Reports: Stoke City ends pursuit of Shaqiri; Schalke in pole position to complete signing

Xherdan Shaqiri has no desire to play for Stoke City, and the club has now acted in-kind.

John Percy of The Telegraph reports that Stoke has ended their £12-million pursuit of the Swiss winger after he failed to respond to a club-imposed deadline to disclose whether or not he was interested in making the move to the Premier League side from Inter Milan.

Percy explains:

Mark Hughes agreed a fee with Inter for the Switzerland international last month and was hopeful of agreeing a club record deal. Stoke held talks with Shaqiri's representatives and were given sufficient encouragement that the 23-year-old would be persuaded to move to the Potteries.

However, negotiations have dragged over the past week and Stoke decided to give Shaqiri a deadline of Thursday lunchtime to give them an answer. But there was no response and Stoke have today contacted Inter to officially withdraw their offer, which would have smashed their transfer record.

It was long suggested that Shaqiri, the 23-year-old who joined Inter in January from Bayern Munich, would not accept a move to the Britannia Stadium, holding out instead for a different club.

It seems as though he has found it.

Following the report referenced above, Sky Sport Italia claimed that German side Schalke is on the verge of finalizing a move for the diminutive Swiss international.

Shaqiri made just 24 appearances (11 starts) between both Bayern and Inter last season and was clearly looking for an opportunity where he would get significantly more time on the pitch. Stoke would have offered exactly that, but apparently didn't meet the winger's other unknown criteria.