they have the right intent as they are trying to break the shackles of just being a mid-table club.
With some better players to play around, for example, Sigurdsson, Walcott, Rooney, Pickford, Tosun etc, Shaqiri will surely be more influential for the Toffees as he has the ability to make a difference in the final third of the pitch and will be a good signing if Everton go on to bring him to the Goodison Park.
