The long-running Ryan Giles will he-won’t he, saga is finally over. Middlesbrough fans were cruelly subjected to images of the 22-year-old sporting Luton Town colours as they unveiled the new away kit and their new signing in one post on their social media platforms.
The Teesside club were hoping to broker a deal with last year’s loan signing, but once the Premier League outfit came in for the left-back, the rival club was always likely to be too strong to compete with. Few fans would argue with Giles’ choice, given the situation. Although they will have hoped that the player; having enjoyed such a wonderful season with Boro during the last campaign, may have been swayed by the project Carrick is developing.
None of that matters now. Boro will have to search elsewhere for a left-back, with Hayden Coulson likely to be the player to start the season in that position having featured the most over the last few weeks’ friendly matches.
Coulson played in the 3-3 friendly against Bradford on Wednesday evening, which appeared to feature a number of fringe players ahead of their final friendly against Auxerre. Both he and Paddy McNair played against Bradford, and could be the only ones to feature in both games as Carrick puts the final touches to his final starting XI.
McNair is in a similar position to Coulson in that they both may not have expected to be first choice full-backs come the start of the season. McNair is one of a couple of options available to Carrick, who is having to deal with the absence of Tommy Smith and Anfernee Dijksteel. It is possible that the head coach wants McNair and Coulson to feature as much as possible to become accustomed in their respective positions before they host Millwall on August 5th.
Middlesbrough have previously been linked with left-winger Alex Bangura of SC Cambuur. The player continues to feature for the Dutch side though (as revealed on their Twitter site). There has not been too many other links with left sided players, which of course does not mean the club have not been actively looking. It would be interesting to know how much of their energy was invested in the pursuit of Giles, and when it was that they found out it was not happening. Either way, Middlesbrough will have to prepare for the new campaign without the man who provided the most assists in the division last season.