Stoke City players ‘getting away with murder’ this season which led to relegation

Stoke's 10-year stay in the Premier League ended on Saturday

Adam's claims come after Butland said similar things (Getty)

The fallout from Stoke City’s relegation to the Championship has continued after Charlie Adam admitted that “four or five” of his teammates have “been getting away with murder for a long time”.

Stoke ended their 10-year stay in the Premier League on Saturday with a 2-1 defeat to Crystal Palace having previously led thanks to a Xherdan Shaqiri free-kick.

Their run of 13 winless games saw them sink to the bottom of the table and Adam called out some of his teammates for their lack of effort in helping the Potters remain in the Premier League this season.

“It's embarrassing because we should never have been in that situation,” Adam told BBC Radio 5 live. “As a group you have your seven or eight who try their hardest to make it work and we failed. A lack of discipline from certain players has been embarrassing.

“I'll be honest for the supporters, I think some players have been getting away with murder for a long time and it's difficult for supporters. It's not just one or two, I think there are four or five that could be counted.”

Stoke lost a number of key players in the summer who they failed to replace, with Marko Arnautovic’s move to West Ham a leading factor in their failure to score goals, Adam revealed.

“The biggest thing for us is we never replaced Marko,” he added. “You can lose players, but when you lose players who can win you a game you are going to struggle. As a group of players we should hang our heads in shame because that club should never be relegated.

“People will lose their jobs and we're the ones to blame for that.”