Dan Burn and Joelinton prove Newcastle's resurrection is down to more than money

No matter how many people denigrate Newcastle United’s transformation by insisting it is solely down to money, they have not reached the semi-finals of the League Cup because of the extreme wealth of their Saudi Arabian owners.

It is a common theme: Newcastle and manager Eddie Howe are praised for the superb work done while detractors point to a net spend in excess of £200 million in two transfer windows, as though this explains everything. It is an ignorant argument and completely fails to grasp what has been done on Tyneside over the past 12 months. 

The identity of Newcastle’s two goalscorers in Tuesday’s 2-0 win over Leicester City took a highlighter pen to the more prudent improvements made from last season’s relegation battle. Newcastle did not sign Dan Burn because they are rich. They did not outbid anyone, or throw money at him or Brighton to persuade them to sell. They did not behave like Chelsea have done in the past two windows under new owner Todd Boehly. They did not mimic those extravagant early spending days of Manchester City in 2008 when Abu Dhabi took control at the Etihad.

Burn was a 30-year-old centre-back who cost £12m last January; a transfer fee every Premier League club could have afforded if they had wanted to make the move. It is a transfer every newly promoted club from the Championship would have no problem paying. It is below the average price of a centre-back signed in the Premier League.

Newcastle signed a player nobody else wanted because Howe thought he would add something to the squad and help them in their battle to stay alive last term. It was a transfer that some mocked as a panic buy. Not anymore. 

Playing at left-back, rather than the middle of the defence, Burn has been one of Newcastle’s most consistent players this season, as well as last. Back in his native North East, £12m looks like a bargain. It is the sort of signing the club could easily have made under former owner Mike Ashley. In fact, they spent more money to sign Dwight Gayle and Matt Ritchie when they were in the Championship and Rafael Benitez was manager.

Burn’s signing did not look anything special at the time. It looked like a club desperately trying to sign another centre-back to help them stay in the Premier League, not compete for Europe and silverware. He was Newcastle’s hero this week, the unlikely goalscorer, but he’s an ever-present in their strongest XI and only cost £2m more than Chelsea are paying to loan Joao Felix for five-and-a-half months from Atletico Madrid.

He also has some nifty dance moves for a big man, as evident in his wily jig in the dressing room after Tuesday’s win over Leicester, and the subject of one of the best new chants in English football, taking inspiration from ‘Pretty Green Eyes’ by Ultrabeat: “He’s from Blyth, you’ll never ever beat Dan Burn…”

Joelinton was Telegraph Sport’s man of the match against Leicester. He was dynamic, tireless in breaking up play, prompted attacks and was still closing down players and winning possession in stoppage time. His goal, Newcastle’s second, calmed nerves and allowed Howe’s men to see out the game with a minimum of fuss.

He is Newcastle’s enforcer, destructive and physical, but also skillful and technically impressive. He looks like a complete player.  Newcastle paid £40m to sign him from Hoffenheim in 2019, a then club record signing, but some people forget he was a laughing stock; the centre-forward who could not score goals. It was not so long ago that he was booed and jeered by his own supporters during a difficult FA Cup tie at League Two Rochdale.

Joelinton was not a cult hero; he was an expensive flop. Most people, including the majority of Newcastle fans, thought he was a massive failure and would have quite happily sold him in the summer of 2021 for whatever the club could recoup. There was no interest from anyone willing to take a punt on him rebuilding his career.

Of all the players Howe inherited from Steve Bruce, Joelinton’s transformation is the most spectacular. A few weeks after he was appointed Newcastle manager, Howe saw something special in the 26-year-old when he dropped him back into the centre of midfield after Newcastle were reduced to 10 men in a bottom-of-the-table clash with Norwich City. His handling of Joelinton has been one of the most inspired pieces of coaching and man-management we have seen in English football for years. 

The Brazilian has been reborn as a box-to-box midfield player in the style of Patrick Vieira or Yaya Toure, and become the engine of the Newcastle side.

For a player nobody would have signed 18 months ago, there will be managers all over Europe wishing they had a player like Joelinton. For all the talk about money, he has become priceless to Howe.