Dwight McNeil turned 20 only last month, yet he is already an established presence on the left wing at Burnley, with the promise of a long Premier League career ahead and bigger clubs beginning to show interest in his rare ability to beat defenders with the ball at his feet.
To say those feet are firmly planted on the ground might be understating the matter, for McNeil’s is a football success story based on family values and recurring routines. As a child he would watch his father playing for clubs at non-league and lower league level around the north-west. “Stalybridge Celtic spotted him first, and he went to Hyde, Runcorn, Macclesfield and Stockport, with me and my mum following him everywhere every week,” McNeil explains.
“From a very young age all I wanted to do was watch football, particularly when my dad was playing. According to my mum there was an old couple at Runcorn who couldn’t believe how quiet and well-behaved I was at the age of about three. ‘He loves football,’ she told them. ‘He follows the game.’”
McNeil still lives with his parents, Matty and Tracy, in a house that bears testimony to two football careers, not one. “Going up our stairs, you pass my debut shirt on the wall, then my England Under‑21s debut shirt, then Dad’s from playing for Macclesfield against José Mourinho’s Chelsea, then finally his Stockport one from the promotion play-off at Wembley, with his winner’s medal next to it,” he says. “It’s a nice reminder all the time; you go past my stuff then his is there.”
Naturally McNeil Sr, a striker rather than a winger, did everything he could to help his son realise his ambition to also become a footballer. “He would have supported me with whatever I chose to do, but with me it was only ever going to be football,” McNeil says. “I still don’t have a clue what I might be doing if I hadn’t been any good, but once that decision was made Dad gave me tons of help.
“Where we used to live there was a park with a massive cage. We would be there all the time doing sessions and drills. Lots of technical stuff, loads of cones and little goals. We would work on getting my touches going; dribbling has always been one of my strengths but I still work on improving it.
“Dad advised me to watch the players who could go past people, and told me that if I got the first touch right I could glide past defenders too. It’s a really key quality to have on the pitch, especially in tight situations, but for me it all goes back to all those drills in the cage in the park.”
The player the young McNeil modelled himself on most was Ryan Giggs. “I used to watch everything he did,” he says. “Direct dribbles past people, crosses, goals, leadership, I just lapped it up. I was a United fan anyway, and so was my brother Bailey, but whereas he used to change the name on the back of his shirt quite often, every time United bought someone exciting or new, I just stuck with Giggs all the way through.”
Despite spending nine years in United’s youth ranks McNeil never got to meet his hero, the policy of the club being to keep development players strictly separate from senior performers. Rather ludicrously, McNeil was picked up by United at the age of five, spotted while playing at a JJB Sports soccer school near the Trafford Centre for which his parents used to pay £10 for two hours of football activity.
“Bolton approached us first, but my mum and dad told them I was too young,” he explains. “Then when United showed interest and said they could see I had some technical ability, they were willing to go along with it. I was at United until I was 14, then I was released. The club didn’t say anything to me, they just contacted my parents. Obviously I was disappointed and a bit hurt, because I had been chasing a dream and I wanted to prove I could be better than my dad, but Burnley stepped in to offer me a six-week trial and I’ve never looked back since.
“There are other players here who have been through the same thing, and now I’m older I can see it sometimes works out for the best. Everyone has setbacks in life and even at a young age you have to deal with them. Personally I became more demanding of myself from age 14 onwards, more driven to succeed, so I suppose it was character-building in a way.”
If the football rumour mill is to be believed McNeil could be back at United in the not too distant future. Burnley’s manager, Sean Dyche, has accepted he has a talent on his hands who may soon outgrow homely Turf Moor, though for now McNeil is perfectly happy. “Everyone is down to earth here, everyone gets treated the same and we’ve got a really good team spirit,” he says. “I’m the youngest in the squad by about four or five years but everyone gets on, it is a really good group. I feel like part of the family.”
McNeil’s actual family must be delighted. “Of course,” he says. “My dad comes to every game, no matter where it is. It’s funny but my mum didn’t really like football at first, when she met my dad. Now she’s just used to it.”
