Dan Burn towers above FourFourTwo almost exactly a year ago to the day, with a dozen other local journalists huddled around the giant defender at Ramside Hall in Durham.
Burn, fresh from an extra-time defeat to former club Brighton in the FA Cup hours earlier, is suited and booted, ready to collect his ‘North East Football Personality of the Year Award’ at the Football Writers' dinner.
The theme of questions revolves around Anthony Gordon, who was red-carded that afternoon and therefore suspended for the League Cup final, Newcastle’s stuttering form and the quality of Alexander Isak, who Burn described as “the best striker in the world”. No one present felt compelled to ask Burn if he felt he had a chance of being named in Thomas Tuchel’s first England squad in 12 days' time.
