The A team would be the dream team for Boro

IF ONLY WE COULD HAVE AKPOM AND ARCHER IN ATTACK NEXT SEASON...

signed. If Boro don’t get Archer again, then a great deal of responsibility lies with Michael Carrick and the club’s directors of football and scouting department to bring in a forward of similar ability.

That is assuming only one new mainline striker is needed.

We have no idea yet whether any big clubs will come in with multimillion-pound offers for Akpom which Boro might find it very difficult to turn down.

We all want Akpom to stay on Teesside. In virtually one fell swoop he has become Boro’s third highest ever scorer in the Championship.

Akpom is currently on 33, having scored five times two seasons ago.

He trails second-placed Scott McDonald by four goals, while Britt Assombalonga is the current leader with 44 goals scored over his four seasons.

The questions marks hanging over Akpom and Archer make this a summer of uncertainty - but at least two goalscorers leading the attack is what we need.

That is despite the fact Aitor Karanka fielded just one orthodox forward on a regular basis when Boro were last promoted.

However it is much more enjoyable watching our football with two men up front. Last season was the most entertaining for several years.

Boro have never come close to any previous striking partnership scoring 40 goals between them in modern times, while even two forwards sharing 30 goals in a very rare occurrence.

The last time two players shared 30 goals was in Karanka’s first full season in 2014-15 and even then only one of these top scorers was a striker.

Patrick Bamford netted 19 goals in all competitions and midfielder Grant Leadbitter 13, though only 29 of the goals came in the league.

Bamford, on loan from Chelsea, had a similar impact to Archer.

In fact he was a revelation, though he had the benefit of spending the full season on Teesside.

It is interesting that Bamford’s career stalled somewhat immediately after leaving Boro.

It was not until he returned for a second time he got himself back into gear. Archer should take note of this fact!

When we look for the top strikers of recent times we cannot go beyond the terrific Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Mark Viduka and Yakubu era when Boro had a top, top squad and were firing all fronts - including two successive seasons in Europe.

With such three tremendous strikers in his squad, and others further down the pecking order, manager Steve McClaren tended to alternate his attack and the goals were shared out.

In the memorable campaign of 2005-66, when Boro reached the final of the UEFA Cup, the main trio scored 30 goals between them in the Premier League.

Yet in all competitions, which also included an FA Cup run all the way to the semi-finals, the trio netted 53 goals between them. Yakubu top-scored with 19, Hasselbaink netted 18 and Viduka 16.

It is worth noting that Akpom, Archer and Forss scored 50 goals between them in fewer games last season, though naturally there is a wealth of difference between football in the Premier League and that in the Championship.

The dream is that we can get back to the achievements of the McClaren era level in the near future.

It is a dream scenario that Boro can go up, stay up and build a squad which includes the likes of Hasselbaink, Yakubu and Viduka.

The Carling Cup success of 2002 played a big part in putting Boro on the map and helping them to attract big names to the club.

All three were prolific Premier League scorers when they were snapped up by the Teessiders.

It was a perfect example of identifying the right men at the right time, though Viduka was a bonus because Boro were able to sign him only because Leeds United were suffering from a financial crisis at the time.

Hasselbaink moved on following the UEFA Cup final though Viduka and Yakubu were regular scorers in Gareth Southgate’s first season in charge. They scored 26 league goals between them in 200607, while Viduka grabbed 19 and Yakubu 16 in all competitions.

Thirty league goals shared between two strikers was relatively common in the Bernie Slaven era, with Slaven usually providing the biggest bag.

He shared 30 with Paul Wilkinson, Ian Baird and Archie Stephens and personally scored more than 20 league goals on two occasions.

The John Hickton era was prolific, particularly at the start when Hickton scored 15 league goals in his first season on Teesside, with John O’Rourke netting 27 and Arthur Horsfield 22 - but that was in the old Third Division.

Then there is the great Brian Clough of course, who regularly scored 40 goals on his own.

One thing is for sure. Boro will need to score plenty of goals next season if they are to contest the two automatic promotion spots.

So the two men up front need to be sharp-shooters and hopefully they are men we already know very well.