MIDDLESBROUGH have emerged as the frontrunners to sign highly-rated Dundee United striker Nadir Ciftci.

The Turkish 22-year-old looks set to be on the move this summer with Dundee United manager Jackie McNamara seemingly resigned to losing the striker’s services.

The Scottish Premiership club rejected a bid believed to be in the region of £900,000 from Celtic yesterday, and are reluctant to sell to the champions having lost Gary Mackay-Steven and Stuart Armstrong to the Bhoys in January.

The Tannadice outfit will listen to offers for the under-19 international who joined United from NAC Breda in 2013, where he came to the attention of Boro’s scouting team who have previously looked at the Dutch market. Although the striker is valued at £1.5m, the Teessiders could get their man for around the £1m mark.

A striker is high on Aitor Karanka’s list of priorities in terms of summer recruitment, following the return to Chelsea of last season’s top scorer Patrick Bamford.

Boro scored 68 goals, the lowest of the Championship’s top eight last season and 30 fewer than champions Bournemouth in a season where they fell just short of promotion.

Ciftci scored 16 goals for The Terrors and can play comfortably in the lone striker’s role which Boro employed for much of the previous campaign. And, with his wages believed to be around the £2,000 per week mark at United, a deal would not break Boro’s bank – and would certainly not jeopardise any efforts to sign West Ham United winger Stewart Downing.

However, there is a sizeable question-mark over the temperament of Ciftci, who began his career at Ado Den Haag before making a move at the age of 15 to Portsmouth.

The striker is awaiting the outcome of an SFA investigation into his conduct during a game against Dundee in the final game of the season, where it is alleged he bit Jim McAlister during a 3-0 victory. Any ban for Ciftci would apply in English football too, but that has not deterred Boro from pursuing a player who picked up 11 yellow cards last season.

Meanwhile, Boro defender James Husband is already looking forward to the start of the season.

Boro travel to newly-promoted Preston for a game which has been selected for live broadcast on Sky Sports on Sunday, August 9.

“It’s the perfect opening game for both teams,” Husband said of the meeting, which kicks off at noon, while Boro’s September trip to Nottingham Forest has also been selected for broadcast.

“There’ll be a lot of excitement at Preston about getting back into the Championship and they’ll come flying out of the blocks.

“They proved what a good team they were when they played us against us last season. This time we have to go to their place and get a result.”

Husband has predicted that another team to come up from League One, Bristol City, will be ones to watch next season.

“It’s difficult to predict who the main threats will be next season, but you’d expect Bristol City to be one team to watch,” he said. “They play a good brand of football and remind me a bit of Bournemouth, who of course have gone all the way up to the top after just a couple of seasons in the Championship.”