CHARLIE ADAM has blasted Paul Lambert for a lack of respect after claiming the Scottish coach branded Stoke City players mere ‘water carriers’ for Xherdan Shaqiri.

The 32-year-old was withering in his assessment of the Swiss star’s attitude as the Potters crashed to relegation from the top-flight, questioning his commitment and implying that the mercurial midfielder already had a move lined up.

And Adam believes Lambert exacerbated the issue by treating Shaqiri like a special case, allowing him to ‘get away with certain things’ and denigrating the rest of the squad by comparison.

That has left a bitter taste in the mouth for Adam, while Shaqiri has landed a £13m switch to Liverpool due to Stoke’s descent into the Championship triggering a release clause.

“We had a meeting and the previous manager went around us all and basically called us water carriers – he [Shaqiri] was the world class player we had in our team,” recalled Adam. “Basically, we had to get him on the ball to go and make something happen.

“For the players we had in our squad and after what we’d achieved at that club, it was hard to accept. We knew he was a match-winner, but we felt we should have had more respect from that point of view.

“He’s a big player. At times he did well for us, but in critical situations, I felt, what we needed for the team in a relegation battle, it just wasn’t there.

“The manager would let him get away with certain things, but we were in a relegation battle. We needed everyone to run, scrap, fight, dig, kick - do whatever it takes to stay up, but we fell short.”

Speaking to 5Live, Adam added pointedly: “When you’ve got players who knew they were getting a move, whether they got relegated or not, it was inevitable what was going to happen.

“This move was probably done three or four months ago. It was certainly done before the World Cup. He probably knew we were going to get relegated and he knew he was going to the World Cup.”