Tony Mowbray makes confident Dan Neil Premier League prediction

Sunderland boss hoping the club can grow 'fast enough' to hold off Premier League interest in Dan Neil.

Tony Mowbray says he has no doubts that Dan Neil will become a Premier League player, and he hopes it happens with Sunderland.

Neil has had a fine season with his hometown club and has become a mainstay of the side since the Black Cats stepped back into the Championship.

He had a welcome return to form in the 1-0 win at Norwich this week, and Mowbray says the potential should be obvious for everyone to see.

"I genuinely think Dan Neil is on a journey which will, hopefully with this club, take him to the Premier League," Mowbray said.

"If it's not this club and we can't get there fast enough I think the Premier League will phone up about him.

"He's an amazing human being and wants to be a footballer who listens to everything you tell him, who wants to get better, who sits and watches his clips and what he did well and what he didn't do well. He's just a kid on a journey and it's going to be tough to stop him.”

The midfielder’s desire to develop has really come to the fore since the season-ending injury to captain Corry Evans, with Neil taking on greater defensive responsibility in his absence.

That has seen him make a couple of costly errors on the ball, but it’s all part of a learning curve that Mowbray says will benefit Neil – and Sunderland – in the long run.

"Our job as coaching staff is to help him along, keep making him understand he needs to have both aspects,” he said.

“The best midfield players in my mind have some steel and then look silky and play lovely passes, but then when the ball breaks between him and the other guy, he smashes into the tackle and comes out with the ball.

“He's still a young man but somewhere down the line he will become a really good footballer."

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