Stoke boss O'Neill happy with interest for Spurs, Everton target Souttar | OneFootball

Stoke City manager Michael O'Neill is confident they can keep hold of Harry Souttar.

The defender is being linked with Tottenham and Everton.

"Harry has had a very strong start to the season. He's obviously playing senior international football and appears to have established himself in the Australia national team. That will obviously generate interest," the Stoke boss told the Stoke Sentinel.

"I think that's a positive for us as a club. We're in a strong position.

"We signed these young players on long-term contracts and the idea is they would become prominent players here and hopefully help us get back to the Premier League.

"They are young players and all have ambitions to play right at the top level of the game.

"I think that the fact there is that interest (is a positive), albeit during an international window the media sometimes have to create news as opposed to report it and we don't take too much notice of that.

"Harry is very grounded, very focused on the present and that's the role he has in our team at this minute in time."