DAVID MOYES would love to make Jordan Pickford the heartbeat of Sunderland’s Premier League future but would offer no guarantees over the young goalkeeper’s future at the Stadium of Light.

Pickford is under contract at his hometown club for a further four years and there is no desire to sell him from within the corridors of power, despite knowing he is being carefully monitored by a number of top clubs.

Liverpool, who Sunderland face this afternoon at Anfield, are one of those keeping an eye on his progress, while Manchester City and Manchester United have been credited with an interest.

His profile has grown to new heights after shining on the Premier League stage ten times this season; his first campaign as a regular for the Black Cats after an injury to Vito Mannone opened the door.

The 22-year-old’s performances have earned him England recognition, having been included in Gareth Southgate’s last squad for the World Cup qualifier with Scotland and the friendly with Spain at Wembley.

When asked if he was braced for a big money bid for the keeper in January, Moyes said: “I hope it won’t be too difficult. But sometimes on the journey of building clubs up, these things happen. I can only tell the story from Everton because Wayne (Rooney) was the same.

“We got a big offer from Manchester United, we fought, I was saying we were not selling, but ultimately, the sale helped us try to do the right things after that and we needed it.

“While you are rebuilding, on the journey, if you bring players in and they do really well, some of the big clubs want them then that’s different. The difference is that Jordan is one of our own home-grown players and we certainly wouldn’t be in a hurry to do it. But if he keeps performing at the level he is, I’m sure he’s going to draw attention from big clubs.”

While admitting he could be powerless to prevent a sale if money talks in a way that saw Jordan Henderson head to Liverpool for £20m in 2011, Moyes was also keen to stress he would love to keep him on Wearside.

“I don't want it to sound as if we want to sell Jordan. Far from it. It's the complete opposite,” said Moyes. “I want to build a team and I want to build a young, new team.

“But there will be building blocks that have to be taken out to put other ones on as we go along. Jordan has got an awful lot of attributes and there's more improvement to come from him. He'll get better. You've seen the saves he's making at the moment, for a young boy, is quite extraordinary. It really is.”

Ahead of a trip to Liverpool, a city where Moyes spent a large chunk of his career leading the blue half of Everton, he learned about the importance of having local talent at the core of a team.

He said: “Having your own local lads in any team is a big thing. I use Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher as examples. Every time we went to play Liverpool they were the heartbeat of the football club, they were the heartbeat. I knew they were the two who were saying 'This is a derby, you know what this is all about'.

“We need Jordan Pickford to be a bit of our heartbeat, even though he's only young. But Steven Gerrard started young, Jamie Carragher started young, and they grew into their senior roles. Let's hope Jordan does the same here.”

Sunderland are without Papy Djilobodji through suspension and Paddy McNair will miss his first game of many after rupturing knee ligaments against Hull a week ago. Jan Kirchhoff is still ruled out because of a lack of match fitness, but Seb Larsson could figure.