MIDDLESBROUGH boss Neil Warnock seems prepared to play the waiting game for Martin Payero and conceded it may take months for him to get up to speed with the English game.

Warnock has used Payero sparingly in the Championship having come off the bench in the first two games of the season. He was an unused sub in the goalless draw with Derby County yesterday but he did start in the club's EFL Cup defeat to Blackpool. 

Clearly Warnock has plenty of knowledge for the pace and speed of the Championship having produced a number of sides capable of mounting a promotion push over the years. However, fans have questioned the decision to use him off the bench and have been keen to see him in action from the off. 

He's a signing that has excited fans over the summer having made the switch from Argentinian side Banfield with a lot of promise and good reports. 

The Boro boss does not have an immediate timeframe for Payero to be ready for English football but conceded it may be some time before we see him featuring regularly on Teesside. 

Warnock said: “That I don’t know. The physicality of the game. New country and new culture, language. I was talking to Steve (Gibson) the other day and I said to him ‘it might take a couple of months’. He said to me straight away ‘well it took Juninho three months’.

"He didn’t even look a player for three months and then all of a sudden it triggered. So I wouldn’t mind him doing the same as him in three months time!

"You can see when he’s training or when he’s in the games, he beats himself up at times because he knows that he should be a little bit quicker but that will come that.

"I’ve just said not to expect too much of himself for a few months and just try and try and enjoy the training and getting fitter and sharper to what’s required. It will just click in the next few months."

As Payero will be monitored closely in training over the months for his adjustment to the English game, Warnock explained how they came to the decision to secure the 22-year-old's signature over the summer. 

Warnock added: "You have to rely on the information you are given. We watched videos on him and we liked him.

"We didn’t get to see him, I never got to see him and I don’t think we would have managed to get to see him.

"He was highly recommended by a number of people and so in the end there was very little in England to sign. That’s why we look at the likes of Sporar and hopes that that comes off."