Everton's Yannick Bolasie was partly to blame for his move to Middlesbrough collapsing says Neil Warnock

Boro were in talks to sign the Everton winger on loan, yet a deal couldn’t be completed before Friday’s 5pm cut-off point.

When asked why the deal didn’t go through after Boro’s goalless draw with Reading at the Riverside, Warnock said: “There were many things and I’m just disappointed that we didn't get him but that’s life.

“There were numerous things that happened in the afternoon and it wasn’t to be, I’m disappointed but you have to move on.

"I thought we had him most of the day but there were problems which cropped up and we couldn’t get it over the line, we were too late.”

Bolasie, 31, took to Twitter on Friday evening to express his disappointment that a deal couldn’t be completed in time.

Yet Warnock says the player was also partly to blame after the deal collapsed.

“I spoke to him last night but there is no point speaking to him again, he’s not going to be playing for us,” Warnock added.

“He was partly to blame as well, there were things I should have known before 4 o’clock about his problems at Everton and they were problems that we couldn’t overcome. We tried to and eventually we did but it was too late.

“I asked him why I didn’t know about the problems and he said I told my agent and I said why didn’t the agent tell us then.”

Warnock also said on Friday that Boro could look at signing players who are free agents, with a striker the priority.

That is because Ashley Fletcher is likely to be sidelined until January with a hamstring injury which he suffered against Bournemouth last month.

When asked about potentially signing free agents, Warnock added: “I’m not sure about that at the minute, obviously we’ll look into that, usually you can do but it’s a difficult scheme.

“The players who are available, are they better than what we’ve got?”

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