The Middlesbrough re-build must begin - It's time to get it right

Article by e-Middlesbrough correspondent Stephen Davison

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The World Cup is drawing to a close, the tournament will soon be over and the players and staff will soon get the chance to enjoy a holiday and some down time ready to start another season a few weeks later.

For clubs and players where there was little to no personnel involved in the World Cup, work has started again. Aitor Karanka was back to work on Monday 30 June with the rest of the Boro squad ready to start pre season in earnest.

Most football fans face a period of frustration over the summer and during pre season. The hope is that your club is proactive and reacts to get the new players it wants in the summer so everyone is on board when the players return to training. In the main, this is unrealistic. Clubs stand down; they go on holiday and take a break, just like the rest of us. Yes some business is done, but its not the norm, the norm is for players to return to clubs and then the transfer window becomes active.

As a Middlesbrough fan, I have become used to summers of non activity. It is very rare for Boro to act early in a transfer window even in the halcyon days where money was not an issue. Now with all clubs having to cut their cloth accordingly in line with the Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules, it is important to balance the books correctly, so transfer fees are generally not the problem, the problem is the wages paid as this is what can cripple many clubs and take away valuable budget.

So far, as anticipated, it has been a very quiet summer on Teesside. Many Players were released at the end of last season, most notably Frazier Richardson, Stuart Parnaby and Jayson Leutwiler. Along with them, 5 youngsters were released and all of the loan players returned to their parent clubs. This has left the squad very short in many areas but the wage bill has been reduced so there is now scope to improve for the first time in what seems an eternity.

Some youngsters who are deemed to have futures with the club have signed their first professional contracts, which is important to a club like the Boro. Dimi Konstantopolous has signed a one year contract after impressing at the end of last season between the sticks and another keeper, Tomas Mejias, has been signed on a permanent basis from Real Madrid on a 2 year contract.

There are areas that need immediate attention when the club open back up for business. Full backs is an area that needs reinforcing desperately as the club presently only have 1 recognised Left Back in George Friend and no Right Backs. Real Betis full back Juanfran has been on the bus and off the bus so far this summer, he is wanted by Karanka but it remains to be seen whether he joins the fight.

Karanka has been very confident in his questioning when talking about a return to the club of Chelsea starlet Kenneth Omereu. He wants to come, “Chelsea want him to come here and we want him” was the statement of the boss, hopefully he will be proved right and the young Nigerian will be on board next season from the start. He looks to have a massive future in the game and with interest from premier league clubs; it will be seen as a massive coup in landing him, especially in light of his performances in the World Cup.

The club appear to have options in the centre of defence and the centre of midfield so it is not anticipated that anyone will be signed permanently in these positions, unless someone is sold and needs to be replaced. Adam Clayton from Huddersfield has been subject of a bid from the Boro which has been turned down. If Clayton does join then it would appear that someone needs to leave from the pool of midfielders at the club, the likely candidate being Jacob Butterfield.

The biggest area of concern and in desperate need of attention is the forward positions. This has been a problem area for years now and there is no sign of the problem being solved. The much muted transfer of Marvin Emnes to Swansea for a reported 1.4M has now happened – it has only been 4 years in the making! Marvin Emnes was bought as a project from Sparta Rotterdam for 3.2M in 2008, but cities have been built quicker as a project to be quite frank. The talent is there for all to see, it is only seen when he wants it to be seen though sadly. That said, I wish him luck but he will not be missed.

Lukas Jutkiewicz has returned to pre season training with the Boro but it would still appear his future lies elsewhere, he will be sold to the highest bidder with a host of Championship clubs interested in him for 1.5M+. It is reported that Derby County went to 1.5M but that bid was turned down. The latest twist is that Burnley have matched the clubs valuation and offered him premier league football, it may be his likely destination now.

With Emnes gone and the ‘Juke’ set to leave, that leaves the club with only Curtis Main and Kai Kamara as recognised strikers. It is still highly likely that Kamara will be the latest to be shown the door after his high profile Twitter rant at the club. He has returned to pre season training but if an agreement can be made that suits both the player and the club it is anticipated that he will also leave. He was also rumoured to be part of the Adam Clayton deal with a player plus cash offer to Huddersfield.

In truth, none of the current crop of forwards have come close to being Boro's 20 goal a season man. Boro have searched for a 20+ man for years and have not come close with many many millions having been spent. The problem is that everyone has an opinion on who the Boro should buy and who will get the team goals. The reality is that if there was a supermarket of 20+ a season goal scorers then every club would have one, however, they don’t. They are few and far between and do not come off a shelf ready made.

Now is the time to get it right and Aitor Karanka's most pressing job is to find forward players that he can buy relatively cheaply and polish them to be better players. Easier said than done I know. Lee Tomlin was a good signing from Peterborough and towards the end of last season scored regularly. He proved that he can be Boro's No 10 that has been a piece of the jigsaw Karanka has wanted to solve since his arrival. Some targets have been lost already with Lewis Grabban going to Norwich and Adam Le Fondre moving to Cardiff. If these were Boro's 2 top targets then they need to scrub them off the list and move onto the next target.

Karanka appears calm with his targets being kept close to his chest and no apparent panic from the club to rush in and buy. Danny Graham has been made available for as little as 1M from Sunderland and the constant soap opera that is Jelle Vossen has apparently stated that he wants to leave Genk and come to Teesside. If they both arrived, the club would have a mouth watering selection for a Championship team, but interestingly, the club have now publicly stated that these 2 are not the 2 targets they are looking at but will keep them in mind. So maybe it is Messi and Neymar after all then! On a serious note, if Graham and Vossen are serious targets yet the club prefer 2 others in front of them, I am intrigued to see who they are.

For now, the recruitment drive continues and I am sure that the club are working tirelessly to try to get the players that Karanka wants to hopefully mount a serious promotion push. The team go to Marbella next week for more pre season training and to play some friendlies, hopefully by then a new player or 2 will be on board. As a fan, I am excited to see who we get across the line, time and money will tell.

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