It may well have been a personal best for Dan Burn. You certainly would not have thought Burn was feeling the after-effects of a 24-hour voyage after the Geordie raced off the touchline, punched the air and made a beeline for team-mate Mark Gillespie following Newcastle United’s penalty shootout win against Spurs at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Burn looked genuinely delighted for Gillespie, who saved Bryan Gil’s opening penalty, after seeing first-hand how the goalkeeper has supported and pushed his team-mates behind the scenes for several years. The roles were reversed on Wednesday following Gillespie’s first appearance for his boyhood club in three years.
Gillespie only had to travel 10,500 miles to get his chance in the final few minutes of a post-season friendly Down Under, but the stand-in captain tellingly spoke of what a ‘privilege it was to play for this club – no matter the occasion’. That was the cue for Eddie Howe to take the microphone.
“The work this guy has put in this season has just been incredible,” the Newcastle boss told NUFC TV. “Too often we always talk about the players that are playing, but never enough about the players that are not playing but contribute so much. Mark is one of those. His attitude to training is ridiculous every day.”
That is not always a given, of course, with a third-choice goalkeeper yet the scenes after the game felt like a reminder of the spirit and togetherness that have been a constant under Howe, whether it was Newcastle pulling clear of relegation in 2022, finishing in the top four in 2023 or, potentially, qualifying for Europe following an injury-ravaged campaign in 2024. Newcastle may be looking at a very different profile of goalkeeper these days, including internationals like Aaron Ramsdale and Giorgi Mamardashvili, but Howe is wary of disrupting the harmony Gillespie and Co have helped to foster in the dressing room over the years with the wrong sort of character.
“It’s so important you get the ones that will fit not just the playing style, but off the pitch as well in terms of their mentality and their conduct,” the Newcastle boss said. “We put a lot of emphasis on that.”
Even more so now. As much as it was ‘impossible’ for Newcastle to find out about a private gambling addiction Sandro Tonali hid even from those closest to him, Howe has previously admitted that it would be ‘stupid if we don’t change certain things or try to get as close as we can to making sure that we don’t end up in this situation again’.
They are not empty words. Howe has even been known to use recruitment consultants over the years, including Anton Robinson, who previously told ChronicleLive that the Newcastle boss wants to know ‘every single detail about the person’, including his living situation, motivations and interests outside the game. At a time when every signing has to count, due to financial restrictions, those character checks are more important than ever.
It may well have been a personal best for Dan Burn. You certainly would not have thought Burn was feeling the after-effects of a 24-hour voyage after the Geordie raced off the touchline, punched the air and made a beeline for team-mate Mark Gillespie following Newcastle United’s penalty shootout win against Spurs at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Burn looked genuinely delighted for Gillespie, who saved Bryan Gil’s opening penalty, after seeing first-hand how the goalkeeper has supported and pushed his team-mates behind the scenes for several years. The roles were reversed on Wednesday following Gillespie’s first appearance for his boyhood club in three years.
Gillespie only had to travel 10,500 miles to get his chance in the final few minutes of a post-season friendly Down Under, but the stand-in captain tellingly spoke of what a ‘privilege it was to play for this club – no matter the occasion’. That was the cue for Eddie Howe to take the microphone.
“The work this guy has put in this season has just been incredible,” the Newcastle boss told NUFC TV. “Too often we always talk about the players that are playing, but never enough about the players that are not playing but contribute so much. Mark is one of those. His attitude to training is ridiculous every day.”
That is not always a given, of course, with a third-choice goalkeeper yet the scenes after the game felt like a reminder of the spirit and togetherness that have been a constant under Howe, whether it was Newcastle pulling clear of relegation in 2022, finishing in the top four in 2023 or, potentially, qualifying for Europe following an injury-ravaged campaign in 2024. Newcastle may be looking at a very different profile of goalkeeper these days, including internationals like Aaron Ramsdale and Giorgi Mamardashvili, but Howe is wary of disrupting the harmony Gillespie and Co have helped to foster in the dressing room over the years with the wrong sort of character.
“It’s so important you get the ones that will fit not just the playing style, but off the pitch as well in terms of their mentality and their conduct,” the Newcastle boss said. “We put a lot of emphasis on that.”
Even more so now. As much as it was ‘impossible’ for Newcastle to find out about a private gambling addiction Sandro Tonali hid even from those closest to him, Howe has previously admitted that it would be ‘stupid if we don’t change certain things or try to get as close as we can to making sure that we don’t end up in this situation again’.
They are not empty words. Howe has even been known to use recruitment consultants over the years, including Anton Robinson, who previously told ChronicleLive that the Newcastle boss wants to know ‘every single detail about the person’, including his living situation, motivations and interests outside the game. At a time when every signing has to count, due to financial restrictions, those character checks are more important than ever.
