Middlesbrough: £9m signing that had Tony Pulis bust-up was a complete disaster - View | OneFootball

Martin Braithwaite was one of multiple big-money signings for Boro in 2017, but his time on Teesside was one the Boro fans will want to forget.

Middlesbrough signed Toulouse striker and Denmark international Martin Braithwaite in 2017, but after a year-and-a-half and a public feud with Boro manager Tony Pulis, Braithwaite's time on Teesside would go down as a complete disaster.

During Garry Monk's careless summer of spending following Middlesbrough's relegation from the Premier League in 2017, Braithwaite arrived in the North East for a reported fee of £9m.

Having enjoyed back-to-back seasons scoring double-digit goals in Ligue 1 for French side Toulouse, the capture of the Dane looked to be a real coup for the club, and laid down a real statement of intent to the rest of the Championship.

But multiple loan moves away from Teesside, a war of words with his Middlesbrough manager, and far fewer appearances and goals in a Boro shirt than expected, and he would cement his legacy as one of the club's most expensive transfer flops in recent times.

Football League World takes a look at Braithwaite's disappointing Riverside career, the flashes of ability that made his Middlesbrough story even more frustrating, and why his transfer is one that Boro fans will want to forget.

Braithwaite hits the ground running at the Riverside

After missing a handful of the opening fixtures in the 2017/18 season due to a hamstring complaint, Braithwaite would soon firmly establish himself in Monk's starting XI.

Operating in various roles across the forward line, both through the middle and from out wide, the Dane started to show the pedigree of scoring goals and playing at the top level of both international and domestic football, that he'd brought with him to Teesside.

However, come 23 December 2017, and with Middlesbrough sat in ninth place in the Championship, Monk was sacked as Middlesbrough manager. This event would become a real turning point in the trajectory of Braithwaite's Boro career, as Monk's successor would be a coach that he would fail to see eye-to-eye with.

Tony Pulis was announced as the club's new manager on Boxing Day, with Monk's more attacking style of play being replaced by a coach who perhaps put more emphasis on being defensively sound.

Come Deadline Day in the 2018 January transfer window, and fearing for his place in Denmark's World Cup squad after failing to play a single 90 minutes under Pulis to that point, Braithwaite secured a loan move to Bordeaux until the end of the season.

Tony Pulis fued seals his Middlesbrough fate

This loan exit just six months after signing for Middlesbrough didn't go down well with Boro supporters, nor Pulis, and it would mark the beginning of the end of Braithwaite's Middlesbrough career.

Speaking at the time, Pulis claimed that it was "astonishing" that certain players -without naming Braithwaite but clearly implying that he was talking about him - who'd only just arrived at the club were already seeking exits.

In response, Braithwaite would justify his departure by stating via Teesside Live: "I started well in Middlesbrough, I liked it there but there was a change (of coach) at the club and it changed a lot for me.

"The next six months are very important for my career and for the World Cup. I spoke with Bordeaux, I saw their project and it interested me. I'm happy to be here. You can never be sure in life, you must be successful. I'm here to give everything. It's the coach (Gus Poyet) who decides if I play. I'm just here to play football."

The Dane would make the World Cup squad that summer, and would return to the Riverside after the conclusion of his loan with the French outfit. But, at the halfway point of the 2018/19 season, Braithwaite would once again sneak out the back door of the club in January.

This time, he was headed to Spanish side Leganes on loan for the remainder of the campaign, after making just 19 appearances and scoring three goals in all competitions for Boro in the first half of the campaign.

It was whilst he was with Leganes that Braithwaite would take a swipe at Pulis. in an interview with Danish news outlet Ekstra Bladet via Teesside Live, he said: "I'm not coming back to Middlesbrough, I can't imagine that.

"The project I was presented with at Middlesbrough changed completely when Pulis arrived. He has a strange way to play football. The team plays defensively with long balls. It's really kick and rush. It doesn't look so good to me.

"It's the reason I didn't play much at Middlesbrough but I never complained. I worked hard and tried to maintain the good mood every day in the (training) workout."

Pulis hits back at Braithwaite and puts final nail in his Boro coffin

Never being a manager to shy away from giving his opinion on something, Pulis was in no mood to see his tactical approach take a public flogging by Braithwaite.

"As a matter of fact, the last club I worked at, which was a Premier League club, he'd be in the top five earners at the club without a question of a doubt.

"Steve Gibson bent over backwards, backwards, to give that lad everything he wanted to bring him to this club. To show the disrespect he's shown to this club by saying he's not coming back, to Steve Gibson, who's made him a multi-millionaire, let's make no bones about it, the wages and what he's earning are astonishing.

"For him to show Steve Gibson that disrespect, and the supporters and his fellow players, it's just amazing. I've dealt with players all my life, some can make your hair curl - not mine. But for him to come out and say that, it just puts him up there as such an ungrateful person.

"For a person who said twice he didn't want to go, he wanted to stay and help the club get promoted, then within 36 hours when he knew the club from Spain was in for him, then he wanted to go.

"The surprise and disappointment, if he wanted to have a pop at me personally, that's fine. I've had loads of players have a pop at me over the years and you accept that.

"What he's come out with is astonishing. It's disappointing but it doesn't surprise me because on two other occasions he said things that were so far off what he was really thinking.

"You don't say I'm going to stay and see it through and I'm going to do this and that and help them get promoted, then 36 hours later go bounding into the chief executive and say I've got to leave, I've got to go.

"I can't explain it because I'm not that way. Braithwaite's that way. We're all different. My biggest disappointment is the way he's treated Steve, the club and the area. The supporters pay the money and he's washed that away. He's not shown any respect for what this club has given him.

"He's just completely and utterly pushed it away. He is someone who has taken so much out of this football club, and given so little back. For him to talk the way he’s talked, it’s really disappointing."

Braithwaite would sign for Leganes on a permanent deal for a fee reported to be in the region of £4-5m, closing a chapter on the story of a Middlesbrough player who had all the talent and ability to fire Boro back to the Premier League, but seemingly, he just didn't want to.