Middlesbrough FC transfer news: Barcelona miss out on ex-Boro target while Leeds United open youth centre on Teesside

Chris Harper – a lifelong Middlesbrough fan and a former Boro scout – will run the development centre. He said: “We're starting with under-sevens, under-eights and under-nines and in the New Year we are going to push on and bring in Under-10s, Under-11s and Under-12s.

“At the moment it's one training session a week over five weeks. The plan is to have four weeks of coaching and training and on the fifth week we'll invite a grassroots team in from the local area for a game. The players will be assessed at the end of the five week period and either released back to their grassroots team or selected for further development and offered another block of sessions with us.”

Barcelona are reportedly ‘kicking themselves’ having missed out on former Middlesbrough target Gabriel Martinelli.

Britt Assombalonga has explained why he has refused to panic at Middlesbrough’s Championship squad and when things weren’t going his way in front of goal.

“It’s not a one-off thing, it happens for every striker. You just have to keep going.

“Eventually it’s going to click, and then you’ll go on a run of scoring again and everyone will forget about the time when you had a chance and missed.