Dan Burn appeared on BBC 5 Live Sport’s Monday Night Club last night and has lavished praise on Eddie Howe while also admitting he was unsure of his long-term future at Newcastle.
Burn came to Newcastle in January from Brighton and quickly established a superb centre-back partnership with Fabian Schar, who had looked to be on his way out of the club before Eddie Howe’s arrival. Then despite forking out £35m on Sven Botman after a lengthy chase, Burn and Schar kept their places at the start of the season, it was only an injury to Matt Targett that brought about the switch at the back with Burn moving to left-back and Botman starting as centre-half.
Speaking about having to play left-back this season to cover Matt Targett, Burn joked about Sven Botman staking a claim to his centre-back spot: “The centre-halves we were linked with in January and then we went and signed Sven (Botman) in the summer.
“I always knew it could be the case of being signed to be a short-term fix.
“Knowing that in the long-term they were going to have to do something.
“I’ve said in interviews time and time before if I can get myself into the team, and in training, I’ll back myself against anyone they bring in.
“I don’t think Sven wants us to play centre-half apparently so that’s why he did it (knocked him out)!” – referring to Botman’s clearance which struck Burn on the head knocking him out and keeping him out for a couple of games.
Burn also spoke of training under Eddie Howe admitting that the intensity and variety of training is “crazy” and far more difficult than what he was used to at Brighton: “I knew it was going to be intense. There are a lot of similarities between Graham Potter and Howe with the way they go about preparing for games. There are differences as well.
“With Eddie now, the way that we play demands a certain level of intensity, and it comes every single day.
“The sessions are a lot longer than what I was used to and I took a little while to get used to.
“What I find crazy about the gaffer’s training at the minute is that we never really seem to do the same session twice.”
Burn admits that the “buzz” of being announced as “Newcastle’s Dan Burn” still hasn’t worn off after finally realising his childhood dream.
****Vital Newcastle are looking to recruit a new writer for the site. If you are a fan of the club and can commit to writing 3—5 articles at least 4 days per week then we would love to hear from you. Mail paddy@snack-media.com for more information****
TALKING TOON TALKS LORIS KARIUS AND THE KNOCK-ON EFFECT OF THE QUEEN’S PASSING ON FOOTBALL