Jon Walters is Stoke City's man for all seasons

Stoke City are up to seventh. Has anyone noticed?

In the season where Leicester City have been the best story in years, where newly promoted Watford have surprised everyone, where Slaven Bilic has worked wonders with West Ham United and Alan Pardew has done the same with Crystal Palace, where Chelsea have put up the worst title defence in memory and where Aston Villa went 157 days between their first and second league victories, Stoke are seventh.

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More specifically, Jon Walters' Stoke are seventh. Walters scored the goal that broke down the 10 men of Norwich on Wednesday night. Just like Walters scored the winning goal when he was recalled to the starting line-up against Doncaster in the FA Cup on Saturday. Walters is the man his manager Mark Hughes can turn to in the knowledge that he will always get a performance. Stoke are a better club for having Walters. They have evolved with Walters.

Bojan, Arnautovic, Afellay and Shaqiri are the players that have helped turn Stoke into a team that excites and enthrals. At the start of the season there was no room for Walters. Frustrated by contract negotiations in the summer, he handed in a transfer request. Norwich made a couple of bids for him, but they fell short of Stoke's valuation. Three-million pounds would have been enough. There was no navel-gazing self-pity, Walters knuckled down and showed what an important player he is, on and off the field. By October he had signed a new contract tying him down for a further two and a half years.

By the time he leaves the Britannia Stadium Walters will be up there with the all-time greats at the club. Along with Ryan Shawcross, nobody has consistently given more to Stoke's cause over a sustained period of time in the Premier League era. He is the antithesis of the sulking show pony that can turn up in today's game.

Remember the unpalatable saga of Raheem Sterling's summer transfer?  When a national newspaper reported that Sterling had turned down £100,000 a week, despite scoring less goals than Walters last season, Walters quick-wittedly tweeted a photo of himself, knocking on his manager's office door, with the caption: "Not happy with this, I'm going in…I want at least £120k."

Along with Ryan Shawcross, nobody has consistently given more to Stoke's cause over a sustained period of time in the Premier League era

Walters is our player. When we sit in the stand and watch him, it could be one of us. Not because any of us have so much as an ounce of his ability. Not because any of us could ever possibly play in the Premier League. None of that. It's because in the parallel world where we did get the chance to perform on that stage, that's the way we'd approach it too. Wringing every last drop out of our bodies, leaving everything we have out there. Not wanting to come off the pitch thinking there was anything left to give. That is Walters. He earns his money.

His stay at Stoke has been defined by his energy, adaptability and team ethos. Rarely played as an out-and-out striker, Walters has also found a place in a deeper central role, but more often out wide on the left or right. Here, his willingness to track back and help in defence, as well as get forward and provide crosses, has come to the fore. But no player survives in the Premier League just by having a good work rate. Walters is a class act. He scores goals and there is quality to everything he does.

And on the very rare occasions he has been out of form, he even does that brilliantly. Remember the 4-0 home defeat against Chelsea three years ago this week? Walters grabbed the game by the scruff off the neck - for Chelsea - with two own goals and a missed penalty. Such a performance could have finished off lesser characters. However, Walters became the club's top scorer that season and went on to set a record of 102 consecutive Premier League appearances for an outfield player, which only ended when he missed a game against Cardiff City due to injury in December later that year.

What is interesting for a man who has made consistency of performance one of his major assets is that it took him so long to forge out a career at the top. After leaving Blackburn as a youngster in 2001, he spent the rest of the decade working his way up to the Premier League. Bolton, Hull, Crewe, Barnsley, Scunthorpe, Wrexham, Chester. A Journeyman's Guide To The North. Walters never really settled anywhere until his 2007 move to Ipswich, where Jim Magilton signed him for just £100,000. The Suffolk club turned a tidy profit on Walters when he was sold to Stoke for £2.75m, but it was the Potters who got the best end of that deal.

Asked on Wednesday night after the win against Norwich if Stoke could seriously mount a challenge for a Champions' League spot, Walters was typically understated. "Steady on," was the reply. "We'll just improve from last year and keep our feet on the ground." He doesn't get carried away.

But there is emotion in his game. Earlier this season on a November night in Dublin, he proved his worth to his country in a personal performance that will live long in the memory. Walters is a Wirral lad, but qualifies for the Republic of Ireland by virtue of his mother Helen hailing from the capital. He was only 11 when his mum passed away. From a young age he made the decision that, if ever the chance came, he would represent Ireland. So when he scored the two goals that secured the 2-0 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina to take the Republic to Euro 2016, it was a personal triumph too.

Six months ago the 32-year-old wouldn't have predicted this. Out of Stoke's plans and with Ireland's qualification hopes in the balance, it could have been very different. But Walters himself has stepped up once more. His club needs him. His country needs him. We all need Jon Walters.