"I'd be willing" - Millwall backed to sign EFL striker for a "couple of million" | OneFootball

FLW's Millwall fan pundit has given his verdict on a potential permanent move for Josh Coburn this summer

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Millwall are still in the mix for a play-off place while the Championship takes a breather with the March international break.

The Lions are six points adrift of the top six with eight games still to play, giving them an outside chance of competing for promotion if they put together a strong end to the campaign.

But some of the club’s attention will turn to the summer transfer window, which is now just a couple of months from really getting underway.

One player that Millwall will have a decision to make on is loanee Josh Coburn, who has spent the season on loan from Middlesbrough.

Josh Coburn Millwall verdict

When asked about a potential permanent move for Coburn, FLW’s Millwall fan pundit Lucas Ball claimed it’s something he’d like the club to consider.

He praised the forward’s impact despite injury issues hurting his season, and believes he offers the team something different in attack to Mihailo Ivanovic.

“I think Coburn is an interesting one, the club have made it very clear that they’d like to make it a permanent deal,” Ball told Football League World.

“Alex Neil seems to like him, he’s had a good share of minutes recently and Mihailo Ivanovic seems to have played a lot of minutes in a short period since Alex Neil came in.

“So, it’s fair enough to look to freshen things up a bit, as good as Ivanovic has been for long periods of that.

“Our biggest issue, as ever, is getting our strikers more service, so it is always a little bit difficult to judge them at times because we haven’t always had that creativity in our team.

“But what Coburn and Ivanovic do particularly is they give you an option to go more direct, they give you more options in the game to go and attack teams, Coburn’s a different option to Ivanovic, probably slightly less mobile up there and bit more of a target man, whereas Ivanovic enjoys the ball into fit.

“So, it’s a good option to have whatever happens, whether we bring him in on a permanent or not we need to add another striker on top, I would say, just to give ourselves another option.

“Ideally, someone with out-and-out pace but those are the established strikers everyone is after, and for that reason they come at a big cost normally.”

Josh Coburn permanent fee price tag claim

Ball claimed that a permanent deal at around the £2 million mark would be good business, but that Millwall shouldn’t go any higher than that this summer.

“I wouldn’t be disappointed if they made the Coburn deal permanent, provided he can keep himself fit now for the rest of the season, because he’s had those couple injuries this year,” he added.

“Just to keep an eye on his fitness record, I think they’re more contact injuries and therefore not necessarily down to him being injury prone purely.

“But, obviously when a player has had two relatively long-term injuries in the same season, or medium-term injuries, really, you just want to keep a little bit of an eye on that.

“But, overall, he’s got a really good goal record compared to the number of minutes he’s played, it’s just now whether he can translate that over a longer period.

“And, in terms of fee, I’d be willing to go to a couple of million.

“I think anything more is when you start to ask questions about is there better value elsewhere, particularly when in the last couple of years we’ve done quite well at times when we’ve looked in the foreign markets.

“So, I think that’s probably when you start to raise questions when you’re looking at £2.5 million or beyond.”

Coburn has scored four times from 13 appearances in the Championship so far this season.

Coburn’s injury issues have held back an otherwise promising loan stint

Coburn’s injuries have seen him play just over a dozen times in the Championship this year, which is unfortunate.

But when available, he’s had a strong impact in Neil’s side and has done enough to prove he could be a valuable long-term addition.

Given the injuries, it would be hard for Millwall to justify spending too heavily on him right now.