Presenter Ryan Adsett takes a walk through 32-year-old Dan Burn's incredible career, from the lower echelons of non-league, when he pushed trollies at ASDA to supplement his low football wage, to lifting his boyhood club Newcastle United's first domestic trophy in 70 years (scoring in the final). He capped that week by debuting for England. Not bad, eh?
#DanBurn #blyth #newcastleunited #england #ASDA
#DanBurn #blyth #newcastleunited #england #ASDA
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome back to 442. My name is Ryan and can I just say before the video starts,
00:08thank you very, very much for all the kind comments on the recent episode. I really do
00:12appreciate it. And I do obviously understand there's a big shift happening here at 442.
00:16But I thought what other possible way can we get back into this than talking about probably
00:21one of the most topical people and football clubs at the moment, the Newcastle United's
00:26Dan Byrne. What a career he's had. We could even go from now to then because he's had
00:32probably one of the best stories of recent football, to be honest. Now, obviously, we
00:36all know Newcastle have just won their first trophy in 70 years, which is a quite incredible
00:41achievement. I'm sure that the former presenter of this show would have been very, very happy
00:44as well. But I've got to say, Dan Byrne, the six foot seven absolute giant, everyone's
00:49talked about him as being probably one of the biggest anomalies, tactical anomalies.
00:54I see a lot of comments last time wanting some more tactical analysis. Byrne is probably
00:57one of those. He is a very different, different player. Now, I feel like I saw a lot of people
01:03talking about his debut for England as being a very, very steady, this is what you expect,
01:09you know, old fashioned centre back performance. And whilst that might be true, I still believe
01:14there's a lot more to Dan Byrne than just being that old fashioned centre back, that
01:18big man that wins headers. Now, I know that his heading ability has gone through the roof
01:23recently with that goal at Wembley to win that trophy for Newcastle is, you know, it's
01:28incredible. I mean, I'm saying this as a Brighton fan, I used to watch Dan Byrne on headers
01:31and he couldn't, I promise you, he never did that for us. And this is the thing with Byrne,
01:36he is an anomaly, he's a tactical anomaly, but he's also an anomaly in the sense of where
01:40he's come from and how he's gone about it. Dan Byrne was one of those people that didn't
01:44really, he wasn't involved in the academy, he wasn't one of the traditional, you know,
01:48modern footballers that likes to be coming through the academy. In fact, he was actually
01:53rejected by Newcastle just aged 11. Throughout that time of being 11 and 16, he played a
01:58lot of local stuff, playing across a whole host of teams like Blythe Spartans, like Blythe
02:01Town, and, you know, finding his way probably through the grassroots side of the game. And
02:07even in his own admission recently, he doesn't actually think he was that good of a player
02:10when he was younger. And I find this quite an insane thing to try and process because
02:16where he's gone through all of these struggles, he's gone from being this player that's playing
02:20part-time at Asda to getting his move to Darlington, playing league football within a few months.
02:25And then a couple years later, he's then got his move to a team like Fulham, where he can
02:28then express himself on the Premier League stage. You know, all of that was about 10
02:32years ago, you know. And to then fast forward that 10 years of back then being rated by
02:38his manager at Fulham as not good enough, you know, he's not the progression that the
02:42club wanted. They sent him on a couple of loans to Yeovil, to Birmingham. You know,
02:46his loan at Yeovil was a really good one for him. He managed to get promoted, you know.
