IN Dan Burn, England are getting someone with a bit of backbone, character, and leadership.
Someone who says what he is feeling no matter what, but also a genuinely nice and proper bloke.
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It looks like Thomas Tuchel was in need of a few older heads with a bit more pride in playing for England, and he has hit the jackpot with Burn.
He will be absolutely buzzing when he walks in the door at St George’s Park, and he deserves it. I just hope he gets a real crack of the whip.
I remember when I started out at CBS after my playing days doing some punditry, he gave me my first interview after a Newcastle game.
He didn’t have to do that, he could have said no, but that’s just the sort of guy he is.
I played against him a few times during my Watford career, more so in Burn’s early days at Fulham and Birmingham, and then Brighton, and I have to say, I really enjoyed it.
Mainly because I always seemed to get the better of him!
He was just a young kid then. He was big height wise – as he is now – but he didn’t know his position well enough and I would just run all over him and dominated him physically.
Sometimes you have players who need to move into a new system to improve, and that’s what happened at Brighton alongside their other defensive giants like Lewis Dunk and Adam Webster.
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And ever since he has gone to Newcastle, he has been a monster, rebuilding his game and his career from the ground up.
He has a great chance now to win a trophy in the Carabao Cup final against Liverpool before earning his first senior England cap – not bad at all!
And for me, every Englishman should be screaming: ‘We need Newcastle to win’.
It’s not a slight Liverpool in any stretch, but it comes at a time when we have a German coach in Thomas Tuchel leading the England national team.
Eddie Howe it seems wasn’t even in the conversation, but winning a trophy would change everything. Not just for him, but for the reputation of English coaches as a whole.
If Eddie was to lift the Carabao Cup at Wembley in charge of Newcastle, maybe other owners would think: You know what, I’m going to put my trust in an English coach.
Maybe the FA would think: Have we made a mistake?
Eddie has won trophies with Bournemouth, but this would be different. We would finally have an English coach who is viewed as a ‘winner’.
And maybe it would see Eddie come out of his shell a bit. He is still very reserved, shy even, for all the stuff he has done in his career. Not the personality that the real elite managers often have.
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No one really labels English coaches as born winners. You have to be Spanish or Portuguese or German. I really want that to change.
We want winners as a country, desperate for it. Gareth Southgate came so close but hasn’t won anything yet.
Eddie also needs this to prove to Newcastle what he can do, even if he has done so much there already, guiding them to Champions League football while complying with PSR restrictions.
Look at how he has been able to transform Jacob Murphy, Lewis Hall – who Chelsea didn’t want – Anthony Gordon, Joelinton, Nick Pope, or even Burn.
And in their current form, they have won 14 of their last 19 games in all competitions.
If Manchester City and Pep Guardiola did that, we would be going potty saying they are back and that they are going to win the Premier League.
It sounds strange, but it will be disappointing if Liverpool end this season with just the Premier League title. Everyone was tipping them for the quadruple before, just like last season.
Of course, the likes of Arsenal, Manchester United or even Man City would bite your hand off for a Prem and cup double right now – but Arne Slot has set the bar so high. He needs to reach it now.
