Stoke’s Xherdan Shaqiri backed to shine on debut after ‘helpful’ suspension

Mark Hughes is set to unleash his £12million club-record signing on Norwich on Saturday after he completed a suspension for a red card at previous club Inter Milan.

“He’s been very good in training”, the Stoke boss said. “He is more integrated into the group now and he is aware of what we are trying to do”, Hughes told a news conference.

“It is a significant amount of money for us, our record deal, but we think we’ve bought the right quality and the right person”.

Stephen Ireland and Joselu made useful contributions in attack as substitutes in the Tottenham match, which saw Stoke claim their first point of the season after being 2-0 down at half-time.

Bojan Krkic of Stoke City was injured during an FA Cup tie against Rochdale.

At the Britannia, the 29-year-old midfielder is part of a squad that includes other Barca alumni in Bojan and Marc Muniesa, as well as ex-Chelsea midfielder Marco van Ginkel and former Bayern Munich forward Shaqiri.

And the Welshman said at his pre-Norwich press conference on Thursday: “I think everybody’s really enthused by what may be ahead in terms of selection and the team we can put out”.

Despite the exciting prospect of the trio teaming up together, Bowen has warned fans that the “dream teams” they have in their mind may not necessarily be suitable for the Premier League.

Spaniard Bojan has been out of first-team action since January and Hughes is refusing to confirm whether he will be involved this weekend.

“He had 90 minutes (for the Under-21s against Wolves) last weekend which was important, but I am mindful that we have a game on Tuesday night as well”.

Although the Swiss global was banned for Saturday’s 2-2 draw at Spurs, Afellay and his high-profile team-mates showed they are willing to the dirty work by rolling up their sleeves to fight back from two goals down.

“I had nine great years there and it was probably the best time of my playing career”.

“When you see our reaction to going two down, it’s unbelievable”. We’re in decent shape, we’ve got a point on the board and now we’re looking to build our season.