MIDDLESBROUGH may be managerless but chairman Steve Gibson continues to mean business in the transfer market and is closing in on Sporting Lisbon winger Rudolph Douala.
A fee, believed to be considerably less than the £5.5m that was agreed almost a year ago, is understood to have been reached between the two clubs and Douala will have talks soon.
It is the second time in ten months that the Cameroon winger has been expected to join the North-East club. He pulled out of a switch to the Premiership at the last minute in August, when he opted to stay with Sporting who had qualified for the Champions League.
But now, after Gibson returned for the versatile winger after a delegation watched him in action for his country in the weekend friendly defeat to Holland, there is every chance Middlesbrough are going to finally land their man.
The attraction for Douala this time around is that Fabio Rochemback, his former Sporting team-mate, is already at the Riverside Stadium and has enjoyed his first season in the Premiership.
Steve McClaren, who is thought to have delivered his own verdict on the men targeted by Middlesbrough as the search for a new boss goes on, was left fuming last summer when he accused 'another club' of scuppering his own attempts to sign the African.
But, with McClaren waiting to take over the reins from England head coach Sven-Goran Eriksson after this summer's World Cup, Middlesbrough have gone back and are on the verge of capturing him.
If a medical and personal terms can be agreed then Douala could become one of two players to arrive at Boro, despite the manager's seat remaining vacant at the Riverside.
Chelsea defender Robert Huth's agent was at the club's training HQ for talks on Monday and Everton were forced to pull out of the running because of Boro's offer.
There remains a chance Newcastle United could beat Middlesbrough to the big German's signature, but Gibson want the pair to follow George Boateng and commit to the club.
Boateng, who would have become a free agent this summer, has signed a three-year deal after receiving reassurances from the chairman over which direction the club is heading in.
One of those reassurances centred around the fact the new manager will continue to take the club forward and build on the work carried out by McClaren.
The identity of the new boss remains uncertain and it is understood that there has been no further progress on that front.
Kevin Keegan's odds tumbled yesterday. He went from 66/1 in the morning to 17/2 last night.
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