Newcastle's Dan Burn: I'll spend summer dreaming of Real, Barca and derbies
Dan Burn will spend the summer dreaming of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Sunderland after helping Newcastle cap a remarkable season.
Boyhood Newcastle fan Burn, who scored the opening goal in the club's Carabao Cup final victory over Liverpool at Wembley in March, has a second Champions League campaign in three years to look forward after Eddie Howe's men secured a fifth-placed Premier League finish, if ultimately by the skin of their teeth.
The 33-year-old, who last week signed a one-year contract extension, also found the back of the net in a famous 4-1 win over Paris St Germain in October 2023 and is hungry for more.
Asked who his dream opponents would be this time around, Burn said: 'I want to play against the best teams, so I'd love to play against Madrid, Barcelona. That's why you want to play Champions League football – it'll be exciting.
'It'll be good to even see Sunderland getting back to the Premier League. It's such a weird thing because I'm really excited about it.
'I shouldn't be, but those were the games when I was a kid. The derby days were the first fixtures I'd look for when they came out, so I wouldn't say that I'm happy for them coming up, but I am happy that we get the derbies back.'
Newcastle's derby rivals secured their return to the top-flight by beating Sheffield United at Wembley in a dramatic finish to Saturday's Sky Bet Championship play-off final.
Twenty-four hours later, there was a tense conclusion at St James' Park too as the Magpies rather fluffed their lines on a day when victory would have secured their passage, and had to rely on helping hands from Manchester United and Chelsea to fend off Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest after a 1-0 defeat by Everton, courtesy of Charly Alcaraz's 65th-minute header.
That was just reward for a season which started indifferently, but gathered pace and for Burn, who will now head off on England duty, it is only a start.
He said: 'I don't think we're far away from sort of challenging at the top. The gaffer has mentioned that we've not strengthened in the last few seasons, so it will probably be a big summer to add players and keep it fresh.
'It's probably just going to be that change of mentality where we really get that belief that we should be up there.
'It would be great to have a good Champions League run and I'm sure that he would love to win another cup. I feel like now that we've won that first cup, it's broken the seal a bit and now we feel like we can really do that again.'
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