02:50To then get back into Fulham, still not be regarded at all as really a player that they
02:54wanted to keep around the squad. I spoke to a few Fulham fans who actually thought, he
02:59was never really the guy that we saw long term here. He was never the one that we really
03:03wanted to keep around the club. He was just a decent player. And that's all that people
03:07really said about Dan Byrne. You start to think, okay, confidence really comes into
03:11it now. And this is one thing that Dan Byrne spoke about a lot, was his mental health and
03:16his confidence throughout his career was never truly there. He never really believed that
03:21he was the guy to be there. And he felt like a lot of time, he was actually playing through
03:25fear, through anger, through spite, and luckily had a chip on his shoulder. You know, he wanted
03:29to be proving people wrong and fighting back and, you know, all well and good. You know,
03:33a lot of players have that sort of thing. And Dan Byrne was one of those. But at the
03:38same time, that's not always the best way to be in football, you know, and in life in
03:41general, you don't want to be living through spite. And I think since he's been a bit older,
03:45he's now come to accept the fact that, you know, if we lose today, it's okay. And he
03:50put a lot of that down to when he finally had his kids and settled down a little bit
03:53in his personal life. You know, he's then got his move to Brighton and things were a
03:56little bit more stable after his time at Wigan. And you start to think, okay, that confidence
04:01starts to shift a little bit for him. Now let's talk about his time at Wigan. His time
04:04at Wigan was successful on the most part. It started a bit poor. He had a lot of shouts
04:09at the time of being maybe not quite good enough. But again, this is the same sort of
04:14recurring scenario of, you know, being written off from the beginning to them being a player
04:19that's worth highly regarding at the time. So when he got released by Fulham, it was
04:23a bit of a shock. Byrne in his own admission said he thought that he was going to have
04:27a whole host of clubs waiting to sign him. And, you know, as a player, you'd like to
04:30think that that's the way that it's going to go. Unfortunately for him, it really wasn't
04:34the case. In fact, he left Fulham and the only real club there for him was Wigan. As
04:38I said, he started a bit shaky there, but he became quickly a fan's favourite and even
04:43won a few awards like Player of the Season. And from that point, it was a big, big turning
04:47point for Dan Byrne's lifestyle and career in general. He went from being this very scared
04:52and not confident guy. He wasn't sure on where he wanted to go in football. He broke into
04:57football very late, never truly had that academy experience. And when you've got that whole
05:02mixture of, you know, insecurity, perhaps in football, it's nice to have that pureness,
05:09I think, which he managed to finally get at Wigan. Now, despite getting relegated in 2016-17,
05:14Dan Byrne actually became Player of the Season, fan's favourite, and fired them very, very
05:18quickly back up the following season. League One football, after only two years ago playing
05:23in the Premier League, probably is a little bit of a shock. But if you're happy, I think
05:26that's when you start to see players truly become themselves. Now, this is where Dan
05:30Byrne tactically started to come in. The Dan Byrne that liked to get forward. Now,
05:36Byrne, as a Brighton fan memory, as a Wigan fan memory, and I'll shout out Jamie, the
05:40Wigan fan, has sent me forward, but he has exactly the same memory of, where the hell
05:45is he going? And I think that that's the one thing that Byrne manages to get out of every
05:50single game that he played for both my club, Wigan, and probably times at Newcastle as
05:54well, where you've all thought, what is he doing? He's bombing forward, he's six at seven,
05:58he's got to get back. But he was technically completely fine in doing so. And with that,
06:04he actually added a lot of goals to his game. He scored a few goals at Jovo and throughout
06:07his career in general. But actually at Wigan, if you remember, this is where the cringy
06:11dances came in as well. And it was that sort of expression probably that Byrne didn't really
06:17get to have throughout his career, particularly at the beginning. And okay, maybe it's taken
06:21a little bit longer than he perhaps would have wanted to. Getting up to 2015, making
06:25your debut within two years of being part-time as to being a league footballer, you know,
06:29it's quite an incredible rise within a short space of time. But actually, it's proof that
06:33a lot of times, these short rises aren't the best thing for players. And Byrne was a very
06:38big culprit of that. You know, he didn't rate himself, he didn't think he was all that.
06:42He always had managers, particularly at Fulham, slamming him back down. And the confidence
06:46aspect and mental health of players is probably more important than ever. And if there's one
06:50thing that you're ever going to take out of this video from Dan Byrne, it's just to never
06:54give up. To then make his move to Brighton, who originally weren't known for being this
06:59high recruitment club that they are now, at the time of doing this, this was a bit of
07:04a strange one. And in fact, actually, the only reason he was signed, in Dan Byrne's
07:08own words, is to do with having an extra homegrown player, which does make it sound a little
07:13bit bad. Dan Byrne, again, as he always is, willing to prove everybody wrong. And Graham
07:19Potter really saw that in him. And that's when Potter's tactics really started to suit
07:23him. That inverted roll and also a bombing forward roll. We saw a very, very different
07:28style to Byrne that we ever could have imagined. Duncan Duffy were pretty much, you know, you
07:32couldn't have touched them when he first arrived. So he went back on loan to Wigan. He actually
07:36arrived with a broken foot as well. That whole move was difficult for him coming in because
07:40he knew that he wasn't going to be a starting player. He knew that realistically, he wasn't
07:44ever going to be a centre back here. So that opened up an opportunity at left back. Byrne
07:48became very familiar with being on that left side. As I mentioned before, that left foot
07:53was a very, very impressive one. He liked to bomb forward. It was very difficult to
07:57get near him. He wasn't just physically demanding. He was very, very, very technically gifted
08:02with his feet as well. He liked to invert into space, but he liked to go forward too.
08:06And it opened up a whole different range of possibilities. And at the time when this was
08:10a big thing between playing three at the back and overloading centre backs, it was very
08:15interesting to see Byrne take that position of all people. And I think this is what Newcastle
08:19fans probably would have seen before he made that big jump. And it was always Dan Byrne's
08:23massive, massive achievement. He thought, if I can get to play for Newcastle, even just
08:28once, then he's made it in his career. And this is at a time when Newcastle had just
08:32had their massive takeover. Now Brighton have always been historically the club that likes
08:36to give the opportunity if it arrives. They won't stand in the way of someone that wants
08:40to leave. It was difficult. He was in a really good scenario. In fact, it went from being
08:45a player that was pretty much not regarded at Brighton and Brighton fans wanted him sold
08:49only a year prior to when he actually did go to being, we didn't want him to leave.
