Clever Middlesbrough signing pocketed at least £2m in profit from Leeds United deal | OneFootball

Boro sold Adam Forshaw to Leeds in 2018, after spending three years on Teesside after joining from Wigan Athletic in 2015.

Middlesbrough purchased central midfielder Adam Forshaw from Wigan Athletic in 2015, before selling him to Leeds United in 2018 after three years at the Riverside Stadium.

Signed for a reported fee of £2-2.5m, the former Everton academy graduate put pen to paper on a three-and-a-half-year deal in January 2015, as Aitor Karanka's Boro side looked to bolster their promotion credentials.

Only 23 at the time, Forshaw had already racked up a significant number of EFL appearances with then League One Brentford between 2011-2014, and despite his move to the DW Stadium in September 2014 only lasting a handful of months, he was still regarded as one of the brightest young midfielders in the football league.

Fast-forward another three years, and the Liverpudlian's time in the North East would be over, as he made the switch to rivals Leeds United in January 2018 in a deal worth a reported £4.5m.

FLW takes a look back on Forshaw's time with Middlesbrough, what he and the club were able to achieve during his spell at the Riverside, and why he turned out to be a really shrewd piece of business by Boro.

Forshaw proved to be an invaluable piece of depth in Karanka's side

With Middlesbrough forking out a sizeable fee to pry Forshaw away from Wigan Athletic, his path to a place in Karanka's starting XI wasn't going to be an easy one.

Grant Leadbitter and Adam Clayton were well on their way to forming one of the best central midfield partnerships in the Championship come Forshaw's arrival, and with highly-rated youngster Julien De Sart behind them two, competition for places in Boro's engine room was fierce.

He would make a handful of starts during his 20 Championship appearances in 2014/15, but the majority of his cameos came from the substitutes bench. With Middlesbrough falling to Norwich City in the play-off final that year, the club knew they were ready to take the promotion step the following season.

That's precisely what the Teessiders did, winning automatic promotion to the Premier League with a 1-1 draw vs Brighton & Hove Albion on a memorable final day at the Riverside, but it wouldn't have been possible without Forshaw.

He made 29 appearances in the Championship during the 2015/16 campaign, scoring twice and providing two assists. Forshaw assisted Emilio Nsue for what would be a crucial winning goal against Burnley in December, with his crowning moment in a Boro shirt to follow...

It only takes one swing of a boot to write yourself into the folklore of a football club, and that's precisely what Forshaw did on an April night under the Riverside Stadium lights against Reading...

After taking an early lead through Nsue, the Royals would equalise just 10 minutes into the second half, and would frustrate Boro for the remainder of the second period as Karanka's men searched for a winning goal.

With 94 minutes on the clock, some Middlesbrough fans had either left, or were in the process of completing that awkward shuffle through the rows of seats when a corner was swung into the penalty area.

George Friend's back post header nodded the ball back across the box and to the feet of David Nugent, he swung a left boot at the ball but couldn't make contact, it broke to Clayton who's shot was travelling well wide until it met the head of Albert Adomah who bravely redirected it towards goal, before eventually it found its way to Forshaw...

The midfielder - who wasn't known for scoring goals - controlled and hit a right-footed shot into the near post, and into the back of the Reading net with the final kick of the game. That goal sent the remaining Riverside crowd into pandemonium, and Boro back to the top of the Championship with a handful of games remaining.

Middlesbrough wouldn't lose a single one of their final five league games after that win, securing the return of top-flight football. Without that moment, who knows if Karanka's men may have recovered from such a frustrating draw?

He would be one of Boro's best in their 16/17 Premier League season

Now back amongst the big boys, Middlesbrough strengthened their central midfield options with the signing of Atalanta midfielder Marten De Roon - a move which many thought may prove to push Forshaw towards the exit door.

Instead, quite the opposite would happen, as he would sign a new four-year contract in August. He would go on to make 34 Premier League appearances for Middlesbrough during their ill-fated 2016/17 season, as despite suffering relegation, Forshaw was one of the few who could certainly hold his head high.

30 of those 34 appearances were starts, as alongside Clayton, De Roon and Leadbitter, they'd make up what was perhaps Karanka's best performing unit that season.

reported as having scouted him for a potential England call-up.

Middlesbrough made a cool profit on Forshaw when the time came

After suffering relegation back to the Championship in 2017, Forshaw was only able to make 11 league appearances before deciding to call time on his Middlesbrough career in January 2018.

He would go on to spend the next four-and-a-half years of his career at Elland Road, where he would once again win promotion to the Premier League in 2020.

Making 22 top-flight appearances for Leeds in 2021/22, he may not have impressed as much in the division as he did with Boro, but he once again proved himself as a more than capable performer at that level.

Ultimately, Middlesbrough's signing of Forshaw must go down as a really smart piece of business by the club. His vital goal against Reading repaid the transfer fee alone, and his excellent performances in the Premier League helped ensure Boro kept up the relegation fight for longer than they perhaps would have otherwise.