Pulis is preparing to power-up Boro’s attack in January
AT LAST, the winds of change are about to blow through the Riverside.
Boro boss Tony Pulis is preparing to oversee the complete overhaul of his attack which he feels should have taken place during the summer.
The club’s failure to sign Pulis’s attacking targets in August has arguably hampered the rate of progress over the past four months.
Pulis has done the best he can with the players available, but admits that the team is lacking pace and power up front.
There’s still no guarantee, of course, that Boro will be able to attract their major targets to Teesside.
January is a difficult month in which to sign players. But then Pulis and the Boro officials have been working towards this transfer window for months.
They already have a good idea which players might be available and which might pose problems to prise away from their current clubs.
Clearly Pulis has done well to keep the names of his targets relatively quiet, just as he did in August.
The only name which keeps regularly cropping up is Aston Villa winger Albert Adomah, whose planned return to the Riverside in August collapsed at the last moment.
I wouldn’t be the slightest bit surprised if Pulis is looking to bring in three new attackers.
A new influx will also create fresh competition up front. Jordan Hugill has finally forced his way to the forefront of Pulis’s attacking thoughts but will face a renewed battle to stay in there.
Pulis will also be considering whether to try to make Hugill’s move to Teesside permanent, after reports
that his parent club West Ham would consider bids of around £6m.
If Pulis gets the players he wants, then it will raise question marks about the prospects of Britt Assombalonga and Martin Braithwaite.
Assombalonga does not appear to be Pulis’s perfect centre-forward. He played second fiddle to Patrick Bamford last season and has lost out to Hugill this term.
There have been reports that Boro would be prepared to let Assombalonga move on but surely that would be a consideration only if Pulis was able to fully restock his attack.
However it will be interesting to see how Boro react should there be fresh interest in Braithwaite. The Dane expected to get away from Teesside in the summer but, despite reported interest from Spanish and clubs, nothing happened.
Braithwaite started the campaign like a house on fire, scoring three goals in his first five games.
The fact that he failed to move on led to some fans questioning Braithwaite’s future attitude.
Pulis insisted that Braithwaite would remain committed to the cause and, while that appears to be the case, the player has not been able to reproduce his early season form.
The bonus which Braithwaite offers is that he is the most comfortable player in the No.10 role.
However Pulis has played Braithwaite wide left lately and this is a position which will not be available to the Dane if Pulis signs the winger he is seeking. An influx of new faces will surely lead to one or two players leaving, with Ashley Fletcher possibly going out on loan.
Pulis stressed again last week that Fletcher was a highly-talented player who must fully express himself if he wants to make the big breakthrough.
At the moment Pulis feels that Fletcher is falling short. He will clearly benefit from playing regular football, which might come from a loan move.
Boro will also wait to see if Sheffield United enquire about making Marvin Johnson’s loan move a permanent one. Boro would no doubt agree to sell Johnson to the Blades, though they could not hope to recoup the £2.5m which they initially paid Oxford Utd.
In any case, from Boro’s point of view there’s a much bigger pot of cash tied up in other players. The combined transfer fees of Assombalonga, Braithwaite and Fletcher was £29m. So it’s reasonable to assume that somewhere along the road Boro will be keen to get some of their money back. Italian
On the Boro beat with Paylor