Newcastle United captain Dan Burn has said that he wants to see the Magpies fighting for European places again in the Premier League.
Following the Magpies’ pre-season draw with RC Strasbourg, Burn made clear that he wants the club to “push on as much as possible” this year.
”We want to be pushing for European places again,” he said.
”I think we started off so quickly with the project. It was such an upward trajectory.
“It was always going to go off a little bit. I think we probably exceeded expectations the first couple of years. But listen, this is a tough league.”
Burn stated how disappointed he and his teammates were after finishing 12th last season.
”We wanted to get back-to-back European qualification and we didn’t. I’d still want to be up there fighting.”
This will be met with natural scepticism given that Newcastle have sold Anthony Gordon, Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimarães this summer. Those three talismen have been replaced by very young players, who despite having high potential, are not at the level of their predecessors yet.
Therefore, comments about Europe may be seen by some as premature, especially if Newcastle go through what is expected to be a transitional season.
Burn, however, outlined his optimism despite all of the change.
”It’s positive. I think obviously change was made for certain reasons, but I think there’s new energy come in with the new staff.
“There’s a lot of people – I’m still learning names, if I’m being honest. But it’s been good and I think it’s good to bring in some new energy with younger lads as well. I think you’ve seen some of it today, especially Bazou [Touré] on the wing with his pace. He can be dangerous.
“There’s not loads of lads with Premier League experience there, but sometimes that can be a good thing. We’re building towards Liverpool [and] we’re excited.
“We’re still going to have four days of solid training, which I think is going to be a good thing. But we’ll be ready for Liverpool.”