Charlie Adam has admitted his surprise at seeing Stoke City attract a player of Xherdan Shaqiri's stature.
Manager Mark Hughes signed the Swiss playmaker for a reported £12m in the summer after the 23-year-old struggled for regular playing time at Inter Milan.
Shaqiri, who won the Champions League with Bayern Munich in 2013, has started City's last two games following injury, and Adam is delighted with such a high-profile coup.
"Very surprising, coming from Inter Milan. He was at Bayern Munich after going there for big money from Basel," he told Sky Sports News.
"Roberto Mancini went to Inter and never played him really and he's been frustrated there. I think we've been chasing him for a number of months.
I think we tried to get him last January and it fell through and the manager has done a lot of homework and put a lot of hard work into getting him. He's shown in the first couple of games that he has got good qualities, adds something a bit different to our team."
The Potters, who have drawn two and lost two of their first four Premier League outings, travel to Arsenal this Saturday.
Shane Callaghan
