MIDDLESBROUGH delivered a deadline day warning to the rest of the Championship by striking one of the most expensive deals in the country after resurrecting a deal for £9m man Jordan Rhodes.
The prolific Blackburn Rovers striker has become the second most expensive buy in Boro’s history after signing a four-and-a-half year deal at the Riverside Stadium.
De Laet has signed for Middlesbrough from Leicester
It is thought it could even surpass the record-busting £12.8m paid for Afonso Alves eight years ago if promotion and add-ons take the deal for Rhodes to £13m.
But the fee is not what matters to Boro this morning after they finally got a deal over the line after spending the month trying to sign a new striker.
Aitor Karanka had hoped, for the majority of January, to seal a deal for Fulham’s Ross McCormack, but there was a determination at Craven Cottage to keep the Scotland international in west London.
De Sart signs on the dotted line.
That led to Boro reviving their long-standing interest in Rhodes, who Karanka hopes will help give his team the extra lift required to get promotion after a successful January transfer window on Teesside.
Rhodes had agreed everything on Saturday and passed a medical only for the deal to breakdown over the weekend because Boro had a change of heart, leaving the player disappointed and “flabbergasted”.
But discussions restarted and it was a case of Rhodes travelling back to Rockliffe Park, Hurworth, on deadline day at 6.30pm to sign the contract and finalise a move after an agreement was reached to suit all parties. He will face his former club at the weekend when Boro meet Rovers at the Riverside.
Leicester defender Ritchie de Laet has also joined on loan until the end of the season along with Standard Liege’s defensive midfielder Julien de Sart. The three deadline day recruits follow January signings Gaston Ramirez and Kike Sola.
Karanka, who was also interested in Hearts’ teenage defender Jordan McGhee, said: “I am very pleased about Jordan Rhodes and about the other players who have arrived this month.
“I also want to thank the players who have got us to the position we are in. The players who have come are really good players.
“To add Jordan, who is an amazing lad, his numbers are amazing, I can understand why everyone is excited, but I told him the most important thing is the team. That is the most important thing for me. I have signed five really good lads.”
Rhodes arrives having scored 85 goals in 169 appearances for Blackburn, a follow on from his blistering start to his career at Huddersfield where he 87 in 148 games.
Clubs from across the Premier League and Europe have regularly scouted him, but were never prepared to gamble on taking him to the Premier League – and now he hopes to fire Boro there next season.
Karanka has paid tribute to chairman Steve Gibson and chief executive Neil Bausor for boosting his side’s promotion chances over the last few weeks, which coincided with back-to-back defeats which saw them lose grip of top spot in the Championship.
“When you are working at a club like Middlesbrough you are always calm, you have everything when you have the relationship with my chairman and CEO,” said Karanka.
“We knew we could do everything we wanted. But we were always thinking about the team.
“It is a good push for us at this stage. I think it was really important for us to lose the last two games because had we won those games then we might have thought we were done in January.
“But because we lost those games we have pushed to bring in more players. It was a wake-up call. We are in this position because the players here are doing a fantastic job. They are giving me everything.”
The biggest surprise was the arrival of Belgium Under-21 international de Sart. The 21-year-old will provide competition for Grant Leadbitter and Adam Clayton in the middle, having signed a three-and-a-half year deal after leaving Liege. He had seen a move to Zulte Waregem breakdown.
Compatriot de Laet is a right-back capable of covering for injured George Friend on the left and he brings plenty of experience of English football following spells with Manchester United, Wrexham, Sheffield United, Preston, Portsmouth and Norwich before moving to Leicester.
The 27-year-old has arrived on loan, but that could become permanent in the summer if the move proves successful.
There was no deal confirmed shortly after 11pm for Kike, after talk all day of interest from Eibar and Wolves. He had been expected to return to Spain before the window closed.
Fernando Amorebieta was recalled by Fulham so his loan at Boro has now ended.
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