Middlesbrough FC's 8 biggest transfer flops that supporters will want to forget | OneFootball

Highlights

Middlesbrough FC are once again vying for promotion back to the Premier League

They are a club who have experienced plenty of ups and downs over the years and as such, have signed a wide range of different players from all over the world.

But not every signing has worked out in the way that the Boro faithful would have liked.

For every signing of a player who goes on to be a club legend, there comes a flop - a familiar tale for many EFL clubs.

Afonso Alves

The Brazilian striker signed for Middlesbrough in January 2008 for a then-club-record fee of €12m.

He arrived in Teesside with a big reputation due to an outrageous return of 45 goals in 39 appearances for his previous club Herenveen.

Alves started life at Middlesbrough in an explosive fashion as he scored six goals in his first 11 games for the club.

However, in the 2008/09 season, he managed to score just four goals in 31 Premier League appearances as the club were relegated despite managing to reach the FA Cup quarter-finals.

He left Boro to join Qatar-based Al Sadd prior to the start of the 2009/10 season.

Macarone signed for Boro in the summer of 2002 for a fee of £8.15m, which was a club record transfer fee at the time.

Prior to moving to the North East, the former AC Milan striker bagged an impressive 36 goals in 68 appearances for Italian side Empoli.

His Middlesbrough career did not quite take off in the same manner as Macarone scored just 18 goals in 80 appearances for the club in a spell, which lasted until 2007.

He didn't impress his boss Steve McClaren and was shipped out on loan to both Parma and Siena during his tenure at the Riverside.

Bernardo Espinosa

Colombian centre-back Espinosa was an odd signing from the offset.

When Aitor Karanka signed him in the summer of 2016, he was still recovering from the ACL injury he picked up at previous club Sporting Gijon.

He only managed to make 11 appearances in Middlesbrough colours as he was the third choice centre-half behind defensve duo Calum Chambers and Ben Gibson.

Middlesbrough were relegated at the end of the 2016-17 campaign and Espinosa did very little to help his side avoid the drop.

His Boro career came to an end following that relegation as he signed for Girona in July 2017.

Guedioura was another member of Middlesbrough's relegated 2016-17 Premier League side.

Karanka brought him through the doors at Teesside during the January transfer window in an attempt to save Boro's season.

Having been a key member of the Watford team from 2014 onwards, the Algerian had a good reputation.

However, the midfielder was unable to take this good form with him to the North East as Boro were relegated to the Championship.

Guedioura signed a two-and-a-half year deal with Middlesbrough but by 2018, he had joined Nottingham Forest.

The Egyptian striker joined Middlesbrough in 2007, having played for European giants such as Ajax and Roma during the early 2000s.

He first arrived in the Premier League when Roma loaned him to Tottenham Hotspur for the 2005/06 season. In this loan spell at Spurs, he bagged 13 goals in 36 appearances.

However, after signing a permanent deal in North London ahead of the 2006-07 campaign, the forward's form took a significant turn for the worse.

During the 2007 summer transfer window, Spurs offloaded him to Middlesbrough.

Mido was underwhelming at the Riverside and spent much of his Boro career on loan and made just 25 appearances for the club between 2007 and 2010.

Uche Ikpeazu

Ikpeazu managed to score six goals in the Championship for the relegated Wycombe Wanderers side in 2020/21, having started 23 games in the second tier.

After the striker produced a half-decent goal output for a relegated side, Middlesbrough took a punt on him.

Sadly for the Teessiders, this did not pay off as he scored just three goals in the first half of the 2021/22 campaign before being loaned out to Cardiff City.

He also scored just three goals for Cardiff and ended up joining Turkish side Konyaspor on a free transfer in the summer of 2022.

Ikpeazu is now at Port Vale, where is still yet to find the back of the net.

Marcus Browne

The attacking midfielder joined Middlesbrough from Premier League outfit West Ham in 2019 after impressing whilst out on loan from the Hammers at Oxford United.

Browne made 14 appearances for Boro during the 2019/20 season as the club finished in a lowly 17th position in the Championship.

He did not register a single goal for the club during that campaign.

Midway through the season, the former Hammer joined Oxford United on loan, again, where he performed much better in League One, scoring five goals in 16 appearances.

He would go on to make just eight more appearances at Boro and re-join Oxford permanently by January 2022.

Michael Ricketts

Steve McClaren splashed out seven figures to sign Michael Ricketts from Bolton Wanderers in January 2003 and it would not prove money well spent.

The rumours are that McClaren had been impressed by Ricketts on England duty but he failed to ever show those qualities in the North East and left on a free transfer in 2004.