Former Liverpool and Fulham full-back John Arne Riise has admitted he was surprised by Dan Burn’s £13m move to Newcastle United when it first happened but relayed that it was a “great move” for the 30-year-old. Riise played with Burn during his time at Fulham while the latter was still in the formative years of his professional career and still had a lot of development left as a defender.
However, he showed at Brighton and Hove Albion under Graham Potter his progression playing in a back three but also slotting in at left-back in a back four for Potter’s forward-thinking Seagulls side. He made 85 appearances for Brighton before completing the move to his boyhood club Newcastle in January, signing a two-and-a-half-year contract at St James’ Park and played a crucial role upon his arrival as Newcastle flipped their season on its axis to go from accepting relegation to pushing for a top-half finish.
A big part of this transformation was the defensive revolution after Burn, Kieran Trippier and Matt Targett were brought in during the January window. After 19 games, Newcastle had conceded an astonishing 42 goals but were defensively solid from January onwards, conceding just 20 from their remaining 19 outings.
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Riise's played with Burn during the Ashington man's early years at Fulham. Burn's Newcastle move caught the Norwegian off-guard at first, but the 41-year-old recognised the improvements the Englishman has made to his game since then. Riise said: “I didn’t see that [the Newcastle move] coming when I played with him. But he was young then.
"I didn’t see him playing for Newcastle at that time if I am honest with you. But he took steps, and like you said, Brede Hangeland was tall and Sami Hyypia, the same when I played with him. He [Burn] has a great left foot, though. Passing-wise. And he is a lot tackle smarter than he was back then, so he is taking steps.”
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