Middlesbrough and Ipswich Town join Leeds United in race for Nottingham Forest midfielder

Middlesbrough Could Explore Loan Market For Addition

Championship outfit Middlesbrough are aiming to bring in a midfielder and they could investigate the loan market for a deal, according to journalist Alan Nixon.

 

Boro clinched fourth position in the Championship last term and competed in the playoff semi-final.

 

However, they have had a difficult start to this Championship campaign as they have only managed to secure one point from their opening four matches.

They have lost the likes of Chuba Akpom, Ryan Giles, Cameron Archer and Aaron Ramsey this summer and are yet to bring in the quality to replace them.

 

Boro boss Michael Carrick would like more energy in midfield.

And it has been suggested that the Boro are looking to strengthen their engine room before the transfer window slams shut.

 

They could look for midfielders to bring in on loan in the coming days.

Now it remains to be seen if the Championship side will move fast to bring in legs in their midfield in the dying embers of the summer transfer window.

Middlesbrough are still looking to bolster their squad before Friday’s transfer deadline

Middlesbrough might have already brought nine new players to the club this summer, but they remain active in the final days of the transfer window in trying to bolster their squad.

While head coach Michael Carrick said after the weekend defeat at West Brom that new signings aren’t ‘all or nothing’ as far as their chances this season are concerned, there is still a hope to add to their squad before the summer transfer window closes at 11 pm on Friday evening.

Boro recruitment staff would like to add as many as three new players in that time, with another striker, an attacking midfielder to replace Chuba Akpom and a midfielder to compete with Jonny Howson believed to be on their wishlist.

There had been tentative earlier looks at right-backs too while the prognosis of pre-season injuries to Tommy Smith and Anfernee Dijksteel remained unknown. But the former’s return at West Brom (albeit a nightmare one that ended early with a red card) appears to have eased the need in that department.

While Boro have added nine players, a large chunk of that business in the earlier stages of the summer centred around younger players whose best years are ahead of them. And while they can still offer something this term, as some have already proven, there is an appreciation that more quality might be needed after a four-game winless start to the season, if Boro are to compete for promotion once again this term.

That’s the difficult crossroads that Boro find themselves in this summer. After years of big loss-making, head of football Kieran Scott and his new scouting team have this summer worked on building a squad that has more future assets on its books, with an appreciation that trading players is an important factor in turning Boro’s financial picture around.

However, with a desire and expectation to still compete at the top end of the division, while competing with at least three clubs a season who receive an extra £40m in Premier League parachute payments, there is a clear gulf which Boro must try and bridge by adding the right kind of players in transfer windows.

In previous years they’ve tried to achieve that by using the loan market, but that led to the situation this summer in which six loanees departed, with at least four of them important in Carrick’s first-team squad and needing to be replaced. That’s why so much of the club’s business so far has focused on signing assets and future-proofing their squad.

While their preference in the final week of the window remains permanent signings, there is a little more balance within their squad now which means Premier League loans are still possible should the right deals present themselves.

Up front, a loan might make sense as they look to add competition to fellow summer signing Emmanuel Latte Lath, who has made an impressive start since his arrival from Atalanta. The club have an agreement in place with Plymouth Argyle to loan out Josh Coburn for the season, but can only sanction that if they bring in another striker of their own. Therefore, with the future secured by Coburn’s development, a loan in that position has merit, even if it’s ultimately a player they’d have little prospect of signing permanently later.

While Carrick has hinted that it might not be a like-for-like replacement, Boro would still like to replace Chuba Akpom too, after he was sold to Ajax earlier this month. As well as the obvious loss of his 29 goals last season, Akpom was such a crucial player in how Carrick’s side built their attacks as he regularly dropped deeper to provide a link between midfield and attack which has been missing so far this term.

Finally, Boro would like to sign a ‘number six’ type of midfielder to compete with Jonny Howson after losing Alex Mowatt at the end of his loan this summer. While Mowatt struggled to make much of an impression throughout the majority of the season, the importance of his presence in the squad was highlighted later in the campaign as Howson suffered an injury.

With Hayden Hackney and Dan Barlaser a little too similar in their style and Howson not getting any younger, Boro could do with another more defensive-minded midfielder to strengthen their spine and hopefully help with the early defensive issues that have existed so far this term. Newcastle United’s Isaac Hayden had been linked, but looks set to join Luton Town now.

As for outgoings, the aforementioned Coburn loan to Plymouth could still happen providing Boro land a striker of their own. There’s still a chance other young players head out on loan too, with pre-season star Jack Stott securing a move to York City last week. National League sides can sign players throughout the season though, so such loan deals wouldn’t be bound by Friday’s deadline.

Martin Payero is in the final year of his contract and, after returning from his loan spell at Boca Juniors, has so far failed to do enough to impress Carrick and didn’t even travel to the Midlands for Saturday’s game. That meant Carrick had to name two goalkeepers on the bench when Rav van den Berg was deemed unable to make the squad through injury, and the head coach admitted after that he was uncertain on Payero’s future.

Boro would entertain offers for the Argentine midfielder before the window closes, while it remains to be seen what will happen with Paddy McNair as he’s also out of contract at the end of the season. The Northern Ireland international will potentially be needed on Tuesday evening at Bolton as Smith serves his one-match suspension for his dismissal at West Brom. But beyond that, with Smith now back fit, Boro might choose to cash in if any reported interest in McNair materialises into a formal offer.