Davide Santon the new Phil Neville, says Alan Pardew

Santon as versatile as Phil Neville?

Alan Pardew has damned Davide Santon with false praise, describing him as the ‘new Phil Neville’ due to his versatility.

Santon has featured a right-back, left-back and central midfield this season for Newcastle and his manager feels that gives him a similar strength to Neville, who featured as both a midfielder and defender during his spells with Manchester United and Everton.

Neville won 59 England caps due to his versatility and won everything there was to win during his time with Manchester United and Pardew can only hope Santon can replicate even half of that success.

Pardew told reporters, “When i look at somebody like Phil Neville, Santon in my opinion could be the Phil Neville of this football club.

“A kind of unsung hero, like Neville was at Manchester United. You look at when they won trophies, he was very important.

“The important thing is that Davide’s got a long-term future at this club. He’s still only young and is still gaining experience.

“He can play right-back, left-back and now he has shown he can play central midfield, so you’re looking at one very important player.”

Santon moved into the centre of midfield to help cope with injuries for the first time against Chelsea and performed amicably, completing 95% of his passes. Which is probably a better success rate than Neville ever achieve