Boateng tips Cairney for success

Published Apr. 27, 2010 6:11 a.m. ET

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The Tigers were consigned to Championship football next season when defeat by Sunderland at the weekend left them needing a miracle to avoid relegation with two games of the season remaining. Boateng has played alongside Cairney, 19, in midfield this season, while fellow teenagers Mark Cullen and Liam Cooper have also made their debuts in the first team. "If you look at Tom Cairney, he's a young, bright player, and it hurts me that a player like that is going to be playing Championship football," said Boateng. "He's good enough to play in the Premier League and perhaps, in a couple of seasons, if he develops, he could be maybe one day an England international. But unfortunately he has to do it the hard way. "The same goes for Cullen. It's going to be Championship football for those players and it's devastating for them because they don't have the luck that I had when I was younger, to play European football, to play Champions League football."