Middlesbrough will go to the top of the Championship table if they beat Bournemouth today, and Lee Tomlin’s creativity and commitment have been key factors in their rise. But as Chief Sports Writer Scott Wilson learned after chatting with the in-form forward, things weren’t always as rosy

SOMETIMES, an abundance of praise is the worst thing you can bestow on an emerging young footballer.

When Lee Tomlin was making his way through the youth ranks of non-league club Rushden & Diamonds, he was quickly earmarked as a potential superstar. He had a trial at Liverpool, something unheard of among his peer group, and became Rushden’s youngest-ever player when he made his first-team debut at the age of 16.

A move to Peterborough followed and, if anything, the flattery became even more intense. He helped his new employers win promotion to the Championship and was linked with a move to Celtic. Darren Ferguson described him as “one of the most naturally talented players” he had seen. The footballing world, it appeared, was at Tomlin’s feet.

The only problem was that the cocksure 20-something knew it. The creative side of the game had always come so easily to him that everything else seemed irrelevant. Why break into a sweat in training or run yourself into the ground during a game when if you’re given the ball 20 yards out, you’d fancy yourself to bend it into the top corner?

“When I was younger, people used to say, 'You can play as high as you want to play’,” said Tomlin. “I used to hear that and think, 'Okay, if I'm that good, I don't need to work hard, I don't need to do this, I don't need to do that’. I didn't look after myself right at all.

“Everyone would say to me, 'You've got the world at your feet’, but maybe that was the worst thing for me to hear. Back then, the professionalism wasn't quite there.”

As a result, the potential dream move to Celtic failed to materialise. Suddenly, a clutch of other youngsters emerged onto the Championship scene and, at the age of 24, Tomlin was in danger of becoming yesterday’s man, a talent that briefly shone bright before rapidly fading into obscurity.

Frustration began to build, and as a consequence, Tomlin’s discipline disappeared out of the window. He picked up seven red cards in the space of three years, with two coming in quick succession at the start of last season. Alan Swann, the Peterborough United writer in the Peterborough Telegraph, talked of Tomlin mixing “moments of genius with moments of witless behaviour”.

“At Peterborough, the gaffer, Darren Ferguson, used to love people working hard, but I never did it,” admitted Tomlin. “I was just, 'Give the ball to my feet and then I'll do the job’.”

None of which went unnoticed. By the end of last year, Middlesbrough’s recruitment team had been watching Tomlin for more than a year. In the main, they liked what they saw, but certain conversations with those close to the forward troubled them. They were already wrestling with an increasingly disruptive Kei Kamara, did they really want another potentially corrosive influence in the dressing room?

In the end, and with the blessing of new head coach Aitor Karanka, it was decided that the positives just about outweighed the negatives. Tomlin arrived at the Riverside, briefly on loan and then in a permanent transfer worth around £1.5m, and ten months on, it is hard to imagine that there was such a drawn-out debate about his potential value to the team.

Grant Leadbitter might have hit the headlines with his goalscoring, while Kike and Patrick Bamford have provided some explosive glamour at the head of the attack, but when it comes to explaining Middlesbrough’s charge up the Championship table this season, a surge that will have taken them all the way to top spot if they beat Bournemouth today, Tomlin’s form is key.

There have been moments of sublime skill and goalscoring finesse, such as the slick finish that set Boro on the way to a 2-1 win at Brighton last month, but it has been the 25-year-old’s input during his less productive periods that has really caught the eye.

No one works harder in a Boro shirt than the club’s industrious number ten, and if you speak to other squad members, they will tell you that no one is more committed or diligent on the training pitch either.

It has taken a while, but the penny has finally dropped, and as he reflects on his new maturity, it is telling that Tomlin is quick to highlight the role played by Karanka, a mentor who clearly rates the forward highly, hence his willingness to start him in 12 of this season’s 16 Championship matches, but who is completely unwilling to tolerate any lowering of standards.

“The gaffer is a perfectionist,” said Tomlin. “He’s meticulous in everything he does – that’s why he’s worked at Real Madrid and under Jose Mourinho – and he demands the same from his players. He’s such a good manager.

“There’s a really good atmosphere around the place, but when you cross the white line, even in training, it’s serious and that’s how the gaffer wants it. He says that the training pitch and the games are the times when you have to concentrate on what you’re doing, and I’ve taken that on board.

“The gaffer has looked at me in that ‘number ten’ role and worked out what he wants. He wants me to be really fit because if you’re in that position, you’re lucky to have more than one game in three where everything comes off and you break down the opposition. In a lot of games this season, it’s not going to happen like that, so you have to work hard for the team and you’ll still have a good chance of winning the game.”

But what about if you do all that, and yet still find yourself out of the team, as was the case with Tomlin for last weekend’s game at Rotherham? Doesn’t Karanka’s mix-and-match approach to team selection breed frustration?

“It’s not really like that,” said Tomlin. “When people say, ‘He’s dropped you today’ or ‘You’re not playing’, it’s not that you’ve been dropped, it’s just that he (Karanka) doesn’t think that specific game is right for you.

“I might not always agree, but I can see what he’s saying. That was what happened at Rotherham – he didn’t want to play me through the centre because with the way they play, the game wasn’t going to unfold like that.

“You just hold your hand up and say, ‘Fair enough, he knows what he’s doing’. I think that’s why everyone respects him so highly. You can’t complain if you’ve got the reason why. You can’t argue with his reasoning, so you’ve just got to keep your head up and continue to work hard, and then when the time is right, you’ve got to take your chance with both hands.”