SOL Bamba believes Middlesbrough have a Premier League-ready defender in Dael Fry and after a frustrating end to last season, expects to see the Teessider back to his very best in the coming campaign.
Fry was a key man for Boro in the early stages of Michael Carrick's tenure but after being sent off at Sunderland in January, he only made five more appearances last season because of injury.
With that issue now hopefully behind him, Fry will be looking to again kick-on this term and re-establish himself in the heart of Boro's backline.
Carrick has options at centre-half. Darragh Lenihan enjoyed an impressive first year on Teesside, with Paddy McNair partnering the former Blackburn captain for much of the second half of last season. Rav van den Berg has Boro first team ambitions, with the new recruit revealing that the prospect of playing time was one of the key reasons he turned down some of Europe's biggest clubs to head to the Riverside. Boro have big hopes for the Dutchman but won't rush the 18-year-old.
Matt Clarke is also on the club's books but his first season at Teesside was almost completely wiped out by injury, and the former West Brom man didn't travel with the squad to Portugal last week.
Despite Clarke's frustrations, Boro are well stocked in the centre of defence and in Fry, says Bamba, have a centre-half who "can be as good as he wants to be".
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Bamba knows what it takes to cut it in the Premier League and, having played alongside Fry at Boro, says the Teessider is undoubtedly good enough for the top flight.
"To be fair, I don't think Boro fans will be happy for me to say this but Dael shouldn't be at Middlesbrough now, he should be in the Premier League," said Bamba, speaking to the Northern Echo's You Are My Boro podcast and YouTube channel.
"That's no disrespect to the club of course.
"When he came through he was young, he needed time but was very, very good. He's played so many games for the club in the Championship and unfortunately he's had a few injuries and changes of manager, and I'm sure last season was frustrating for him. But what a player, and what a guy. He's down to earth, wants to learn, he's asking questions all the time. He should be playing in the Premier League in my opinion, 100%.
"He can be as good as he wants. That's down to Dael Fry how good he wants to be. He needs to have more confidence in himself, that's what I always said to him, 'you're a very good player but you need to believe that'.
"He needs to have a manager who believes in him and tells him to express himself and I'm sure Michael will get that out of him. I'm sure he'll be back to his best. For me he should be playing in the Premier League already."
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