Dan Burn delivers verdict on Newcastle United's latest record-breaking transfer swoop

Botman’s reported £35million arrival from the Ligue 1 side makes him Newcastle’s most expensive ever defender by some distance.

The 22-year-old has been out in Austria training with his new teammates and is set to feature in a match for the first time as a United player when they face 1860 Munich at the Saalfelden Arena on Friday (1:30pm kick-off).

And Burn – who was bought by Newcastle after the club failed to sign Botman in January – has been impressed by the new defensive addition.

“He looks really good,” Burn said.

“He's only young and I can't believe the size of him for his age, I know I'm skinny now but I was even skinnier back then! He showed his quality but we haven't seen him play a game yet so it will be good to do that and try and get some more minutes with him.”

Both Burn and Botman are left-footed centre-backs, meaning they could be competing for the same spot in Newcastle’s starting line-up for the 2022-23 Premier League season.

But Burn insists that is a good thing as he told NUFC TV: “It's good, I think you saw in January with the lads that came in, myself included, it's just competition for places.

"When you know you're playing week-in, week-out you can sort of relax a little bit but as I said it's competition and we'll see who gets the spot.”