Promotion definitely brings joy to the Championship clubs who move to the top tier of the English football after a dog-fight in the Championship which has 24 teams. However, not many manage to cement their feet amidst the animosity on offer in the Premier League. There are teams which wither away as the finances and quality in the top flight is different compared to the Championship. But then, some like Middlesbrough maintain the grit in order to stay where they always want to.
Middlesbrough haven’t had a bad first half of the season by any means. They have been in the groove, adjusted themselves pretty well and find themselves in a decent scheme of things. Relegation is always a worry for newly promoted sides and to deal with it, sufficient and precise personnel must be available to be used. The Smoggies are four points away from the unwanted spots and considering Aitor Karanka’s knack to keep making changes to the side, one can expect them to tighten the screws in the ongoing transfer window.
According to a report, Karanka is all set to acquire Stoke City’s forward, Bojan Krkić, in order to lend a helping hand to their star striker, Álvaro Negredo. The 26-year-old hasn’t taken the Premier League by storm (as he was expected to) and it would not be wrong to highlight that his stature has been reduced to that of an outcast after the arrival of Joe Allen. Minimum opportunities have been handed to him by Mark Hughes, but despite that, he has scored three goals in nine appearances for the Potters, which implies that he can really take the pressure off Negredo.
Let’s not forget that this situation is developing owing to the prospective likelihood of Boro’s playmaker, Gastón Ramírez, switching his colours to ply his trade for the defending champions, Leicester City. The Uruguayan is believed to be pressurising Karanka in order to force a move to the King Power Stadium. The 26-year-old has been a usual face in Middlesbrough’s line up, scoring, assisting and creating ample number of chances, but now seems to be interested in a new endeavour.
Should Ramírez force a move, it would be completely wise from Karanka to cash on him. The 26-year-old is still a very productive player up front and despite having had a good start to this campaign, he has been frustrated by the lack of game time despite being quite good for Karanka’s side. For a side which is likely to search for Ramírez’s replacement, Bojan could be someone Karanka can rely on to solve the dearth of creativity in his strike force.
Statistics Credits: Squawka.