08:53And who would have wanted him to leave at the time? He was absolutely immense and pretty
08:57much consolidated himself in that starting lineup. But the interest from Newcastle arrived,
09:01£13 million. Who would have thought only a few years before that, that Dan Byrne would
09:05even be worth £13 million. And this is where I give absolute credit to someone like him.
09:11You know, hard work, but also the determination, the mental determination. It almost inspires
09:16me before anybody else. But I think that a lot of people feel inspired by the way Dan
09:20Byrne's done it. It's a way that's different to the traditional way now. I think now you
09:26have an academy, you're built up and that's it. You're on a pathway from the beginning.
09:31Byrne's earned his stripes and he also had to earn his finger back. If you didn't know
09:34already, he only has four fingers, which is a crazy little side piece, by the way. When
09:39he was only 13 years old, he had a horrific ring incident on a fence. And I probably don't
09:45want to say too much more. Anyway, let's get back on track. So Dan Byrne gets into the
09:49Newcastle side. And from this point, I feel like a lot of, particularly everyone that
09:53he's now been at, he's built up a lot of career experience, been under a lot of managers,
09:57been under the eyes of a lot of fans. And now there's a lot of eyes on him at Newcastle
10:01thinking, okay, they're in a transition era. They're putting a lot of money into the squad.
10:05And it's in a time where Newcastle now can compete for trophies and financially compete
10:09in the Premier League. Byrne really didn't put himself in that reckoning for this move.
10:14He thought that as soon as the takeover was done, that's the opportunity gone. It's not
10:18going to happen anymore. Surely they're going to want world-class centre-backs. Well, if
10:22you're going to then go into the side, break in like he has done, and really consolidate
10:27himself, as I say, over the last three years, I feel like he's become the staple figure
10:30really for Newcastle at the back, alongside Fabian Scheer. Now, when you think of Newcastle,
10:35you think of Byrne. And then within the last year, things have changed again. He's played
10:39with his boyhood club in the Champions League, won the first trophy in 70 years, and also
10:45become somewhat, I would say, of a legend at his boyhood club. Now, if you were to look
10:50back all the way back when, when you look back at Blythe, when you look back at Darlington,
10:56and you say, the kid that was rejected at age 11, the kid that went through school not
11:01really feeling confident enough to play football, the kid that was almost giving up when he
11:05was at Fulham because his manager didn't rate him and no one saw a pathway for him, the
11:09kid when he was at Brighton and fans pretty much had him written off from the beginning,
11:13to the man that leads Newcastle, their first ever trophy, to the man that wears his home
11:19shirt, it's incredible. The best part about this is, as a person, what you get to see
11:24from him, the first words he says, not about how much of an achievement it is for him to
11:28wear the England shirt, but just to be out in the experience, singing a national anthem,
11:32that's the first thing he says on English media, I think that's really testament to
11:36the sort of person he is. And then here in 2024, being the guy that celebrates in sign
11:41language when his team scored, I think if that doesn't show the sort of person he is
11:47for a BSL celebration after a Newcastle goal, just so that other fans can feel included,
11:53I just think that that's Dan Byrne. And to add on just how much of a personable and great
11:57person Dan Byrne was around the camp at Brighton, Joel Volkman's actually messaged us, and
12:02he said, hey Ryan, thank you for your message, I just want to say he was a great lad to have
12:06around the dressing room, always supporting the other players, knew what his qualities
12:09were and always stayed humble because he knew where he came from. On the same night as the
12:13Caribou Cup final, the Geordie boy, Sam Fender, sung Dan Byrne to one of his songs, and I've
12:19got to overlay this because it's just, it's perfect.
12:28To call Dan Byrne God, by the way, I think when you look back at all of these past comments
12:34for Dan Byrne, to then have fast forwarded to 2025, being called God live on stage, it's
12:41poetic, it's beautiful, it's Dan Byrne. He's just an absolute icon. So Dan Byrne, this
12:46video is for you, my friend, and this is proof to anybody watching this, don't give up. Anyway,
12:52thank you all for watching. My name has been Ryan, and I hope you do enjoy the new style
12:56of videos. As I say, a little bit different. We do try and keep some sort of stuff similar,
13:01but of course, let us know in the comments below your thoughts, and we'll see you very,
13:05very soon. Like, comment, subscribe, of course. We'll see you very soon, and goodbye.