SONNY FINCH will not be leaving Middlesbrough on loan this month, because Chris Wilder feels the teenager will learn more from training at Rockliffe Park than being exposed to the challenges of first-team football in the lower leagues at such an early stage of his career.

Finch, who made his senior Boro debut in Tuesday’s Carabao Cup first-round defeat to Barnsley, only turned 17 at the start of the month, shortly before he signed his first professional contract with the Teessiders.

The Houghton-le-Spring-based youngster has barely even featured for Boro’s Under-23s team such has been the rapid rate of his development, so while a number of clubs have made inquiries about a possible loan move, Wilder would rather keep him at Rockliffe until at least January.

“He’s not ready for loan football yet,” said the Boro boss. “He’s working with us in and around our first team, and I’ve always said that it’s beneficial for some of the young players to be with us instead of going out.

“We’re developers of players. We’ve put £4m or so into the academy, and we’ve done that for quite a lot of years. We’ve got the benefit of it through developing players through, and we’ll continue to do that.

“We’ve done that fabulously. We did it fabulously before I came, and then we can also talk about what’s happened since I walked the through the door in terms of the development of players like Tav (Marcus Tavernier) and (Isaiah) Jones, who we’ve worked with.

“When you look at the likes of Finch and that next group, they’re going to be good players. I’m not saying that all the players we saw on Tuesday night will end up playing in the first team at Middlesbrough, but there’s a long list of players that have played, and along with the rest of the coaching staff, I would love to keep working with young players.

“I’m sure we will do. There’s a structure and a style about how we play, so we are teachers and coaches as well. We’re trying to teach and coach young players to get better.”

While Finch will remain with Boro’s development group for the foreseeable future, there are likely to be loan departures ahead of the closure on the transfer window on September 1.

Hayden Hackney and Isaac Fletcher have previously spent time at Scunthorpe United and Hartlepool United respectively, while Bryant Bilongo and Caolan Boyd-Munce would appear to be ideal candidates for a first loan move to clubs in the bottom two divisions.

The Northern Echo:

“The young boys won’t be part of the first-team squad,” continued Wilder. “The likes of Finch, Fletcher, Hackney, Gibson, Boyd-Munce, Dodds, Bilongo – you’re talking about Championship football, and they need to do some learning first.

“Some will stay in the club with us, as we talked about in terms of Finch, to learn with us, but some need the hurly-burly and exposure of League One and League Two football for their development.

“We’ll keep working away. I’ve said a number in terms of the signings that we’re still looking to bring in, and that I’m confident that we will bring in, but if we don’t, then we’ll have to reassess things off the back of that.”

While Tuesday’s game might have resulted in Boro exiting the Carabao Cup at the first-round stage, Wilder was still more than satisfied with the efforts of his youngsters.

“It was a real good test for those young players, and one where I really enjoyed watching them,” he said. “I think that for the majority of the Middlesbrough crowd, you could sense there was a bit of a buzz when Finch got on the ball, or when a couple of the young boys got on the ball and tried to make things happen.

“Bilongo and Dodds came on and went charging through, and the crowd know what they like, and they’d like to see local academy boys come through. So, on that, it was a real plus point from the night.”