Dan Burn has said he remains friends with Alexander Isak and wishes him well after the most controversial transfer saga of the summer ended with the striker leaving Newcastle for Liverpool for a British record fee of £125m.
Although Isak has few allies left on Tyneside after forcing his way out of St James’ Park, Burn is keen to move on from a testing transfer window and said that he is not as upset as supporters who feel betrayed by the Sweden international’s behaviour.
“I’m glad it’s done,” the Newcastle defender said. “We wanted the transfer window to close just to have clarity. I’ve been in football long enough to understand that for a player the career is short and they have things they want to achieve. I’m happy it’s over. Alex is a mate and it’s a tough situation as you want him around to help the team. But [I] also understand for him what he needs to do personally. I’ve got nothing but good wishes for Alex.
“There’s no animosity. As a Newcastle fan myself, you know what Newcastle fans are like; we’re protective of our club and city and you want players who want to be there for Newcastle and don’t want to naively think there is anywhere else to go apart from playing for Newcastle. I understand why our fans were frustrated. I’ve been in the game long enough to know what goes on and wish him all the best, apart from when we play Liverpool.”
Burn revealed that Isak received positive messages from his former teammates when he contacted the squad’s group chat to let them know he was joining Liverpool. “He put a message in the chat just saying that he was leaving, and thanks for the memories, all that sort of stuff, and the lads replied,” he said. “I think Alex is getting what he wants, and now we’ve just got to focus and do what we can with the players that we’ve got.”
Burn, who hopes to start when England host Andorra at Villa Park in World Cup qualifying on Saturday, found positives in how Newcastle’s players have reacted. “It brought us closer really,” he said. “I think it can be frustrating at times. Everything was so positive last season, so that took a little bit of a shine off.
“But I’m not silly, I’ve been around football a long time now, and people have short careers, and they want to max out absolutely everything they can, so there’s no hard feelings from me. I think we’ve got two good players in that position now, which will hopefully fill up the goals that we’ve lost.”
Newcastle replaced Isak by signing Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa. It has been a difficult summer but Burn is impressed with the players brought in by Eddie Howe and believes that the squad is better equipped to deal with the challenge of playing in the Champions League this season.
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“If you look at the whole of our transfer window, we’ve bought well, got players in the positions that we wanted to get them in,” Burn said. “I think that’s the thing that we probably need to learn from the last time we were in the Champions League.
“We probably didn’t have that depth that we needed and suffered for it. I think the club’s invested well. Alex is my mate at the end of the day, so it was a tough situation, but I’m glad that we’re getting a good return on a player and he’s getting the move that he wanted.”
