Middlesbrough: Kieran Scott spells out plans for January window

The current World Cup break has enabled Boro’s head of football to hold a series of discussions with new head coach, Michael Carrick, and first-team coach, Jonathan Woodgate, in which they have developed a strategy for their January business.

Unlike in the previous two regimes, where signing players became a thorny issue under both Neil Warnock and Chris Wilder, the early signs suggest there is much more harmony in terms of Carrick’s willingness to align himself to the various other elements of the club’s recruitment operation.

• READ: Michael Carrick's decision over Paddy McNair's position for Middlesbrough

There will be incomings in January, with a new central midfielder and a forward understood to be two key priorities, with Scott keen to sign players on a permanent basis if possible rather than repeat last January’s dealings, when loan deals for Aaron Connolly and Folarin Balogun failed to pay off.

“We’re going to do whatever is realistic in January,” said Scott, who was heavily involved in the process that resulted in Carrick’s appointment. “We’re going to try to do as much as we can to improve the squad and the group.

“Ultimately, I think we’re going to be focusing on looking to improve the starting XI, which then of course in turn improves the whole squad. Ideally, we’ll be looking to sign players rather than loan them, although we have to be open to every opportunity that arises.

“In the end, we just want to make the group as strong as we possibly can so that come January 31, we’re as strong as we possibly can be to give the guys every possible chance in the second half of the season.”

Scott is keen to provide Carrick with a balanced squad to work with, and will be looking to sign youngsters that can be developed as well as more experienced campaigners. Incomings in January could also mean some outgoings, with both Scott and Carrick determined to avoid having too many players in the first-team squad.

Middlesbrough head coach Michael Carrick (Image: MFC)

“I’m conscious of a balance,” said Scott. “I think it was a balance we struck really well at Norwich, and it’s a balance I want to make sure we do here.

“Look at someone like Darragh Lenihan, which was a strongly club-led signing by myself and another of the guys in the scouting department. We thought we were missing that leader, that type of player.

“To be fair to Darragh, early on it didn’t quite work for him in the system, but now we’re seeing the Darragh Lenihan that was Blackburn’s captain last year. They fought desperately hard to keep him because they know how invaluable that skillset he’s got is.

“Michael was talking about him straight away, and you’ve got to drop those types of players in, but then around that, you also want the likes of Riley McGree and Isaiah Jones coming in and coming through too.

“That’s not to then sell them – it’s not to get them up to a point and then sell them to make a load of money, it’s about them adding something to the team. It’s there if you need it, but ideally, you want to go to the Premier League with these players and make that step with them. It’s not asset-only, but there’s certainly a strategy to ensure that we do recruit some young players.”

Not, however, that Carrick has become fixated on the January window as he looks to continue driving Boro up the Championship table. The former Manchester United midfielder inherited a squad that might have been struggling in the relegation zone, but that nevertheless contains the core of a group that only narrowly missed out on a place in the play-offs last season.

“We’re having a fair few discussions about January, but to be fair to Michael, I think he understands that as much as January and the transfer window is important for the club, and we do have opportunities to strengthen, there’s also a lot of good stuff at the club already,” said Scott.

“He’s still working things out for himself. Hayden Hackney is a great example – I know Leo (Percovich), Craig (Liddle) and Tinks (Mark Tinkler) gave him an opportunity, but Michael could have dropped him back out. He hasn’t because he’s seen the potential that’s there.

“He talks to me regularly about Hayden and how well he’s doing. There’s other players like that too – there’s lots of conversations about players we can develop, it’s not purely a case of, ‘Let’s get to the transfer window and then all our woes will be fixed’. It’s a case of looking internally as well as externally for players as well.”