MIDDLESBROUGH manager, Aitor Karanka says he has no regrets about the comments he made criticising Boro fans following the defeat to West Ham last weekend.

At a press conference on Thursday ahead of the FA Cup game with Accrington on Saturday, the manager was pressed on the subject.

As Boro trailed the Hammers fans chanted 'attack, attack, attack', something the manager felt led to his team going longball and abandoning their usual passing style.

Karanka said the fans had been disrespectful to the players.

Karanka: “It has been the same week as always. The only thing I said was that I wanted respect for the players. That is the most important thing. 

"As a manager, when you have a group of players like them you can’t ask for more. They are 150 per cent on the training ground and the pitch. That was the only thing I did – to ask for respect.

“I have been here for three years and when I arrived here there were 10-12,000 at the stadium.

"Now there are 18,000 people who were not at the stadium. The people coming now demand for the players to play another style that we do not know.

"Last season, we scored a lot of goals in the last minute because we played in the same style. We won promotion last year, and the previous season we got to the final, because the people in the stadium believed in that style.

“It is not that the fans forget where we were. They know where the club was.

"The most important thing is that the people who are going to the stadium, and who weren’t there last season or the season before, have to know we had a plan to get promotion and we have to play in the same style; we have a style and that style has been successful for us."

Karanka was asked if he had any regrets.

“No. I have been three years as a coach and I do not regret anything I have said to defend the players," he said. 

"I had an amazing dinner with the chairman and his partner. Both of them are my friends. The relationship I have with the chairman at the club is the main thing."

On the club's attempt to sign Hull midfielder Robert Snodgrass, Karanka said: “The club is working. He is a player we like and I like. The club is working with offers with Hull. 

"I don’t want to know 100 per cent what is happening, but he is a player I like a lot. I think they rejected our offer, but I don’t know more because the club is doing what they have to do.

“It’s obvious (Hull might prefer not to sell to Boro), but he is a player we would like to bring here. Let’s see what is happening."

Karanka also spoke about another potential signing, Paris St Germain's Jese Rodriguez, who the boss knows from Spain.

“He  is a player I have known for the last seven or eight years. He was one of my favourite players when he was at the national team," he said. 

"I know his potential and his character, he could help us a lot. PSG paid £25m for him – he is a player that could bring us a lot of things and we are trying to convince him.

“For him, it is a really important move. The last five months have been difficult for him because he couldn’t settle in as he wanted with the language.

"He has to be sure, and I am trying to convince him that he is better off coming here. It would be big (if we could sign him).

"He is a player who was playing at Real Madrid last season.He is a Champions League player, and he is not like Victor (Valdes) or Alvaro (Negredo) at 33 or 34.  He is a young player, and he needs to take the right step. I hope that step could be here."

The manager also spoke about wantaway midfielder, Gaston Ramirez, who has been the subject of a bid from Leicester City.

“He handed in a transfer request, but the offer we received was not good enough,” said Karanka.

"It is more frustrating than difficult. He was calling us to play here last season, and went back to the national team through playing with us.

"It is frustrating as a coach, but nobody is more important than anybody in this team.

"If in the end, the right offer doesn’t arrive, he will be an important player in this club, like (Albert) Adomah was last season.

"It is frustrating as a person, but as a coach, I have to deal with the situation. 

"Albert did a really good job for us last season, and I hope at the end of the transfer market, Gaston will do the same."