This is not nice to hear from Sean Longstaff...

Speaking to The Athletic, Sean Longstaff has been discussing the criticism he, Dan Burn and Miguel Almiron receive from certain Newcastle United fans; either online or in the stands:

"I think me and Burny (Dan Burn) are sometimes easy targets when it’s not going well. It’s probably the same for Miggy (Almiron). We’re not stupid, we see a bit of it, but good or bad we stick together as a group, try our best and stay as level as possible."

Regardless of if he's a local lad or not, it's not nice to hear Sean Longstaff - or any Newcastle player for that matter - have to say this is an interview.

It's part of modern football culture, unfortunately. No matter how good a team is - there always has to be at least one scapegoat who fans can blame when they have no other way to diagnose what's going wrong on the pitch, over one or several matches.

People always want to have a solution as to what could be done better, and the easiest solution is always to blame an individual (player or manager). Unfortunately for us it's Longstaff, Burn and Almiron at the moment. And at some point in the future when they're no longer at the club, that role will shift to someone else.

Of course they're players we *can* and will improve upon, but they're still players who have contributed immensely in their own right to a really successful period for the club. They deserve respect.

Criticism is fair, but these guys often get blamed in a disproportionate way, and regularly for things that aren't even their fault. It's a phenomenon which probably exists in most clubs.