During Stoke City’s courageous opening weekend defeat against Liverpool, Xherdan Shaqiri was spotted observing the action from the Britannia Stadium stands. Earlier this morning it was made official that the Potter’s have landed a £12 million deal for the Swiss winger, and Outside90’s Tom Batten believes it will be a massive signing for the season ahead.
Shaqiri’s signature has been chased by Mark Hughes since the start of the summer transfer window. After Stoke pulled out of the deal in July due to a non-response to their offer, he finally looks to have weighed up his options for 2015-16 and landed on England as his best bet. This is arguably the biggest transfer in Stoke-on-Trent since Peter Crouch’s move from Tottenham for £10 million.
Certainly the Potters have captured the attention of fans across the world for their great recruiting over the summer, but if they can capture a name such as Shaqiri for £12 million, surely the manager can continue to bring in players of this calibre. The former Champions League winner has had experience at the top level for Bayern Munich and will a bring pace and excitement to Stoke City that could cause Premier League team’s higher in stature plenty of trouble. At the top of his game Shaqiri will be the best player in the Stoke starting XI, and fans will already be thinking of how high their new signing can pull them up the ladder.
This transfer could be the end of a very successful window for medium and low reputation Premier League clubs. English teams had been having a look at the stars of continental Europe, as Dimitri Payet joined West Ham, Andre Ayew completed a transfer to Swansea City, and Giorginio Wijnaldum and Aleksandar Mitrovic both became members of Newcastle United. They previously starred for PSV Eindhoven and Anderlecht.
Many European players are choosing to join lower placed Premier League teams over winning championships abroad. Additionally, many young players are choosing to join English academies instead of more prestigious football schools overseas.
New Leicester City signing Christian Fuchs has stated, “the Premier League is the best league in the world”, and despite having played for the likes of Schalke 04 he still thinks the competition “will bring new challenges”. It seems as if everyone suddenly wants to play in the English top flight. Why exactly did Yohan Cabaye reject an offer from Atletico Madrid to play for Crystal Palace?
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One reason is that he would not have gotten a clear starting position in the talent laden Madrid team that Diego Simeone has at his disposal. But last year 20th placed Queens Park Rangers earned €90 million in the Premier League TV deal. Despite winning the Ligue One championship, Paris Saint Germain only made €45 million from the French broadcast deal. Crystal Palace were able to afford the talented midfielder with the financial security now that the TV deal is paying off the ‘small’ clubs.
Much of this is thanks to the Premier League being shown in so many other countries, with an international audience of 4.7 billion, whether it is watched once or watched every single week. The Premier League was one of the first to offer deals to overseas broadcasting companies and is now unmatched by any other.
This same scenario happened with Payet and West Ham, Ayew and Swansea City and now at Stoke City with Shaqiri. Now is the perfect time for medium or lower tier English clubs to spend with plenty of money in the bank, and while the biggest transfer coup of the season may have just been confirmed, he should bring plenty more world class players with him to the Premier League.
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