Sunderland's highly-rated ex-Birmingham City man wanted by Alex Neil's Stoke City

Former Sunderland boss Neil is set to make sweeping changes alongside technical director Ricky Martin with ex-Black Cats midfielder and Stoke City legend, Rory Delap, having already been dismissed.

The Black Cats signed Delap in 2005 under Mick McCarthy. Sunderland suffered relegation to the Championship and the midfielder was loaned to Stoke City after Roy Keane took over at the Stadium of Light, eventually joining on a permanent deal before joining the staff as a coach.

Following Delap’s dismissal, however, a report from The Mirror has stated that Neil is interested in bringing Sunderland’s Dodds to Stoke City as Delap’s replacement.

Dodds is highly rated in football circles having played a huge role in the development of Dortmund and England star Jude Bellingham whilst the pair were at Birmingham City together before Dodds joined Sunderland.

Dodds formed part of the coaching staff under Neil at Sunderland after taking temporary charge of the first team following Lee Johnson’s sacking midway through last season.

Neil, when asked about bringing in a new coach on Friday, said: “That's something that is ongoing like most things at the club. We'll see where we get to. I'm not sure at the moment, we'll need to wait and see.

“There are a whole list of things I'd like to do but naturally we've only got so much time and there's only so much manoeuvrability to make sure we get to where we want to get to.”