Stoke City captain Ryan Shawcross is convinced by the quality in the academy.

Tom Edwards and Thibuad Verlinden have been promoted to Mark Hughes's bench already this season while more have been training regularly with the first team. Shawcross expects a little gang to make a concerted push for Premier League game time over the next 12 months.

"It's brilliant for the club," he told The Sentinel. "I know the chairman set out some time ago that he wanted to get some youth players through and get some Stoke lads through. We're doing that at the moment. There are three or four players who are really pushing to get into the first team squad for next year. Hopefully they can put a good performance in and get through to the final."