Tony Pulis is not remembered fondly by Middlesbrough fans for his tenure at the club.
Middlesbrough were relegated from the Premier League at the end of the 2016/17 season.
Steve Gibson opted to appoint Garry Monk as the man to lead his club back to the first division that summer.
However, despite around £50m being spent in the 2017 summer transfer window, Monk had a disastrous spell at the Riverside Stadium and was sacked in the first half of 2017/18.
Looking for a quick fix, Gibson brought in Tony Pulis on December 23rd, 2017, seemingly hoping the ex-Premier League boss could perform a quick turnaround as he had previously done at several other clubs.
Pulis enjoyed some success in his debut campaign, finishing fifth in the table before losing out in the semi-finals of the play-offs.
His first full season at Middlesbrough did not go as well, however, with the Teessiders only securing a seventh-place finish and Pulis leaving the club at the end of 2018/19.
Tony Pulis makes fantastic Middlesbrough claim
While Boro did not completely collapse under Pulis, fifth and seventh-place finishes for a club that had just come down from the Premier League and spent big were not great.
Perhaps the worst thing about Pulis’ time in the North East, though, was the awful, boring style of football he brought.
His relationship with the Middlesbrough fans, the chairman and some of the players quickly soured as a result of this.
But, as per Teesside Live, when asked about Tommy Conway recently, Pulis was quick to praise the club, Gibson and the fans, dubbing Middlesbrough ‘fantastic’ and their owner a ‘great lad’.
He said: “Middlesbrough is one of the nicest clubs I’ve ever been to as a manager. The staff, right from the kit man all the way through to the chief executive, the sporting director and everyone else. Steve Gibson is a great lad and the club is fantastic.
“I had someone ring me the other day about a player they were looking at down south, someone said he might find it hard going up to the North East but I said he wouldn’t at Middlesbrough.
“It’s such a friendly club. It’s such a warm club. It’s such a welcoming club. It’s a fantastic place to go. The people in the North East are different.
“They remind me so much of the people in South Wales. The community spirit is still there. It’s still together, it’s a fantastic football club.”
How will Tommy Conway fare at Middlesbrough
While Pulis is backing Conway to fit in at Middlesbrough, it remains to be seen how the striker will get on.
With Emmanuel Latte Lath Michael Carrick’s primary number nine, the 22-year-old may struggle for regular minutes in his natural role.
However, Carrick has previously used natural striker Chuba Akpom in a second-striker role behind Cameron Archer and that may be what he has to do with Boro’s latest signing.
Middlesbrough play Portsmouth on Saturday and the newly-promoted team are expected to sit very deep.
As a result, it could be the perfect game for Conway to start alongside Latte Lath.