After signing a new four-year deal with his hometown club, young Boro starlet, Josh Coburn has made clear his intention to show the club just how much progress he has made since going on loan to Bristol Rovers last season.
The Richmond forward spoke to the Official club website following the news of his fresh commitment to the club. Intimating he was keen to link up with the first team squad again, he said, “Being on loan last season, I’ve had that experience now and coming back here, I just want to push on and try and get myself in the starting eleven.”
The imposing physique of Coburn offers Middlesbrough another dimension and although they utilised a diminutive striker with pace last season, the Championship demands more than one way of winning matches, especially given that teams will now identify Carrick’s Boro as one of the leading contenders.
Coburn has already dipped his toe in to the choppy Championship waters, so to speak, with a number of appearances under former Boro boss, Chris Wilder. He scored four Championship goals during the 2021/22 season and scored an FA Cup goal against Tottenham Hotspur that he is likely to remember for the rest of his career.
With the added League One experience that will have no doubt tested-among other things-his resolve in terms of physicality and resilience.
The interview showed a maturity and a clear determination that suggested the superlatives thrown around by Bristol Rovers manager, Joey Barton may not have been too exaggerated after all, even though he likened him to Zlatan Ibrahimovic in an interview with The Bristol Post last season. The Middlesbrough faithful have nicknamed him ‘The Teesside Haaland’, with Coburn acknowledging the moniker by celebrating in the meditation pose on occasions, just like the City star. Effusive in his praise for the baby-faced forward, Barton said, “His touch, for someone of that size, his athleticism, the way he goes looking for work. it’s just me saying this, so I’m not comparing him to this player but there’s a few strikers who you play against over the course of your journey as a player who do things differently.
“I always remember playing against Zlatan Ibrahimovic and he actually went looking for physicality with the opposition centre-half and very rarely do you see centre-forwards doing that, unless they’re big ones like Jon Parkin-types of whatever; big bent nosed, physical centre-forward, Duncan Ferguson.”
Tipped for the top
Barton actually said in the same interview, “I think he could go on to play for England.” High praise indeed, and with ten goals last season, as a twenty-year-old loanee, Coburn will return to his parent club brimming with confidence and ready to go.
He is excited to get to work with the first team squad and recognises that the way Middlesbrough now play, will offer plenty of chances for him to register with goals. He said of Middlesbrough’s performances last season, “Obviously, seeing how they were playing football and how many chances they were creating, it is brilliant for me and I just want to get back and start working with them.”
After seeing the likes of 17-year-old, Sonny Finch creep into some of last season’s match day squads, it is likely that he will follow Coburn’s path and get some loan experience before making any inroads into the Boro side.
That only leaves Matthew Hoppe; yet to acclimatise fully it seems with British football after a less than prolific loan spell with Hibernian, Matt Crooks, who is a makeshift forward and Marcus Forss who currently plays on the right-hand side. You would assume the club will still be in the market for a forward, but Coburn will have chances in the shape of pre-season games and training sessions to stake his claim. The popular young man will certainly have been buoyed by the faith shown in him with a new contract.