Newcastle and Sunderland both picked up impressive wins on Saturday, while Middlesbrough extended their unbeaten run to nine games with a very credible draw at Ipswich.

All three clubs feature in this week's North East notes:

DAN BURN'S MOMENT OF CLASS

When Dan Burn discovered this week that Newcastle would wear special one-off shirts in support of the Royal National Institute for Deaf People, he took it upon himself to go and meet some of those connected with the charity in the city and learnt some British Sign Language.

And in a special moment during the 4-0 win over Tottenham on Saturday, the defender used BSL to say "love the fans" as the Newcastle players celebrated Alexander Isak's opener.

"It’s a brilliant thing from Dan," said proud boss Eddie Howe.

"I'm just picking things up here but he went during the week to learn some sign language. Typical Dan. He didn't just learn it and forget it, he used it at a really valuable time to say thank you to the people he met and encourage their support.

"It was a brilliant gesture by Sela today, to donate their shirt sponsor to a brilliant charity speaks a lot about them."

Newcastle's deaf fans were also given haptic shirts, which allowed them to experience the atmosphere inside St James' Park. It's believed to be a first in Europe - with the Magpies hoping to lead the way.

EX-MANCHESTER UNITED SPECIALIST HELPING OUT AT BORO

Chris Moseley started work as head of medical at New York Red Bulls last week after bringing his long association with Middlesbrough to an end.

Boro haven't directly replaced Moseley as yet, with Adam Reed, who worked alongside the former head physio, leading on a matchday.

But at Rockliffe, the medical team is being supported by ex-Manchester United specialist Matt Radcliffe, who is helping out as a consultant.

Radcliffe established himself as one of the game's leading physios when he was recruited by Southampton after working his way up the leagues. He was then poached by Manchester United, then managed by Louis van Gaal, and tasked with reforming the physio department.

He went on to have spells supporting Pune City, in India, and Fenerbahce. Radcliffe isn't a new face at Rockliffe, having helped out at Boro in the past - and he's also worked closely with individual players, including ex-Boro defender Ben Gibson.

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HUMMEL'S PERSONAL TOUCH

This week's announcement that Sunderland will again link up with Hummel from next season went down a treat with supporters.

The five-year partnership makes good business sense for the Black Cats, who describe it as "one of the largest commercial deals in the club's history".

But the link-up also pulls on the nostalgic heartstrings of fans, with, as the club put it, 'hummel’s story woven into the fabric of SAFC’s history'.

Expect hummel to tap into that with their designs. Although the partnership has just been announced, work on the design of this season's strips got underway months ago, It's a process of ideas, research, conversations, designs and decisions - with dozens of potential home and away strips sketched and then whittled down to one.

Key, Rob Revell, creative director at hummel said previously, is "getting to the heartbeat of the club".

Expect a personal touch to the kits in the coming years.

Revell said: "You can do a pretty shirt that looks great but if it's got no meaning to the place or the fans or the history then it's a difficult sell. It looks great, but what's the meaning?"

"So first off we try and do threads and think of angles from the city, from history, that we can go with.

"I'll do a deep mood board with imagery and how the kit could look if we go down this route or that route. Then we present it to the club, see which threads they like, see which ones they think might be better next season or the season after.

"Once you have the kit you think about how we can finish it off, the internal details."

This tweet from Sunderland grabbed the attention of supporters late on Friday night. Watch this space...

WHAT NEXT FOR DJED SPENCE?

It's safe to say things haven't gone to plan for Djed Spence since he left Middlesbrough for Tottenham in the summer of 2022.

He didn't feature in Antonio Conte's plans and Ange Postecoglou was quick to make a decision on the full-back, who joined Leeds on loan. But that move was cut short and he instead headed for Genoa.

He's so far made nine appearances in Serie A and Genoa's sporting director Marco Ottolini hasn't ruled out the possibility of a permanent move.

He said: "Personally, I like Djed and how he is doing, and how he is training. Of course, he can do more, and he knows this, but we are in contact with Spurs and will evaluate a deal over the next few months giving us time to understand both our positions and Djed’s perspective on potentially staying here.

"Djed had not had good loans [at Rennes and Leeds] but I still knew his quality. And we were looking to strengthen at right-back in January.

“We knew he had struggled a bit at Leeds. I don’t want to say the move was a risk for us, but let’s just say it was clear his profile was not at its best and maybe he was suffering from a mentality problem. We thought maybe Genoa could provide a different environment to get the best out of him so we decided to complete the loan.”