Dan Neil has revealed past conversations with his idol Jordan Henderson amid rumours of a romantic return to Wearside. Neil has given his personal blessing for the experienced midfielder to come back to his boyhood club and help us achieve promotion...
MET FOR A COFFEE
“I got his phone number off David Jones and I met him for a coffee at St George's. It was actually when I got taken out of the team in League One with Alex Neil, and I just had a chat with him about what's happened when you've had setbacks in your career. He was really good. He gave me some really good advice. I was a little bit nervous to text him asking for a coffee. But to be fair, he replied to the message and I'm glad that I sent it and met him because he gave me some really valuable advice that I still carry to this day."
ALL ABOUT HARD WORK
“A lot of it was about preparation through the week really. Run more than anyone else, do more in the gym than anyone else, work on whatever you need to work on more than anyone else, and then there's no need to not feel confident going into the game because you know that you've worked all week for it. That was the biggest thing that he gave to me.”
ACADEMY INSPIRATION
“Coming through the academy, you always keep a close eye on the academy products and how they're doing. There are so many academy products from this club that have had really good careers, and I think the two Jordans (Henderson and Pickford) are the standard for that. I think having that standard so high allows the likes of me, Riggy and Patto to keep striving because if they can do it, we can all do it at some point. They're really good role models for the lads that have come through.”
HE CAN COME BACK
“Yeah, he can come back if he wants! Would I like to play with him? Of course I would. He's a top-quality player. Whenever you get to play with top-quality players, you embrace it.”
RIGGY V LUTON
“I just went over and said, you were brilliant today, well done. He gets frustrated when he gets taken off sometimes because you always have to remind him you're 17 and you need to rest your legs."
LOCAL LADS
“Riggy lives two minutes from us. He lives around the corner from us, so it's always nice to play in midfield with somebody who's so local to you. And it's nice to play in midfield with such a developing talent, and just see him each week getting better and better and better.
YOUNG MIDFIELD
“Jobe and Riggy are still pretty new on the scene, and they've been absolutely brilliant. They've played so many minutes already this year for being 17 and 18 years old, and it's nice to have them in front of me. I'm getting old now, I need the legs in front of me! They've both been absolutely excellent but I think they've got really mature heads on their shoulders and they know that there's only 11, 12 games, whatever it is, and they want to do it for a full season and we want to be up there by the end of the season and that takes everybody. They've got really mature heads on their shoulders and they're not going to stop.”
