Early impressions count for a lot in football and Charlie Cresswell, shortly after his move from Leeds United to Toulouse, didn’t exactly endear himself to his new, French-based fanbase.
On what was only his third Ligue 1 appearance, the summer signing from Elland Road inadvertently turned the ball into his own net via a trailing arm.
Charlie Cresswell was subbed off moments after, Toulouse 3-0 down at home to Marseille.
But, never one to back down from a challenge, Leeds United’s former Under-23 captain responded to that nightmare start, and a few games out of the starting XI, while silencing the critics who asked if he could make the step up from life largely spent on the West Yorkshire bench to the pressures of a major, so-called ‘top five’ European league.
Starting ten successive Ligue 1 matches, it is to Cresswell’s eternal credit that, five months after deflecting Luis Henrique’s delivery past his own goalkeeper, the Preston-born centre-back has recovered to become a nailed-on member of Carles Martinez Novell’s first XI.
Charlie Cresswell explains fine Toulouse form after Leeds United exit
Of those ten games, meanwhile, Toulouse have lost only three while winning six. There has also been five clean sheets.
And, currently eighth in the table, Cresswell and the rest of Novell’s well-drilled backline have Les Verts fans dreaming of a first top-half finish since the 2013/14 campaign.
“I take a lot of pride in these clean sheets,” Cresswell now tells La Depeche, shining a light on his impressive Toulouse turnaround. “We work very hard to achieve this. And I’m not just talking about me, but the whole team.
“As defenders, we all want to finish a match without conceding a goal.”
Cresswell puts Toulouse’s fine recent form down to the familiarity he enjoys with Canada international Mark McKenzie and former Everton and Monaco man Djibril Sidibe at the heart of Novell’s back-three system.
The trio have made 14, 15 and 12 starts apiece in Ligue 1 during 2024/25.
“The practices haven’t changed since the beginning of the season. I just think the more you play with someone, the more you get to know them,” Cresswell adds. “My feeling is that we all work really well together on defence, but we don’t do anything special.
“We just train as hard as we can. We’re all hard workers, and good guys, I think that counts too. If someone isn’t putting in enough, we don’t hesitate to tell them, to put them back in their place a little bit.
“It’s partly due to my teammates, who help me a lot.”
Agent surprised Leeds let Cresswell leave Elland Road for France
One-time Millwall loanee Cresswell is undoubtedly benefitting from a run of regular starts at senior level, his experience and his confidence growing by the week. He was included in Daniel Farke’s XI just once across 46 Championship games during his final season at Leeds, after all, causing Cresswell to jump at transfer in the region of £4 million.
“Above all, I hadn’t played last season and I really needed that to build my momentum,” Cresswell concludes. “Because I knew deep down what I was capable of.
“I needed to prove it, to myself and to the others.”
Leeds United letting Charlie Cresswell go did come as a surprise to some. Particularly given that it left Farke with just three senior centre-backs, not including the versatile Ethan Ampadu and Joshua Guilavogui.
“Cressie is the weird one,” says his agent, Hayden Evans. In most people’s opinions, you know, he’s that sort of centre-back that should be on the bench right now possibly, you know.
“But then you’ve got a situation of, well, he’s clearly not fancied because other people were getting in front of him, getting minutes off the bench in front of him. The writing was totally on the wall.
“So when we tested the club by saying, we might have some interest and the club go ‘fine, this is how much we want’, it’s done. There’s no going back from that.”
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