Middlesbrough FC chiefs will surely laugh off £27m Crystal Palace claims | OneFootball

The Eagles are reportedly planning a £27m double swoop for Middlesbrough's Hayden Hackney, and Rav van den Berg.

Crystal Palace are reportedly eyeing up a £27m double transfer raid for Middlesbrough's Hayden Hackney and Rav van den Berg.

Middlesbrough are entering a new era at the Riverside Stadium, with Rob Edwards ready to lead the club into his first summer transfer window in the Boro hotseat.

What he will find on Teesside is a playing squad laden with talent, that undoubtedly underperformed in the Championship last season.

As a result, the playing squad is set to undergo a significant overhaul this summer, with Edwards likely to need a host of new additions in order to transition the side away from their 4-2-3-1 approach under Michael Carrick, to his favoured back three flanked by wing-backs approach.

Crystal Palace set to test Middlesbrough's resolve with Hayden Hackney, Rav van den Berg swoop

Two players that Middlesbrough appear to have big decisions to make on are Hayden Hackney, and Rav van den Berg.

As claimed by The Sun on Monday, the Eagles are preparing to swoop for the talented Boro pair this summer, in a double deal reportedly worth £27m.

Palace are known to have been tracking Van den Berg ever since he signed for Middlesbrough in the summer of 2023, and The Northern Echo have revealed that Oliver Glasner's side have been scouting the Dutch youth international at the Under-21 European Championships.

As for Hackney, Boro's central midfield star has had his Premier League admirers for some time, with Liverpool, Spurs, Manchester United and Newcastle United all having been credited with an interest in the Middlesbrough academy graduate.

Indeed, Boro turned down a £10m bid from Portuguese giants Porto in the recent winter transfer window, and have shown a real determination to retain his services since his first-team breakthrough back in October 2022.

Middlesbrough hierarchy will surely feel confident they can bag higher sum for Hackney and Van den Berg

Middlesbrough have proven themselves to be highly savvy and firm operators when it comes to selling players in recent times.

Bagging over £5m for Josh Coburn - which is a pure profit deal given he's a Boro academy graduate - for a player that evidently wasn't a part of Carrick's nor Edwards' plans, represents an excellent deal for the club.

The Teessiders collected another £5m of pure profit with the sale of Isaiah Jones to Luton Town last winter, in a window that also saw them sign off on a club-record £22.5m deal with Atlanta for the services of Emmanuel Latte Lath.

Going slightly further back, Middlesbrough also banked huge profits on both Morgan Rogers and Chuba Akpom, with the club sure to be bankrolled for a second time on the former due to their clever insertion of a 20 per cent sell-on clause.

To put it simply, Boro aren't pushovers when it comes to selling their players, and they know how to get the best deals for their players.

Therefore, seeing £15m being quoted for Hackney - a player who was reported to have commanded a £25m asking price in January - would surely be a price that wouldn't bring them to the table.

Indeed, they've just seen Sunderland's Jobe Bellingham flogged to Borussia Dortmund for £31m, and so for them to sell Hackney for potentially less than half the price of that deal, seems highly unlikely to say the least.

Similarly, Boro are also well aware of the number of top clubs that they beat to sign Van den Berg, with Dortmund, AC Milan, Juventus and Ajax all chasing his signature when Middlesbrough secured his services.

It's fair to assume that one slightly average season last term compared to his outstanding debut campaign at the Riverside won't put those calibre of clubs off trying to sign him again, as he certainly has the tools to develop into a top-class central defender in the coming years.

Both Hackney and Van den Berg are both contracted on Teesside until the summer of 2027 too, meaning Boro will be in no great rush to sell, and crucially, can hold out for as big a fee as possible.

Therefore, Middlesbrough owner Steve Gibson shouldn't be answering the phone at this price point, with Hackney and Van den Berg sure to be players that Edwards will want to build his team around moving forward.