Leeds United defender Charlie Cresswell has seemingly made an impressive start to life at Millwall and won the praise of manager Gary Rowett. The 19-year-old signed on loan for the Championship outfit on Monday in a bid to pick up regular minutes in senior football.
The defender had fallen down to fifth in the pecking order in West Yorkshire - behind Liam Cooper, Diego Llorente, Robin Koch and Pascal Struijk - and discussions with Jesse Marsch and Victor Orta decided a move to the second-tier would benefit the teenager more than a season with the under-21s.
Gary Rowett’s side moved incredibly quickly to beat a host of Championship rivals to the centre-back's signature, pointing towards the development last season of Arsenal’s 21-year-old defender Dan Ballard as reference for his side’s sales pitch. Rowett also played briefly with Richard Cresswell when the two were at Leicester City, leaning on his relationship with the teenager’s dad during talks.
“Knowing his dad and the character he had, you can see that in the lad as well.” Rowett told the South London Press. “He’s been brought up really well with a real hunger for work-rate. He’s an aggressive boy who wants to fight, I think that’s why Millwall was something they were very, very keen on even though they had some very good other options.
“A loan player wants to know they’ll get a fair chance and what you’re offering is actually what it says on the tin – not just to try and get the player into our club. He’s not going to be our player at the end of it, he’s going to be Leeds’ player, so we’ve got to do the best job we can along the way.”
There were calls for Cresswell to become a more prominent figure in the first-team for the upcoming season after impressing in the five Premier League appearances in which he featured. The 19-year-old’s debut saw him match West Ham striker Michael Antonio both technically and physically for the majority of the game - the latter of which takes some doing.
That quality remained for Lee Carsley’s England under-21s after the end of last season, with the defender featuring in all four of the Young Lions’ U21 European Championship qualifiers in June. And the Cresswell's momentum has carried straight through to training - and seemingly straight into a few Millwall players.
“Charlie is a very good player in his own right. He’s already played for Leeds in the Premier League and already played for England U21s.” Lions boss Rowett added. “He is really highly-regarded. Even in the first couple of days of training he has put a few of the lads on their backsides – at 19 years old that takes a bit of confidence and strength.
“He’s got a really lovely range of passing as well which again will help us to build in a different way at times.”
The Championship outfit are looking to add to the Whites contingent at the Den, with versatile 22-year-old Jamie Shackleton the subject of interest from Rowett and his scouting team. The pair are two of several fringe players in West Yorkshire looking for a loan move away, with Tyler Roberts signing for Queens Park Rangers, with an option to buy the forward for £4.5million next summer.
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