Everton U21 coach Alan Stubbs hopes Paolo di Canio can prove himself at Sunderland.

Ex-Sunderland defender Stubbs played alongside Di Canio at Celtic, now reserve team boss at Everton

"He was fantastic to play with. He was just as he is in management - volatile, passionate, anything can happen," he told the Evening Chronicle.

"He was that type of player and he is that type of manager. But I have got to say, speaking personally, that he was probably one of the best foreign players that I have ever trained with. He was absolutely top drawer.

"He's also a really nice guy, he's infectious and has a great personality.

"He's a bit Marmite - you either love him or you don't - but I got on really well with him.

"He was a great figure in the dressing room and he was a character.

"He liked the mirror, he owned the mirror in our dressing room! We could never get him away from it and he was always telling us how beautiful he was.

"But that's just him. He's a great guy.

"Wherever he has gone, there has always been controversy, but I have to say he did a really good job at Swindon and he has had a meteoric rise."