Sunderland: Rigg could be the next Neil

Sunderland have a variety of gifted younger gamers who’ve been catching the attention within the academy set-up at first of the 2022/23 marketing campaign.

Max Thompson, who joined the membership from fellow Championship facet Burnley in the summertime, has scored five objectives and offered one help in 5 Premier League 2 matches and the likes of Caden Kelly and Zak Johnson have additionally been regulars for the U21s.

They are going to all be hoping to observe within the footsteps of earlier academy graduates and one of many gamers they’re trying to emulate is present first-team midfielder Daniel Neil.

The 20-year-old gem burst onto the scene final season as he performed 39 matches in League One for the Black Cats below Lee Johnson and Alex Neil, beginning 31 instances.

He has remained a key participant for Sunderland following their promotion to the second tier and has began 11 of the membership’s 13 fixtures thus far this time period.

One participant who might be the following Neil to step into the first-team arrange, while enjoying in the identical place, is 15-year-old central midfielder Chris Rigg.

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The gifted teen has stepped as much as the U21s this season, regardless of not turning 16 till January, and has performed twice within the Premier League 2 thus far.

He was instantly concerned in four objectives in 9 appearances – two objectives and two assists – for the U18s in 2021/22 and has arrange one purpose in his solitary outing for them within the present marketing campaign.

Journalist Phil Smith claimed that he was “sensational” at that age group final season and his performances haven’t gone unnoticed outdoors of the Stadium of Mild.

Final month, it was reported that Premier League facet Newcastle are concerned with signing the midfielder from their bitter rivals for a charge of £2.5m. Sunderland are said to be determined to maintain him as he’s rated as the very best younger prospect in the UK as a consequence of his performances for membership and nation.

The teen has additionally confirmed himself to be a pacesetter for his age, not too long ago captaining England in a youth workforce match towards Italy, and has been called up by his nation at U15 and U16 stage.

While Mowbray could not name upon the teen this season as a consequence of his age, he could look to unearth the teen’s expertise sooner or later and try to combine him into the primary workforce in the identical manner Johnson did with Neil in 2021/22.

After all, it’s all the way down to Rigg to show that he can deal with the step as much as senior soccer however his statistics, the curiosity in his providers, and his worldwide recognition counsel that he has the potential to take action, which is why he might be the following academy graduate to excel on Wearside.