Can Aitor be Boro's Special One

Article by e-Middlesbrough's Kane Elgey

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Local Chairman, Local Manager, Local Players. That's what Middlesbrough prided themselves on until late November 2013 when they shook up their history books by appointing their first ever foreign manager. That man, Aitor Karanka. Upon his appointment much was made of his links with Jose Mourinho whom he assisted at Real Madrid for three years. Much of his press conference was based around his links with Mourinho but the question is, can he be Boro's special one?

Despite a poor start to his tenure at Boro, gaining only four points in his first five games, and a 7 game goal drought that lasted from January to March, the signs are positive. Karanka's first task was to shore up the defence that Tony Mowbray left behind. A defence that gave away a 2-0 lead in the last 10 minutes at Forest, leaked three at home to newly promoted Bournemouth and conceded three first half goals at Barnsley which effectively lost Mowbray his job. This defence was clearly lacking confidence. Karanka addressed this with a more defensive 4-2-3-1 formation that has gained us 15 clean sheets in 31 league games. Along with this great defence Boro have found themselves amongst the goals again, despite a poor seven game goal drought, with Danny Graham linking with new signing Lee Tomlin to find his form again after rejoining his first team on loan in January.

It seems as if every season  that we have had in the Championship has been a transitional one, but I think Karanka's calming influence will settle us down and finally push us on to the Play-Offs.

In the Championship promoted teams usually start from the defence. Look at Hull for example, in their promotion season they rarely scored more than one goal a game but they had a solid defence and seemed to win every game 1-0. This is something I think we will do next season it wont be pretty but it will be effective.

It's clear that there will be a few incomings and outgoings this close season in order for Karanka to put his own stamp on things. Karanka and his coaching team are currently finalising a list of transfer targets which will be passed on to the club chief executive Neil Bausor and hopefully signings will be completed before pre-season. Players who we have already been strongly linked with are Lewis Grabban and Chris Eagles.

In my eyes if we just added these two to our squad we would have a great chance of reaching the Play-Offs. Grabban is a speedy player with an eye for goal who in his first season in the Championship this year scored an impressive 22 goals. This is the type of player we have been missing since relegation in 2009 and we should be pushing the boat out the match his £3 million release clause and get him signed before any bigger clubs sniff around him. We certainly don’t want to drag it out over the full summer only to miss out on him like we did with Ross McCormack last summer.

As for Chris Eagles, despite a disappointing season for Bolton which was hampered by injuries he is a top class Championship player. He has the ability to beat any defender in this league his link up play is second to non and he has one hell of a shot on him. The thought of him playing behind Lewis Grabban for Boro next season will have many Boro fans drooling. And the fact that he is a free transfer makes this a no brainer for me. Karanka has also made it clear that he would like to bring back Big Ken Omeruo on a season long loan from Chelsea next season. As much as I would love to see us pull this off, he was my player of the year this season, I think after the World Cup with Nigeria he will move onto bigger and better things than us and I wouldn't be surprised to see him in the Chelsea squad next year.

The only other transfer I think we would require is to make Jozsef Varga's loan deal permanent. Varga was the surprise package of the season. Originally signed as a defensive midfielder, Jozsef moved to right back against Millwall in December and hasn't looked back since. He has been a consistent performer all season and definitely deserves a permanent contract.

As for outgoings, Marvin Emnes has made it pretty clear he wants a permanent move to Swansea this summer. The two have had a love affair ever since he scored against Cardiff in a brief one month loan back in 2010. This week he spoke out to the press in South Wales in a plea for Middlesbrough to let him join Swansea. A strange decision in my eyes considering he still has two years left on his contract at Middlesbrough so if a deal to Swansea doesn't materialise he will have to return to a club that he clearly doesn't play for which wont go down well with the rest of the squad. But hopefully he does move to Swansea, good riddance to bad rubbish. Sadly for Marvin, due to his easily bruised ego, he wont be missed by Boro fans.

Another player expected to pack up his belongings at Rockliffe is Lukas Jutkiewicz. The Juke had a successful loan at Bolton scoring 7 goals since joining on loan in January and it seems that both Lukas and Bolton want to turn that deal into a permanent one. Again the Juke wont be missed by most fans as he simply has not scored enough goals to justify the price we paid Coventry for him but one thing we cant fault him on is his effort. If it is Adiós for the Juke then I genuinely wish him the best of luck in the future.

As for our future I do genuinely belief we will reach the Play-Offs. There is a sense of optimism about next season from Boro fans that we haven't had since Gordon Strachan's big spending spree and with a good recruitment drive in the Summer I think there will be a buzz around the Riverside next season and we all know when our fans are on point no one can beat us. So here's to a good season and hopefully this time next year I will be celebrating promotion on the streets of Middlesbrough.

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