If fortune really does favour the brave then Oli McBurnie should be on the brink of the most remarkable promotion to the Premier League with Hull City.
This most interesting footballer, a throwback centre-forward who admits he wears “toddler’s shinpads” due to superstition and has a passion for travel, is certainly not afraid to take a risk. When he was 19 he nearly left Bradford City to join Freiburg, a move he had his heart set on after Googling Baden-Württemberg and thinking it looked “pretty picturesque”.
Two years ago he turned down a contract offer from Sheffield United to uproot his young family and join Las Palmas, learning Spanish within a few weeks and embracing life in the sun-kissed Canary Islands, where he became something of a cult hero.
Last summer he was at it again, taking another huge leap of faith to join Hull. The Tigers were a club under a transfer embargo, who had just appointed a little-known manager and were among the favourites for relegation. The general consensus when he signed: what on earth is he thinking?
Hull City felt different
“There were a few raised eyebrows, for sure, but I don’t like taking the safe option,” McBurnie tells The i Paper of his decision to join the Tigers over former club Sheffield United and a clutch of rival Championship clubs who were vying for his signature.
“But Hull felt a bit different. I like to do my due diligence and I had a few conversations – with [sporting director] Jared Dublin and (manager) Sergej Jakirovic. Acun [Ilicali] is also such an enthusiastic owner and that really came across but he wanted me to make a football decision, not an emotional one.
“He was almost sitting in the background until I signed, then when I made the decision he couldn’t do enough for me. Maybe you didn’t see it from the outside but I thought all the ingredients were there to be a successful team and successful club.”
Hull left it to the last day to reach the play-offs (Photo: Getty)Nine months on McBurnie feels his hunch has been “vindicated”. Having over performed all season Hull regained their momentum to sneak back into the play-offs on a dramatic final day of the season that saw them leapfrog Wrexham and tee up a two-legged semi-final with Millwall. The club are the underdogs in the play-offs but are embracing it.
“I’d never thought of it this way but someone said to me the other day we were the only club who wanted to be in the play-offs on that final day,” McBurnie says.
“Millwall and Middlesbrough were playing for an outside chance of second, maybe that will have an impact, who knows? We’re all buzzing, there’s no fear, we’re just looking forward to it and I just think it’s going to be a special night, an ‘old school’ sort of Friday night game under the lights. It feels like whole city is up for it.”
Jakirovic gets it
Ilicali, the larger-than-life Turkish media mogul who bought the club four years ago, has driven the project and was in tears at the final whistle on Saturday. He came into the dressing room after the game and gave the players a memorable speech.
“He has promised a few things, yeah. He said to us ‘You will see how crazy I really am if we get promoted’ so I like the sound of that. I’d like to see what he means.”
If they’re going to do that, you’d think McBurnie will have a big say in it. His 17 goals – already two more than he promised Jakirovic when they first met – have played a huge part in Hull’s success but so too has their unheralded manager.
Jakirovic is one of the Championship’s most adaptable managers (Photo: PA)In an era of bosses hung up on projects and philosophies, McBurnie believes he “gets” the Championship as well as any manager he has played under.
“One of the best things I can say about the manager is his adaptability. It’s not kind of his way or the highway, it’s not a dictatorship. He’s not stubborn like a lot of managers typically are and I think that’s been one of the reasons we’ve done so well this year,” he explains.
“It’s probably hard to game plan us against us because we play so many different ways against different teams.
“It’s been brilliant for me – the manager’s giving me the freedom to go out and play how I want to play and kind of making the game plan about getting balls in the box.”
World Cup hopes
Mystifyingly it has not been enough to turn the head of Steve Clarke which is why McBurnie’s second aim this season – to get into Scotland’s World Cup plans – is likely to evade him.
“I’m happy with my efforts. I have done all I can and ultimately it’s the manager’s decision. I have to respect whichever way he goes,” he says.
McBurnie’s other frustration is that he is regarded by some as belonging to the category of forwards who are too good for the Championship but not good enough for the Premier League. Nonsense, he insists.
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Daniel Storey: My love affair with Grimsby Town Daniel Storey: If you hate Millwall, I have two things to say to you“I think I’ve got nearly 100 Premier League games now, probably nearly half of my footballing career has been in the Premier League,” he says.
“The last two out of the three seasons when I was top scorer for Sheffield United [that was] in the Premier League and the last year that I was there was really hampered by injuries.
“I think I had maybe six goals, four assists but I only started 14 games or something due to injuries and a couple of suspensions, which might be my own fault.
“From that I’ve always felt like I could compete at the top level. I do feel like I’ve got unfinished business in the Premier League.”
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