NEIL TO RANGERS

Former Sunderland captain Dan Neil has moved north of the border following the expiration of his contract with SAFC. The 24-year-old midfielder probably fancied the chance to compete for trophies and to play in European football, rather than moving back to the Championship or to a bottom six Premier League side.

It’ll be a big change for the South Shields-born player, who has spent his entire senior career, barring a half-season loan spell with Ipswich Town last season, on Wearside thus far. Rangers are in need of a boost, falling into third in the Scottish top flight last year and struggling in the Europa League. Despite falling out of favour at Sunderland in the last 12 months, Neil should be a player with momentum having now contributed to two promotions in the last two years.

Given how effective Neil has proven to be at a Championship level, the Scottish Premiership will be an environment the defensive midfielder flourishes in. Rangers are also in the Europa League qualifiers this season, so there’s a chance we could be facing off against him on the European stage. He’s sure to receive a warm reception should that be the case. It doesn’t feel that long ago that Neil was a fresh-faced youngster making his tentative first steps into the starting XI in the third tier of English football. His goal against Accrington Stanley (his first professional goal in fact) at the Stadium of Light early in the season we eventually got promoted felt like the real starting point for the boyhood SAFC fan.

It wasn’t long before he was named the EFL Young Player of the Month, attracting the attention of teams higher up the food chain such as Aston Villa. He chose to remain here though and that loyalty paid off over the coming seasons as he became a regular feature and the captain. Neil was heavily involved in all three of our seasons back in the Championship, a key member of the squad as we reached the play-offs in two of those and won promotion in the third. The fact we had a number of managers but Neil remained almost ever present on the teamsheet demonstrated perfectly how indisposable he had become.

Often criticised at times, it is worth remembering he had to transition from playing as an attacking midfielder to a defensive one whilst also moving up a division as a developing player. Of course, he had his bad days at the office but usually he was incredibly reliable, if underappreciated, throughout his time here.

Anyone who spoke to him in person will know that he is genuinely just a Sunderland fan who happens to be good at the sport and as we move into a world of multi million pound signings from abroad, players like Dan Neil will surely become less common. How many Sunderland players are likely to be from the North East going forward? It won’t be nearly as many as it used to be. One thing we should all be glad about is that he was able to reach the 200 appearances mark before leaving, simultaneously playing for his club at the highest domestic level.

In that way, Glasgow makes sense, it’s not too far from Sunderland by train or car and is a similar place in terms of being a working class city obsessed with football. You can’t say he failed here, he had little chance to challenge a player of Granit Xhaka’s quality or experience. Unfortunately the reality that survival was paramount meant we couldn’t risk giving him time to develop over playing a ready-made product that we knew would do the job. In the end though it worked out for all parties you feel, Neil is at a huge club and will be competing for league titles and we have finally qualified for Europe after over half a century.

Neil will be remembered fondly here and, hopefully, he can really kick on in his new environment and make a name for himself at another club.