8:50am Tuesday 7th July 2009
MIDDLESBROUGH new-boy Danny Coyne last night revealed that old-boy Robbie Stockdale played a major role in his move to the North-East.
Coyne, a 35-year-old goalkeeper who boasts 16 international caps for Wales, signed a two-year contract with the Teessiders yesterday.
The veteran was voted the best shot-stopper in League One last season, but with his previous contract at Tranmere having expired, he asked former team-mate Stockdale to help engineer a move.
Stockdale, who made 75 appearances for Boro between 1997 and 2004, turned to his contacts at the Riverside, and having lost Ross Turnbull to Chelsea since the end of last season, Boro boss Gareth Southgate decided to snap Coyne up.
“It’s all come out of the blue, and everything’s happened very quickly,” said Coyne, who kept 20 clean sheets last season as Tranmere narrowly missed out on the League One play-offs. “It’s a fantastic opportunity for me and a great club to be at.
“The move came about after Robbie got in contact with one of the guys at Middlesbrough and said if they were looking for a goalkeeper then he knew I was out of contract. It just went from there.
“I’ve heard so many good things about the club. Robbie’s at Grimsby now, but he used to go on about the club and how great it was when he was at Tranmere.”
Coyne has represented both Leicester and Burnley in the Championship, and although he has spent the last two seasons in League One, the Welshman insists he has not come to the Riverside to languish in the reserves.
Brad Jones will start the season as Boro’s number one, with Coyne and Jason Steele battling for a place on the bench, but the club’s most recent arrival expects to be pushing for a starting spot before too long.
“I feel as fit as I’ve ever been so I’m coming here to push Brad for a first-team place and do all I can to contribute towards us winning promotion,”
said Coyne.
“Gareth has told me he wants us to win the Championship and get the club back in the Premier League where we belong. I’ve played most of my career in this division so I know it very well and I think we’ve got every chance of going up.”
Southgate had previously claimed that he was willing to go into next season with Steele as his number two, but with the youngster due to represent England in a number of junior international competitions, the Boro boss has opted to add experience to a goalkeeping division that lost Mark Schwarzer’s services at the same time last summer.
“We wanted to bring in an experienced keeper who could challenge and work with Brad and Jason to really bring them on,” he said.
“We had a look at lots of keepers who were potentially available but we chose Danny after doing our homework on him in terms of his character as well as his ability.
“He will be a really positive influence, not just on Brad and Jason but also on the rest of the squad.
“Jason is about to set off for the European Under-19 Championships, so he won’t be available for pre-season anyway, while there’s the Under- 20 Championships still to come later in the season, so we needed a third keeper.”
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