MIDDLESBROUGH have their eyes on a couple of potential loan signings this summer but will be “smart” with their recruitment and only bring in players on temporary deals if there’s an “end game” and their Riverside stay can be made permanent.
Boro have learnt lessons from the 2022/23 season when they made a string of excellent loan signings but then had to overhaul their squad when those players returned to their parent clubs.
In the most recent season, Boro adopted a different approach. They still took advantage of the loan market but pursued players who could have a longer-term future at the club.
Luke Ayling was signed in January in the knowledge that he’d a free agent and available this summer, with Boro swopping quickly to make that deal permanent.
Boro had the option to sign Sam Greenwood for just £1.5m but opted against doing the deal after the Leeds United loanee struggled to build on an impressive start to life at the Riverside. Boro bosses could have also engineered a permanent deal for Leicester City full-back Luke Thomas had they wished.
The Lewis O’Brien deal was different in that Boro always knew the finances would make it difficult to sign the Nottingham Forest midfielder permanently, but the opportunity to bring in a player who’d previously been one of the Championship’s best was deemed too good to turn down last summer.
Boro’s preference this summer is to sign players permanently but they’ll gladly dip into the loan market as long as the power is in their hands when the temporary deals come to an end.
That wasn’t the case 12 months ago when the likes of Cameron Archer, Aaron Ramsey, Zack Steffen and Ryan Giles – whose situation Boro are again monitoring – returned to their parent clubs.
“You can still loan but we have to be smarter than loaning everyone’s best young players who have five years left on their deals and you’re never going to get them,” explained Kieran Scott, Boro’s head of football.
“Luke Ayling, he was coming to the end of his contract, we knew we could sign him, there was an end-game there. Sam Greenwood, we had an option there. Luke Thomas we could have done a similar situation. Lewis O’Brien was desperate to stay but that was difficult (financially).
“There are a couple this year we’re looking at. There could be a couple of loans but there’ll be a future with them.”
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