I think all this talk of it not being fair on him, that he deserves his chance or that he has been thrown under the bus by Le Bris doesn't take into account what we have come to understand about the management and coaching team.
They are data led. KLD said in his recent interview that they did a lot of analysis on what happened to promoted teams over recent seasons to identify characteristics of those who managed to stay up/thrive and those that got immediately relegated. He said they got “a lot” of data out of that exercise. This has obviously strongly affected the brilliant recent recruitment strategy - they know the characteristics of the players who will have a chance in the Premier League.
This will, I suspect, play a part in why Dan Neil hasn’t had a chance yet. This data will surely have told them that the better players in centre midfield will need to be able to cover x ground in a match, have the ability to sprint at x speed x times a game, have x progressive passes, etc. Whatever it is, they will have that profile AND much more detailed data on where Dan Neil (and every other member of the squad) stands against the bechmarks. And that’s before he’s even observed in training up against the massive step up in quality he has around him.
So no, he hasn’t had much chance to show what he can do, but if the underlying data suggests that he will struggle in a centre mid position with the attributes that he has, and the coaching staff see with their own eyes how he’s been performing in training, they aren’t going to rush to put him in there. Especially when the coach has other options.
Yes, it could be related to his stance on his contract or anything else, but even then I don’t think they would hold that against him if they thought putting him on the pitch would increase the chances of winning points.
We’re a long way away from Reidy (bless him) falling out with players at the drop of a hat and those God-awful ‘scouts’ leaving a match early because our potential recruitment target had gloves on.
I have loved watching Dan Neil progress with the team over the past few seasons, and it was brilliant that he captained us to promotion. But if our coaching staff don’t think he’s good enough for the Prem, it will be for very good reason. And that’s more than good enough for me.