Transfer details revealed in Middlesbrough and Leeds United agreement – Football League World 9/10/23

BY JACK PRICE

Middlesbrough faced challenges reuniting with loan stars, but brought in new faces like Sam Greenwood from Leeds United on loan.

 Middlesbrough has the option to buy Greenwood for £1.5m at the end of his loan if they're satisfied with his performances.

 Greenwood has shown promise in recent matches, starting and making an impact, and Boro should consider buying him permanently if he continues to perform well.

Middlesbrough had a hectic summer transfer window to say the least.

Much of it was defined by a profound struggle to reunite with the loan stars that propelled them towards the Championship play-offs last time out, with Ryan Giles, Cameron Archer and Aaron Ramsey all joining newly-promoted trio Luton Town, Sheffield United and Burnley instead of returning to the Riverside Stadium for a second season.

They were no doubt burned by the departure of Chuba Akpom too, who had long been at the centre of a contractual showdown after his 28-goal haul had earned no shortage of suitors, and his clear lack of interest in renewing terms saw an eight-figure transfer to Dutch giants Ajax sanctioned.

Despite all of that, boss Michael Carrick brought in plenty of fresh faces too, one of which being Sam Greenwood on loan from second-tier rivals Leeds United.

Greenwood arrived as one of only two loan transfers across the entirety of the summer and the terms of that deal have been revealed in a fresh update from The Athletic.

Can Middlesbrough buy Sam Greenwood from Leeds United?

Attempting to broker permanent deals for loan players after their temporary spell concludes is often a popular port of call for the clubs in question, and Boro are able to exercise that option if they wish.

The report states that Middlesbrough have a £1.5m option to buy Greenwood at the end of his deal should they be satisfied with his performances, of course.

Both Boro and the player will be running the rule over making the move a permanent one across the rest of the season.

How has Leeds United's Sam Greenwood performed for Middlesbrough?

The versatile attacker has forced his way into Carrick's plans as of late, starting each of the last two matches - his first two starts for the club - as Middlesbrough have begun to ascend the league table after a sluggish start to proceedings.

Indeed, Greenwood himself had faced some initial teething problems in that stage and failed to register too much of an impact when being introduced from the bench.

However, he was impressive in Boro's midweek victory over Cardiff City and proved even more instrumental in their 4-0 Tees-Wear Derby triumph against adversaries Sunderland, opening the scoring just shy of the hour mark.

Should Middlesbrough buy Sam Greenwood permanently from Leeds United?

It may be premature to hold that view just yet, but make no mistake about it, it's something that Middlesbrough should certainly activate if Greenwood continues to kick on in the North East.

£1.5m is a very low figure for a player of his quality, and you'd have typically expected it to be much higher - but that could just work to their advantage.

As aforementioned, Boro had their fingers burned by not being able to bring back the loanees from the Premier League and it was certainly detrimental in the opening elements of the season, but they've got more security with Greenwood now and that should only serve to be reassuring.