As the dust settles on a chaotic week for Liverpool fans, it would be easy to oversee the big claims coming out of Italy. None other than Gianluca Di Marzio himself - the god father of transfers - reports that Xherdan Shaqiri is close to signing for Liverpool.
Shaqiri, originally born in the Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia, emigrated to Switzerland with his parents and three siblings in 1992. Shaqiri played his early club football with FC Basel's youth system and reserves, stepping up to the first team in 2009. Despite having lit up FC Basel - winning the domestic double with his club in the 09/10 season - the Swiss fell onto the lips of those around the world when he bagged two assists - Manchester United in 2011, helping his team to a big upset. It was clear that FC Basel had produced a serious, serious player.
After breaking through at FC Basel, the Swiss winger was quickly snapped up by FC Bayern Munich as they fended off reported interest from many teams - one of which was reported to be Liverpool FC. The young winger had an up and down time at Bayern, impressing under Jüpp Heynckes and then fading away under Pep Guardiola. Now the time is perhaps right for Shaqiri to seek a new venture.
He's raw, no doubt, but also a fantastic talent. The Swiss winger would bring pace and power to the Liverpool attack and also goals from wide; something that Liverpool have been looking for, for quite a while. In ten Bundesliga appearances last season, 7 of which were as a sub, Shaqiri scored 6 and made 2 more. The Swiss winger is also enjoying a good start to the World Cup, scoring 3 and creating 11 chances in 3 games. The numbers add up to show that Shaqiri has great potential.
Many have pointed toward his lack of consistency as a reason to look elsewhere, and this is of course a concern - but it shouldn't be a big one. Lack of game time kills young players' ability to express themselves and it seems clear that this is indeed the case with Shaqiri. The talent is there, the eye for goal is quite clearly there and it seems the player wants the move - -all good signs if you are excited by the prospect of Shaqiri in the famous red. A few things will need coaching out/in to the player as sometimes his decision making can let him down, but this shouldn't be a major worry - Brendan Rodgers is more than capable of this.
Rodgers excels at many things and we all know how good he is at getting the best out of a forgotten or undervalued talent, and he would have a real prospect on his hands with Shaqiri. So, if Liverpool want goals from either wing and another potentially world class young player on their hands, Xherdan Shaqiri is the man for them.
