Player given Premier League debut by Graeme Souness signs for Connah’s Quay Nomads

Cymru Premier champions Connah’s Quay Nomads have signed Guyana international Neil Danns, a player who has made more than 500 Football League appearances.

Danns is a 38-year-old midfielder who started out at Blackburn Rovers and has played the majority of his career in the English Championship, recording in excess of 100 outings for Crystal Palace between 2008-2011, 106 at Bolton Wanderers and 30 at Leicester City, where he was one of Sven Goran-Erikkson’s first signings when the Swede took over as boss in 2010.

Danns has also featured three times in the Premier League for Blackburn and twice as a substitute for Birmingham City under Steve Bruce.

Then Rovers manager Graeme Souness gave Danns a surprise debut on 19 September 2002 in the starting eleven for a 1-1 draw with CSKA Sofia in the UEFA Cup;

He made his first Premier League appearance three days later as a late substitute in a 1-0 win over Leeds United and went on feature six times in all competitions in the 2002-03 season.

Danns made his Guyanan international debut in March 2015, where he set up both goals in a 2-0 victory over Grenada. He was part of Guyana’s 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup squad and scored all three of his countries goals in the competition.

In all, he has netted nine times in 17 internationals.

Danns came to the attention of Nomads manager Andy Morrison when he recently played in a behind closed doors game for Chorley against the Quay.

Chorley ultimately had their season curtailed prematurely and as such Danns became available.

Morrison had the following to say on Danns’ arrival at Deeside: ”It’s not about numbers, it’s about quality and Neil brings great quality and great experience and when those games get a bit tasty later on and it’s a big high pressure game, and there are huge pressure games for different reasons in this league, when they come along you want experience, you want legs, you want people that have been at and played at a level where that game won’t phase them and Neil’s come in and signed until the end of the season and I’m absolutely delighted.”

Danns will wear the number 11 shirt and is available pending international clearance.

Nomads are currently second in the Cymru Premier table, three points behind TNS with a game in hand but an inferior goal difference of +14.

The Quay are due to restart their campaign at home to Newtown on Saturday.