MFC has its first summer signing in place, with Myles Peart-Harris joining Middlesbrough at the end of last week before the squad heads to Portugal this week for a pre-season training camp. He arrived as a free agent after a short-term spell at Oxford United and linked up with his new team-mates at Rockliffe Park as pre-season began.
Rockliffe Park starts now
Peart-Harris is the club’s first signing of the summer, and his arrival gives Middlesbrough an early attacking addition before the work shifts overseas. The move comes at the start of a pre-season programme that is already under pressure to fill gaps in several parts of the squad.
That need is most obvious up front. Middlesbrough are expected to make at least another couple of attacking additions this summer after a lack of options in the latter stages of last season hurt them.
Hayden Hackney leaves a gap
The club also has to replace more than one departure. Hayden Hackney has gone since the end of last season, while Dael Fry, Darragh Lenihan, Sammy Silvera, Alex Gilbert, Matt Targett and Alan Browne all moved on by different routes at the end of the campaign.
Fry has already settled elsewhere on a three-year deal with Birmingham, and he said he had not been able to agree a new deal with Middlesbrough. His exit, along with those of Lenihan and Targett, leaves defence short before the trip to Portugal begins.
Portugal and the rebuild
The centre of midfield is another priority area after Hackney’s departure, so the club is trying to cover attack, defence and midfield at the same time. That makes the first signing useful, but it also leaves the recruitment list open as the squad gets on the plane this week.
For Middlesbrough, the immediate task is not just travel to Portugal. It is to keep adding players while the group is still thin, with Peart-Harris already in and more arrivals needed to shape the rest of the summer.
