'Hats off': £13m Newcastle United man now praises club for change in transfer policy

Up until recently, you would say that Newcastle United's recruitment under Eddie Howe has been pretty excellent.

When Howe first arrived he made several additions in the January transfer window that ultimately kept Newcastle in the Premier League and then pushed them into the Champions League the next season.

Among those signings were Kieran Trippier, Dan Burn and Chris Wood, all around that magic 30-year-old mark. Eyebrows were raised at Burn and Wood but both played their part and Dan Burn continues to be a first-team star to this day.

Now, though, with progression the aim of the game, Newcastle are looking to sign young talent that they can nurture into future stars and two such players were signed last summer and have gone on to be key figures this season.

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Tino Livramento and Lewis Hall could end up being Newcastle's best signings

We're talking, of course, about Tino Livramento and Lewis Hall who were both signed for big money despite relatively little Premier League experience.

Just a year later, both are England internationals with Lewis Hall making his debut on Thursday night and looking like he'd been a regular fixture in the side for years.

Dan Burn has spoken to The Chronicle about Livramento and Hall and how their signings and their progress at the club perfectly reflects the change in policy at Newcastle.

Dan Burn acknowledges the clever moves the club have made in the transfer market

"The way we have recruited players in the last few years, we’ve moved away from when they recruited me, Tripps, Woody which were players over 30 to now looking towards the future. Big hats off to them for doing that."

Going on to mention the full-back pair specifically, Burn spoke of the opportunities that lie ahead of them.

"They’ve got all the chance they need, there’s probably not two fullbacks playing better than what they are at the moment."

Burn has compared Lewis Hall to Anthony Gordon

Burn then compared Hall's journey to the first team to that of Anthony Gordon, saying how difficult it is for players to hit the ground running at Newcastle.

"Lewis has been brilliant. I’ve always said about Lewis it’s just about a run of games. When people sign here they expect that they’ll go into team straight away but the way that we play it takes a while to build into that, to know your roles and for the team to click and work.

"You probably saw it with Anthony Gordon when he came in, Sandro Tonali as well a little bit. I’m really happy for him. I try to help him where I can but he’s been on fire and he deserves all the plaudits he gets.”