Some ‘breaking news’ has emerged from Sky Sports in the last few moments, revealing that Newcastle United have agreed a fee to sign Brighton’s Dan Burn.
Keith Downie reports that the club will pay £13m for the giant defender, handing Eddie Howe a late breakthrough in our never-ending search for a new centre-back this month.
The North-East correspondent also confirms that Burn is travelling up to Tyneside as we speak ahead of his medical at the club.
The 6ft 7′ Geordie was born in Blyth and is a boyhood Newcastle United fan, with him on our books as a kid before he was released as an 11-year-old way back in 2004.
It’s not the big name arrival some were hoping for, with us trying and failing to sign the likes of Sven Botman or Diego Carlos, but Burn adds Premier League experience, height, versatility and a left-footed option who is surprisingly quick for a player of his size.
As for the £13m fee, Brighton have done pretty well considering he’s 29 and out of contract next summer, however it’s good to see us finally get this one agreed after £8m and £10m bids were rejected over the past 48 hours.
Here’s confirmation from Keith Downie just a few moments ago, with this deal set to take our January spending to £90m:
It may not be the inspirational marquee signing some hoped for, but this is such a solid signing if it comes off.
My thinking is it will be mainly to get us through the next 17 games then we go back for Botman in the summer if we stay up. We’d still have a very good back up player in Burn if that was the case.
If our fortunes don’t improve and we ultimately go down, Burn is definitely a defender that would help us come straight back up I reckon – but I’m not giving much thought to that scenario.
Sharpy17(Quote)
I love the way that you say Burn would be the “back-up”.
I’d have thought it would be Lascelles sitting on the bench.
Daveys **** mate(Quote)