Middlesbrough looking at Championship and PL transfer agreement with bewilderment

•  Jack Harrison’s loan spell at Everton will expire at the end of the season with no option for the club to buy him, meaning he could return to Leeds United if they are promoted.

•  Harrison played a key role in Leeds’ Championship title-winning campaign in 2019-20, scoring six goals and providing eight assists, earning him a reputation as one of the best attacking players in the league.

•  Harrison had an unsuccessful spell at Middlesbrough earlier in his career, making just four appearances and failing to make an impact, but has since flourished at Leeds and Everton.

Former Manchester City winger Jack Harrison spent five seasons at Leeds United, initially having two loan spells at the club from 2018-20 and subsequently from 2020-21, before signing for the Whites permanently in the summer of 2021.

The ace is still on the Yorkshire outfit’s books, but is currently plying his trade at Premier League side Everton on a loan spell which expires at the end of the current campaign, but the good news for the Elland Road faithful is that there is no option for the Toffees to buy Harrison included in the deal.

So, if Daniel Farke takes the club back to the top-flight, fans of the Whites will be able to see one of their best players of the last few years back in action for the club who he achieved promotion with under Leeds cult hero Marcelo Bielsa, back in 2020.

Harrison played a key role in the Whites’ 2019-20 Championship title winning campaign, appearing in all 46 matches with 45 starts to his name, as the ace produced six goals and eight assists, securing a reputation as one of the second-tier’s most feared attacking players.

Then, in the 2020-21 season, the wideman arguably exceeded expectations by making an even better return of eight goals and eight assists as the Whites managed a remarkable ninth-placed Premier League finish in their first top-flight campaign since the 2003-04 season.

However, earlier in his career, Harrison had an unsuccessful time at fellow Championship outfit Middlesbrough, and perhaps many Boro fans will be surprised by the progress Harrison has made since his spell at the Riverside.

Boro fans may be bewildered by the player Harrison has become

Harrison spent the second half of the 2017-18 Championship season at Boro, and made just four appearances, scoring no goals and creating just one assist as the Teesiders finished fifth in the Championship table.

Since Boro finished in the play-off spots that campaign without much involvement from the wideman, it would be hard to argue, even with the hindsight of the Premier League player he has become, that he should have been given more game-time at the Riverside.

Ultimately, Harrison was a failure at Boro, and fans of other Championship clubs, and even some Boro fans, could be forgiven for forgetting that the ace spent time at the Riverside, especially given the deserved kudos he now receives for his efforts at the Whites and now for the Toffees.

Harrison is undoubtedly one of the standout wingers in recent second-tier history, but perhaps it is no surprise that even he failed to get into the Boro team during the 2017-18 campaign in which Adama Traore was on fire and amassed a tally of five goals and 10 assists.

Traore’s efforts that campaign earned him a move to Premier League outfit Wolves, who he provided some pretty iconic moments for, including a late brace to secure a win for Wanderers against Harrison’s former club Man City at the Etihad Stadium in October 2019.

It just wasn’t to be for Harrison and Boro

Many footballers, regardless of how successful they go on to be, have a spell at a club for whom it just doesn’t work out, a phenomenon which Harrison’s time at Boro absolutely epitomises.

Martin Braithwaite is another former Boro player who experienced the same fate as Harrison, as he managed to score just six goals in 21 appearances for the north-east outfit during first half of the the 2017-18 campaign.

The Denmark international subsequently went out on loan to French outfit Bordeaux, then of Ligue 1 for the second half of that season, and bagged four goals in 14 appearances, before returning to Boro for the 2018-19 campaign but was sold in January 2019 after failing to impress once more.

Despite a similar goal-scoring record at Leganes, the ace managed to secure a move to Barcelona, where he joined up with former Boro teammate Adama Traore, who it is fair to say, had a much more successful time at the Riverside.

Football can be a funny game, and the Championship in particular has the capacity to be a peculiar beast, as any given second-tier campaign may not necessarily be representative of what a player may go on to achieve in his career, as demonstrated by Harrison’s time at Boro.