Dan Burn’s transfer from Brighton to Newcastle made few murmurs on football’s deadline day seismograph, but it was an intriguing decision by Graham Potter to allow a versatile defender and semi-regular starter to join a rival Premier League club, and perhaps revealed something telling about Brighton’s plans to evolve.
Without time to source an adequate replacement, Brighton were well within their rights to tell Burn he was staying put. His departure follows Ben White’s exit last summer and leaves Potter’s squad looking very thin defensively, especially given their tendency to play a back three and wing-backs. Burn’s sale leaves behind only six senior defenders by trade – Lewis Dunk, Shane Duffy, Adam Webster, Joel Veltman, Marc Cucurella and Tariq Lamptey.
