Middlesbrough FC: Michael Carrick should look ready loan-to-buy Bournemouth swoop | OneFootball

Max Aarons should be a player Middlesbrough are looking at in the January transfer window...

Middlesbrough head coach Michael Carrick should be preparing a loan-to-buy January move for Bournemouth defender Max Aarons.

Boro are approaching the halfway point of the season as one of the Championship's leading promotion contenders so far, as the Teessiders look to end what will be an eight-year exile from the Premier League this term.

Thanks to multiple highly successful transfer windows, both in player recruitment and the retention of star assets, Carrick is able to boast one of the strongest playing squads in the division, with a nice blend of youth and experience in Boro's dressing room.

However, there is one aspect of his team that is facing somewhat of an uncertain present, and indeed, future, and that's the right-back spot.

As such, Middlesbrough should be laying the groundwork for a possible Premier League swoop for a former Championship star in the shape of Aarons, who appears to be out in the Bournemouth cold and in need of a fresh start.

Michael Carrick's current right-back options are limited

No obvious long-term solution in place

Middlesbrough's 2024/25 squad looks to have all the ingredients necessary for a promotion-winning season. A superb array of attacking talent, a brilliant midfield pairing of Aidan Morris and Hayden Hackney, and a crop of talented defenders.

However, at right-back, Boro find themselves in somewhat of a sticky situation both in the present, and for the future. Tommy Smith and Anfernee Dijksteel are both out of contract in the summer, whilst Luke Ayling is only contracted through the 2025/26 season.

Smith hasn't been seen in well over a year, after suffering a ruptured Achilles in October 2023 against Birmingham City, and looks to be a player that Boro will likely move on from when his contract expires.

Ayling is 33, and has seemingly lost, or at the very best, is having to share his starting role with Dijksteel this term, after the Suriname international has banked a number of impressive performances in recent outings.

However, Dijksteel has been prone to injury woes himself during his time on Teesside, and thus relying on the 28-year-old to stay fit for the remainder of the season would be a sizeable gamble for the Boro boss to make.

Bournemouth's Max Aarons shone in the Championship with Norwich

He could be a major coup for Middlesbrough

This is where Aarons comes in. The 24-year-old secured a move to Bournemouth in August 2023, signing for the Cherries from Norwich City in a deal worth a reported £7m rising to £12m.

It was a move that came off the back of yet another highly impressive season at Carrow Road, as the former England youth international made 48 total appearances for the Canaries in 2022/23.

However, since making the switch to the Vitality Stadium, Aarons has found regular game time difficult to come by, and as of matchday 15 in the Premier League, has made just one appearance in a 15-minute cameo off the bench vs Brighton in late November.

Surely then, the thought of seeking an escape route will eventually cross his mind if it hasn't already, as he's proven himself to be a player that has bags of potential and ability to enjoy a highly successful career.

Carrick loves to implement attacking full-backs in his system; Ryan Giles, Lukas Engel, Alex Bangura, Ayling and Borges are all examples of this, and Aarons certainly fits that profile.

His 40 chances created, 26 successful crosses and 76 touches in the opposition box all ranked him in the top 89.5, 87.6 and 93.3 percentiles of Championship right-backs during the 2022/23 season, whilst his 53 successful dribbles were more than any of his positional peers in the second tier that year too - per FotMob.

Aarons is a high-energy and skillful right-back, who has the battery to charge up and down the flank for the full 90 minutes. He's a perfect match for what Carrick wants in a full-back.

Therefore, with Middlesbrough in need of some long-term security at right-back as well as an injection of added quality not to be frowned at in his current side, the Boro boss should be eyeing up a potential loan with the view to a permanent deal in January.

If they can get a deal such as that done in the winter window, they could get a player who's proven himself to be a top player at Championship level to thoroughly boost their promotion credentials, as well as potentially secure a defender who's shown himself to be more than capable at Premier League level in the past.