Middlesbrough fans should be grateful to Steve Gibson for a call he made this summer.
Boro had a very productive summer transfer window that saw nine new players arrive at the Riverside.
At the back, Luke Ayling returned on a free transfer while Neto Borges and George Edmundson have strengthened the rest of the defence.
In midfield, Aidan Morris has impressed for Middlesbrough since his transfer from Columbus Crew.
And a plethora of attacking options including Tommy Conway, Ben Doak and Micah Hamilton have arrived to provide Michael Carrick with some extra firepower in the final third.
Boro also moved on a lot of players in the last few months, with Hayden Coulson joining Blackpool on a permanent basis and the likes of Zach Hemming and Sonny Finch being sent out on loan.
All in all, Middlesbrough should be very pleased with the transfer business they have conducted in 2024 so far.
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Middlesbrough owner Steve Gibson deserves credit
As well as strengthening every outfield position this summer, one other thing Boro did well this summer will boost the club’s promotion chances massively.
Despite interest in several of their big names, including Emmanuel Latte Lath being wanted by Ipswich Town, the Teessiders did not sell any of their top stars in the most recent transfer window.
Now, speaking on the You Are My Boro podcast, journalist Dominic Shaw has stated that Steve Gibson deserves ‘huge credit’ for sticking to his word and not letting players like Latte Lath, Rav van den Berg and Hayden Hackney leave.
He said: “Huge credit to Steve Gibson because it’s alright saying at the start of the summer we’re not going to sell our best players, we don’t want to sell our best players.
“But when those bids are on the table, and the bids for Latte Lath on the final days weren’t the only ones by the way .
“There were bids for Rav van den Berg in the final weeks of the window that Boro rejected. There was interest if not bids for Hayden Hackney earlier in the summer.
“So Boro were absolutely true to their word there.
“If you lose your best striker in the final hours of the window really, from a football perspective, it doesn’t matter how much money you get, you’re not going to be able to replace him.”
Why Middlesbrough have to win promotion this season
Keeping hold of the aforementioned trio is great news for Boro and on paper, they now have one of the strongest squads in the Championship.
However, owing to a plethora of injury issues, the North East outfit have had a slightly slow start to 2024/25.
Boro lost and drew with two of the three newly-promoted teams in their opening four games of the league campaign and currently sit seventh in the Championship table.
Should their league position not improve in the coming months and promotion elude them for another season, it is hard to see Boro being able to keep hold of players like Latte Lath and Van den Berg, even with Gibson’s backing.
They are both quality players who are receiving plenty of interest and if Middlesbrough do not go up this term, they will more than likely want to move on to bigger things next year as they are more than capable of cutting it in the Premier League.