Sheffield Wednesday manager Garry Monk says he wants to keep goalkeeper Cameron Dawson at the club long term, amid continuing speculation about his future.

Dawson's contract at Hillsborough is set to expire at the end of the season, and it has previously been reported that Wednesday's Championship rivals Blackburn, Derby and Preston, along with Scottish giants Rangers, are all interested in the 'keeper.

The 24-year-old has taken the gloves for Wednesday's last two games in the absence of the injured Keiren Westwood, helping the Owls to a 1-1 draw with Birmingham, and 3-1 win at Charlton, and he seems to have once again made an impression at Hillsborough.

Speaking about Dawson in his pre-match press conference ahead of his side's clash with Brentford on Saturday, Monk was quoted by Sheffield Wednesday's official Twitter account as saying: "Cameron has been fantastic, thinking of the long term future and with Joe (Wildsmith) coming back, you want to keep those kind of players."

Discussing his intention for the future at Wednesday, Monk went onto admit: "Cameron is a big part of my plans. It is a strong goalkeeping department and we want to keep it that way."

Speaking recently about his own future at Wednesday, Dawson revealed that he is keen to stay with the club, in order to get the chance to one day play for them in the Premier League.

The Verdict

From what had look like a fairly uncertain future, it suddenly seems as though Dawson's prospects at Wednesday look to be a fairly open and shut case.

With Dawson starting to enjoy some more game time recently, and impressing in the process, the fact that both player and manager seem keen for him to stay suggests a new deal may not be too difficult to agree on.

Indeed, with Westwood seemingly approaching the latter stages of his career, it does seem as though those opportunities could become more and more frequent for Dawson at Hillsborough.

As a result, it is perhaps easy to see why both parties are keen to agree to a new deal, particularly with Wednesday looking tp push up the Championship table if possible in the coming seasons.