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Middlesbrough Set To Smash Their Transfer Record For Striker

Middlesbrough Set To Smash Their Transfer Record For Striker

Boro are trying to make a much swifter return to the Premier League compared to last time.

Ryan Sidle

Ryan Sidle

A football team's most expensive transfer is not necessarily their best ever player. That is definitely the case when it comes to Middlesbrough but they'll be hoping to change that when they break the record.

Whether it's a case of players struggling under the pressure of the amount of money they get signed for or something completely different record transfers don't always work out.

Angel di Maria, Andy Carroll, Fernando Torres, Borja Baston and Moussa Sissoko have been pretty good examples of this over the years.

For Middlesbrough that man is former striker Afonso Alves, bought from Eredivisie side Heerenveen for £12.5 million in 2008, back when that was still quite a bit of money.

Alves was awful but two of his four goals came in the same match against title chasing Manchester United in a 2-2 draw. Image: PA

Four goals in 18 months later and he was moved on to Al-Sadd in Qatar. Of course four goals this season would have made him Boro's joint second top scorer and it's no wonder they were relegated.

If they want to have any chance of promotion they'll need to score more goals than last season and that's why they're about to smash their transfer record for Britt Assombalonga.

Boro really struggled in their first, and only, season back in the Premier League and Alvaro Negredo was their top scorer with just nine strikes.

The team especially struggled for goals under Aitor Karanka and finished the season with just 27 goals, the lowest of all the team even being beat by Sunderland who finished below them.

The former Peterborough striker's move is imminent. Image: PA

24 year old Assombalonga scored 14 league goals last season after starting 20 games in the Championship and is a proven scorer at that level, bagging 30 in 65 games.

Forest finished last season in 21st and escaped relegation only on goal difference This will be a blow to their survival hopes.

New manager Garry Monk will hope that his new striker is better than Alves, he can't be worse.

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