Alan Brazil believes Tottenham Hotspur should have made a move for Dan Burn before the Premier League giant joined Newcastle United for £9 million, speaking to talkSPORT (18 March, 9.45am).
Perhaps the least-heralded of Newcastle’s five January signings could also be their most integral.
While Kieran Trippier’s impact has been curtailed by injury, while Bruno Guimaraes has spent more time on the bench than on the pitch, Burn has been a rock at the heart of Eddie Howe’s vastly-improved backline.
Newcastle’s first centre-back signing since Federico Fernandez arrived from Swansea City all the way back in 2018, Burn might not have captured the imagination like Sven Botman or Diego Carlos would have done.
But a series of colossal performances since joining his boyhood club have provided the platform for a sudden upturn in form.
Before losing their last two games, against Chelsea and Everton, the Magpies had won six out of seven. In fact, their only dropped points in that run came during a creditable 1-1 draw away at West Ham. A result secured despite the absences of Callum Wilson and Allan Saint-Maximin.
Could Dan Burn save Newcastle from relegation?
And Brazil believes another Premier League club could have done a lot worse than to look at one of the division’s more underrated centre-halves in the winter window.
“Do you know who Tottenham should have bought, I think? Burn, who went to Newcastle,” says Brazil, the former Scotland international who represented Spurs in the 1980s.
“Why didn’t they take a chance on him? He’s brilliant at set-pieces, for and against, he’s not slow…
“(He’s a Newcastle fan) but surely someone should’ve got to him first.”
Whisper it but Antonio Conte does appear to be getting a tune out of an often off-key Spurs defence. Better late than never, of course.
Yes, Cristiano Ronaldo might have rolled back the years on Saturday. But Tottenham have actually kept clean sheets in three of their last four Premier League games, inspired by a returning Eric Dier and the monstrous Cristian Romero.
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