CRESSWELL IS LATEST SON OF A POTTER TO BE MAKING NAME FOR HIMSELF...

THE England squad lists recently have had a few familiar names for Stoke City fans of a certain age. There’s been a Delap, a Sidibe and a Cresswell as Liam,sulley and Charlie try to follow in the footsteps of their dads Rory, Mama and Richard - promotion winners with the Potters.

There has been True Grant too, the goalkeeper son of Stoke player of the year Lee Grant, who is on the books of Manchester City.

Carl Dickinson, Ryan Shawcross and Ricardo Fuller’s sons are in or have been in Stoke’s youth system or catching the eye with clubs like Pro Pathway. Liam Lawrence and Danny Pugh themselves coach in Stoke’s academy.

And Charlie Cresswell is the one in the spotlight at the moment.

The 19-year-old centre-half, below, made his Premier League debut in September when he filled in alongside

Liam Cooper against West Ham. He has played in the League Cup too and was in this week’s England under21s squad alongside Joe Bursik.

Cresswell Jr joined his dad’s old club Leeds - Richard Cresswell left League One –bound Leeds to sign for Stoke in 2007 – at the age of 11 and was handed his first pro contract in 2019. He made his first senior appearance in 2020 and was nominated as Premier League 2 player of the year thanks to his appearances with the under-23s.

This term he has been more regularly involved in the match day squad and there are high hopes for his development.

There is expectation that he will be able to emulate Pascal Struijk and make the jump from academy to first team under Marcelo Bielsa.

He was handed a new fouryear contract in August and told LUTV: “I have to push every day to the best of my ability and hopefully that takes me somewhere.”