Manchester City transfer news: City and Newcastle considering offer for Stoke's Ryan Shawcross - reports

A reported offer of £12million would be hard for Mark Hughes to turn down

Ryan Shawcross in action against Liverpool during Stoke's thrilling 5-3 defeat in January (GETTY IMAGES)

Premier League champions Manchester City are weighing up an offer for Stoke centre-back Ryan Shawcross, with Newcastle United also expressing interesting, according to reports.

Shawcross was voted as the club’s player-of-the-year for last season after another successful campaign, this time under new manager Mark Hughes.

The club do not want to sell the player but there is a reported fee of £12million for the 26-year-old, an offer that would be difficult for Stoke and Hughes to ignore.

No official bid has been made by either club as of yet.

City are looking to increase the amount of 'home-grown' players in their squad despite reports that they are preparing to sell a series of English players such as Micah Richards, Jack Rodwell, Gareth Barry, Scott Sinclair and Joleon Lescott.

Shawcross joined Stoke from Manchester United in 2008 and has since played nearly 250 league games for the club.

The defender played every minute of all but two games last season, scoring once and keeping nine clean sheets in the games he featured in.