Stoke City manager Mark Hughes believes that the club's attempt to sign Xherdan Shaqiri from Bayern Munich proves the Potters' level of ambition.

The Premier League outfit missed out on sealing the winger's signature after he opted to join Inter Milan on loan for the rest of the season.

Numerous top-flight English clubs, including Liverpool, were said to be in the race for Shaqiri, but Hughes has revealed that Stoke were "serious contenders".

"We will pursue players who we feel that we can realistically get and Shaqiri was one of those," Hughes told reporters. "He slipped by the wayside, but we were firmly in the frame. If you read what his agent said then you will see that we were serious contenders.

"We can take a lot of comfort from the fact that we can get these players in the room now and have serious conversations with them. Maybe that wasn't the case in the past."

Reports claimed that Stoke tried to lure Shaqiri to the Britannia by highlighting the prospect of playing alongside Bojan.