"Would take a massive offer" - £45m claim made as Spurs eye Middlesbrough duo | OneFootball

This article is part of Football League World’s 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

It is set to be a busy summer for Middlesbrough as they look to build a squad capable of challenging for promotion in the Championship next season.

Boro were among the promotion favourites heading into this season, but it was a frustrating campaign for Michael Carrick's side, and inconsistency cost them a place in the play-offs.

However, Boro ended the season strongly, losing just one of their final 12 games, and they finished eighth in the table, four points from the top six.

That has led to plenty of optimism that Boro could be set for an exciting season next term, and key to their prospects will be keeping hold of their best players, including the likes of Rav van den Berg, Hayden Hackney and Emmanuel Latte Lath.

Some of Boro's stars are likely to be on the radar of other clubs this summer, and according to The Northern Echo, van den Berg and Hackney are both "on a long list of potential summer signings" for Tottenham Hotspur.

Defender van den Berg joined Boro from PEC Zwolle last summer, and he enjoyed an excellent first season at the Riverside Stadium, scoring one goal in 39 appearances in all competitions.

Midfielder Hackney has established himself as a key part of the first team in recent years after coming through the Boro academy, and he scored two goals and provided two assists in 28 games in all competitions this season before his campaign was ended by injury in February.

Middlesbrough fan pundit on Rav van den Berg and Hayden Hackney valuations

FLW's Middlesbrough fan pundit Phil Spencer believes Tottenham may have to bid up to £45 million to convince Boro to sell van den Berg and Hackney this summer, predicting that the former could be valued between £15-20 million and the latter around £20-25 million.

"I'm not surprised at all that both of them are attracting interest," Phil said.

"Van den Berg arrived at Middlesbrough last summer, and he was expected to be a bit of a development signing, but because of the injury crisis at the club, he was given an opportunity early on and just really showed his quality and maturity in those early performances.

"He played at left-back, he played at right-back, although he's naturally a central defender, and over the course of the campaign he became one of the most important players under Michael Carrick in a pretty disjointed season.

"In my opinion, Rav van den Berg is a player who will be playing in the Champions League at some point in the future. "He's got that sheer quality about him in terms of his technical play, but also in terms of his mindset. "I think his maturity is one of the key things that he's got in his armoury, and that leadership from a young age to boss people around who are older than him and more experienced. "It's a real natural quality that he's got, and it's something that will serve him well in the future. "As for Hayden Hackney, I think it seemed inevitable that he was going to move on this summer. "Clubs in the Premier League have been circling around him for a little while, and I think that fact he has jumped up to England U21s, he'd previously been playing for Scotland, is a sheer testament to his quality. "This season has been a bit of disjointed one because of injury, in my personal opinion, had he stayed fit for the whole season, it would have been a dead cert that he would move on this summer. "I think the fact that he hasn't stayed fully fit this season means Middlesbrough have maybe got a little bit more time with him, and it will be interesting to see if any summer interest does come in. "Tottenham are a club who do like to invest in young talent, I think that will be a way that they go, but I'm not entirely sure that these two deals will come off because Middlesbrough will drive a really hard bargain on both of them. "The club will sell players at the right price, part of their business model is based around signing young talent, developing it and potentially selling it on for a profit. "But what Middlesbrough have done really well in the last few transfer windows is they've already sold on a number of players when you look at Morgan Rogers in January, Chuba Akpom previous to that, you've got people like Djed Spence and Marcus Tavenier as well, so there's no pressure for Middlesbrough to sell either of these two players. "If the price is right and Tottenham came in with a big money offer, both deals could potentially get done, but in my opinion, it would take a massive offer for both of these signings to happen. "If you were making me put a figure on both of them, I think for Hayden Hackney you'd be looking somewhere between £20-25 million to attract his services. "Rav van den Berg is probably slightly less than that at the moment, I think you'd be looking for maybe £15-20 million to give Middlesbrough something to think about. "But such is the ceiling of van den Berg, I think he is someone that could be worth £30 million plus in the seasons to come, although I do appreciate that there is a bit of a cap on the kind of asking prices that Championship clubs do tend to ask.

"I think both of these players will attract top dollar, and as far as Middlesbrough are concerned, it would take that kind of huge offer for them to even consider selling either of these two players, such is the importance of them in Middlesbrough's plans moving forward."

Middlesbrough must hold firm on Rav van den Berg and Hayden Hackney this summer

Phil is right that it would take a sizeable bid for Boro to sell either van den Berg or Hackney this summer, but the club must resist the temptation to cash in on the pair.

Boro lost a host of key players last summer, including the likes of Ryan Giles, Aaron Ramsey, Cameron Archer and Chuba Akpom, and they made a slow start to the season as their new signings took time to settle.

Carrick's men cannot afford a similar start this time around if they are to push for promotion, and it will be incredibly difficult for them to replace players of van den Berg and Hackney's quality.

Boro head of football Kieran Scott said last week that "the only chance we're going to have of going up this season is keeping our best players", while he stated that he expects van den Berg to stay for "another year minimum", so it is clear that the club are determined to retain their stars, and they must stick to that stance.