The striker is keen to hit the ground running for his new club
New Hull City signing Oliver McBurnie says the club’s determination and persistence played a major part in his decision to join the Championship club.
McBurnie admits he had a flurry of offers and says it would have taken something special for him to leave Las Palmas for a move back to England, 12 months after leaving for the Canary Islands following his departure from Sheffield United.
The 29-year-old had been a target before the club was slapped with a three-window transfer fee restriction and remained so even after City‘s severe punishment from the EFL landed at the beginning of July.
Sporting director Jared Dublin, who was at Bramall Lane with McBurnie and boss Sergej Jakirovic, invested significant efforts in persuading McBurnie to sign an initial three-year deal, something he says meant an awful lot. He said the club’s recruitment team convinced him things were going in the right direction, despite last season’s struggles.
“Well, it has been going on for an awful long time, that’s why,” he said with a smile etched on his face in conversation with Hull Live. “Things happen, football is a very strange sport sometimes; there’s always moving parts and things like that.
“Jared, the manager, and I have been in constant communication throughout the whole time, and we were all kind of on the same page throughout the whole time, so, yeah, it seems probably a lot more complicated than what it actually was.
“A big part of it for me was when the embargo did happen, to see that the club was still going to be moving in the right direction. I’ve said a million times, I didn’t want to come back to England just for a mid-table mediocre team, that’s not it.
“‘I’m 29 now, it needs to be something that will get me up in the morning and be an exciting challenge for me and something that I look forward to.
“We (McBurnie and his partner) gave ourselves a bit of time to see where the club would progress in terms of who are they boys that they would bring in? When I saw players like Lunny (John Lundsram) and those who came in, it was a no-brainer and just reaffirmed that this was the right place for me to be.
“There’s a lot to be said for a club that really wants you, and you can feel when a club really wants you, or a club panics and thinks, ‘oh he’s free, he’s gonna go (look for a better deal) this and then come in’, there’s a real big difference with that.”
“Jared has texted me more than my missus has texted me in the last two months; he is a clingy old man,” the forward joked. “It makes you feel good, it makes you feel wanted, know that you’re a huge part of the plans. We all want the same thing, which is to take this club to the next level.
“Once they did start bringing the players in that they did as well as having the squad that they already had, it was the confirmation that I needed of the club going in the right direction.”
Fans of other clubs may raise an eyebrow at the Scotland international’s comments about not signing for a ‘mid-table mediocre team’, given City’s well-documented struggles of last season, but he says the mentality in the squad now has him believing that this season will be very different.
He said: “For starters, I know a lot of the boys, and I know a lot of their mentalities. The Egans, the Lewie Coyles, the John Lundstrams, they’re not accepting averageness, whether it be in training, whether it be in games, whether it be playing golf, they’re not accepting losing or averageness, so that was the main thing for me.
“Speaking with the manager was another one in terms of all he wanted was to win. All he has done before in previous jobs is win; that again speaks volumes to me.
“I don’t need managers to give me detailed plans of what they want to do. I’m 29 now, and I’ve been around the game a little bit. If you have that mentality and you tell me ‘this is what we want to go and do and this is how we’re going to do it’, that’s more than enough for me.”
McBurnie says his first meeting with Jakirovic in June started with the Bosnian asking one very simple and direct question, to which he believes he can answer over the course of the next 46 games, starting with a debut (likely off the bench) at Coventry City on Saturday.
“That was the first thing he said to me on the Zoom call,” he continued. “I don’t think he introduced himself. He just said, ‘Can you get me 15 goals?’ And that was pretty much him for the conversation.
“I like that; one of my best friends last year at Las Palmas was from Croatia, and he knows the manager, and he said that. He said he’s a really good manager, really good with the boys, but he knows what he wants and he knows how to get it.
“The last time I think I was in the Championship, I scored 15 that season. We got promoted with Sheffield United, and I feel like I’m a much better player now.
“Much healthier, much fitter, I know my body a lot better than I did back then. I know I had to look after myself a lot better than I did back then. Going out to Spain gave me a whole new outlook on the world, but on football as well, which I think can only make me a better player.”
You can listen to the full interview with McBurnie in the latest episode of the 1904 Club and watch a video on YouTube using the links below….
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