'Either a genius or the thickest person I've met': Sheffield United's Oli McBurnie speaks out

So if he ever decides to step into the profession himself, would Oli McBurnie the manager like to work with Oli McBurnie the player? Once he has stopped laughing, the Sheffield United centre-forward delivers an answer which reveals why, despite taking more blows than a washed-up journeyman since arriving in South Yorkshire, this boxing-mad footballer keeps on fighting.

“Yeah, I’d love to,” McBurnie tells The Star. “Definitely, and I really mean that too. I always judge my teammates using this rule: If I was going to war - on the pitch that is, not an actual war because I probably wouldn’t be any good at that - would I want them to be standing next to me? I’d want me on my side. So the answer is ‘yes’, I reckon I’d really like that.”

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Most people probably couldn’t envisage McBurnie in the technical area, barking out instructions and mentoring players. A series of run-ins with the authorities and self-deprecating sense of humour probably have a lot to do with that. “How do I fill my time when I’m not playing? Well, recently I had a court case,” he reminds one journalist sitting in on our conversation, who had enquired about how he had kept busy during a recent injury lay-off. “That took up a fair bit of it, to be honest. That kept me occupied.” But the more McBurnie speaks, as United prepare to face his former club Swansea City at Bramall Lane on Saturday afternoon, the more it becomes apparent that the way he is portrayed isn’t entirely accurate. With his Scarface tattoo, rolled down socks and knack of getting himself into scrapes, McBurnie doesn’t fit the profile of a modern day coach. And yet, after detailing his relationship with midfielder James McAtee, the Scotland international confesses Jack Lester is encouraging him to complete his badges. One of Paul Heckingbottom’s most trusted confidants at Bramall Lane, Lester has clearly spotted something in McBurnie. Even if, after watching him guide McAtee through a difficult start to his career at United, it is sometimes coached in jocular language.

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“What a kid he is, what a player,” McBurnie says, hailing the strength of character McAtee demonstrated as he initially struggled to acclimatise to life outside of Manchester City as “something else.” “I tried to describe him to someone the other day, I went for a cross between Rain Man and Good Will Hunting. Seriously, there’s times I can’t figure out if he’s some sort of genius of the thickest person I’d ever met. I don’t know how he’s got this far in life sometimes. I don’t think many people would put us together, but I like to look after him.”

Signed on loan from Manchester City, McAtee appeared physically out of his depth soon after arriving from the Etihad Stadium. Hooked at half-time during United’s draw with Luton Town in August, before McBurnie scored the first of 10 goals he has netted so far this term, the England under-21 international is now, according to McBurnie, “one of the first names” on Heckingbottom’s team sheet.

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“James is like my little brother, that’s how I look at him. He picks me up when I’m feeling a bit down because it’s hard to be the happy guy all the time. I enjoy being around the lads but, if the way I am takes me any further in the game eventually, we’ll have to see. Jack is always on at me, telling me I’ve got to stay in football. All the other stuff, the things you need the badges to do, that’s a long way off and I’m just concentrating on playing right now. But speaking to boys who have retired, I now how much they miss being in and around a dressing room.”

McBurnie is in a good place right now. United enter their meeting with Swansea, where he spent four happy years, second in the Championship table and 10 points clear of third. McBurnie, who was rested for Tuesday’s FA Cup victory over Wrexham, is delivering his best performances since leaving south Wales three seasons ago.

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But things haven’t always gone quite so smoothly for a player who, until that effort at Kenilworth Road, had gone 11 months without a goal. Injuries, often exacerbated by his desire to compete, were a problem. Likewise the news he had been charged with assault following an incident with a Nottingham Forest fan who had invaded the pitch following May’s play-off semi-final at the City Ground. McBurnie was found not guilty following a trial in December.

“It was tough,” he says, talking about the episode for the first time. “But probably tougher on the people around me. I knew what had happened so I was also confident the truth would come out. If I’d done something, then of course I’d have been worried. But I hadn’t, and football also helped me cope.

“The thing that really bothered me was bringing it all on the club. The lads didn’t deserve all of that, but they were great with me.”

The same, McBurnie stresses, goes for the United supporters who provided him with a source of comfort and encouragement through a period of his life which, one imagines, was much harder than he admits.

“It’s massive for me, to get the backing off them. I’ve had my ups and downs, I know that. But to hear them shouting me and the lads on, I think it’s because they know we’ll always give everything. That we’ll always fight 100 percent.”