Uruguayan's devastating La Liga goalscoring record must have caused Middlesbrough Premier League regret | OneFootball

Cristhian Stuani left Boro for Girona after being largely played as a winger, but he would soon start tearing up La Liga as a centre-forward...

Middlesbrough sold Cristhian Stuani to La Liga side Girona in July 2017 and the Uruguayan international's deadly goalscoring record in Spain must have been cause for major Boro Premier League regret.

Under the management of Aitor Karanka, Middlesbrough were looking to cement their place back in the Premier League during the 2016/17 season, having just won automatic promotion from the Championship.

In order to bolster their chances of survival, Boro brought in a number of high-profile players on eye-catching deals, with their intent not only to survive but to confidently and comfortably reclaim their spot among the big boys being made clear for all to see.

However, that season didn't go to plan and the club would suffer relegation back to the Championship. A number of players left the Riverside in the summer of 2017, one of them being out of favour forward Cristhian Stuani.

He sealed a move to Spanish top-flight side Girona, and what he would go on to achieve with the Catalan club and how he would do it, would surely have given Middlesbrough's decision-makers a fair few sleepless nights.

Cristhian Stuani plays major role in Middlesbrough's Premier League promotion as a winger

Signed for a reported fee of £2.8m from Spanish La Liga outfit Espanyol in the summer of 2015, Stuani was added to the Middlesbrough attack in the hope that he could help provide the goals to fire Boro back to the Premier League.

The club had come within a whisker of top-flight promotion the season prior but lost out to Norwich City in the Championship play-off final at Wembley Stadium.

He'd arrived as a versatile forward who could play as both a centre-forward and as a winger, but it soon became evident that Karanka wanted to deploy him in the latter. Whether it be on the left or the right, Stuani would have to adapt to this role if he was to be an instant success on Teesside.

Thankfully for Middlesbrough, he did, as he would bag 11 goals and one assist in 40 total appearances during the 2015/16 season. That was enough to crown him the club's top scorer in all competitions during his debut campaign.

After the arrivals of players such as Alvaro Negredo, Viktor Fischer, Adama Traore, Patrick Bamford, Rudy Gestede, and Gaston Ramirez on top of what they already had, Boro's squad boasted plenty of attacking options for Karanka to choose from in the 2016/17 Premier League season.

Therefore, Stuani had to work hard to stay in the team, and with Negredo cemented as Karanka's centre-forward, it was once again out wide that the Uruguayan would see his opportunities come from.

Four goals in 23 top-flight appearances that season marked a disappointing return for Stuani, as Boro dropped back into the Championship after just one season back in the big time.

Stuani slots back into centre-forward role with Girona and the goals start flying in for the former Middlesbrough man

That prompted Stuani to search for a Riverside escape route and he found it in the shape of a return to La Liga, this time with a permanent switch to Girona.

The Catalonian side took a different approach with their handling of Stuani and decided to deploy him as a centre-forward instead, and they struck gold for doing so.

In his first two seasons in La Liga with Girona, Stuani scored 21 and 19 league goals respectively, before the club were relegated to the Spanish second division in 2019.

Stuani would stay loyal to them though, despite being linked with the likes of Nottingham Forest, Celtic and even Barcelona in the aftermath of this relegation.

Over the next three seasons in La Liga 2, he would score 31, 10, and 24 league goals respectively, and played a vital role in Girona's eventual promotion back to the top flight in 2022.

In his two seasons back in La Liga across the 2022/23-2023/24 seasons, Stuani scored nine league goals in both campaigns, whilst adding further strikes in various cup competitions.

Since leaving Middlesbrough and signing with Girona back in 2017, he has recorded double-digit scoring seasons in all competitions, in every single one of his seven full seasons with the club. During that time, he exclusively played as a centre-forward.

Had Middlesbrough deployed Stuani as a centre-forward in the Premier League, it might have made a major difference

A lack of goals was one of, if not the biggest reasons as to why Middlesbrough suffered relegation from the Premier League in 2017. Boro scored a league-fewest 27 times in the top flight that year, with Negredo's nine goals being enough to crown him top scorer.

Stuani's four was good enough to make him the runner-up too, as he was always a player who showed he had a real predatory instinct in front of goal. He was a player that many Middlesbrough supporters called to see through the middle more often, but that was rarely the case.

Having seen what he's been able to achieve in Spain since his move to Girona where he's played solely as a centre-forward, there is surely a lingering element of regret circling around Rockliffe Park as to what might have been with Stuani on Teesside.

He was still an important and effective player on the wing, but he's since proven that his best goalscoring form is extracted when he's deployed through the middle.

It may well have made no difference at all to Boro's fortunes that year had he been played as a striker, as after all, Negredo was still seen by many Middlesbrough supporters as having a strong scoring season working with the creative limitations within that team.

But, as he wasn't really given the chance to show what he can do in that role, we'll never know. What we do know is that Stuani has been superb in Spain as a centre-forward, and that will surely have at least been cause for frustration in the Middlesbrough boardroom for a while after his departure.