Stoke City’s interest in Bayern Munch’s Xherdan Shaqiri may come to nothing but proves that the club is thinking big after a solid first half of the season.

Shaqiri appears out of favour at the Bundesliga champions and has scored just one goal from nine top-flight appearances for the German giants this term.

The Switzerland international has been linked to many top European clubs, with Liverpool said to have been pursuing a deal for the talented winger for some time.

Serie A giants Inter Milan are also thought to be keen but it has now emerged that the Potters would like to see the 23-year-old at the Britannia Stadium.

He joined Bayern in the summer of 2012 and was part of the treble-winning squad that season but his star appears to be on the wane at the Allianz Arena with reports that he will be allowed to leave for the right price.

Whether the fee involved would be out of Stoke’s price range is open to debate but assistant Mark Bowen admits the former FC Basel ace is on their radar

“There are other clubs interested, but it doesn’t mean we rule ourselves out,” he said. “He’s definitely on the list, but there is competition for a player of his ability.

“There’s many boxes to tick, not least the financial side of it, and with Shaqiri coming from one of the best clubs in the world, there’s a lot of persuasion to get it done.”

Stoke sit 11th in the Premier League table having won seven games already this term, and they can be backed at 7.24 to pull off a shock victory over Arsenal (1.46) at the Emirates on Sunday.