23-year-old must fancy Middlesbrough exit – unless Rob Edwards has different plans | OneFootball

Alex Gilbert may well be pushing for a move this summer, but Middlesbrough boss Rob Edwards may represent a new start.

As they prepare for the 2025/26 season, Middlesbrough have a fair few decisions to make, and one of them will involve deciding on the future of young attacker Alex Gilbert.

Boro missed out on the top six and the play-off places on the final day of last season and, after a couple of seasons of perceived underperformance, Michael Carrick departed the Riverside Stadium last month.

Carrick has been replaced by former Luton Town boss Rob Edwards, who has gained promotion to the Premier League with the Hatters in the past, as well as leading Forest Green Rovers to the League Two title.

Edwards will, as ever with a new manager, bring fresh ideas and a new perspective for the Smoggies' squad, and one player that will be keen to find out his fate will be youngster Gilbert.

Gilbert may well push for a move from Middlesbrough

Birmingham-born Gilbert came through the academy at West Bromwich Albion before earning a move to the renowned Brentford B team setup in September 2020.

But, he only made a couple of FA Cup appearances for the Bees’ first-team in a three-year stint at the club, that also included a move to Swindon Town on loan in the 21/22 campaign.

In the summer of 2023, he was picked up by Middlesbrough as they sought to polish up what they believed to be a rough diamond, but he has struggled to assert himself at any stage as a fundamental part of the squad.

In the second-half of last season, Gilbert headed out on loan to Charlton Athletic and helped the Addicks gain promotion back to the Championship under the management of Nathan Jones.

The 23-year-old attacking midfielder, who can also operate out-wide, did provide four assists in 14 league appearances for Charlton in their run to defeating Leyton Orient in the play-off final at Wembley Stadium, but he remained more of a fringe, bit-part player throughout his short stint at The Valley.

As he now returns to a Middlesbrough side that will be aiming to sustain a challenge for promotion to the Premier League next season, it, on the face of it at least, would seem drastically unlikely for him to be involved in a more regular capacity upon Teesside.

That would mean that, whether it be on another loan or a more permanent basis, Gilbert will surely be keen on moving away from Boro to ensure he can kick on with his career that has stalled somewhat, and hasn’t ever truly got going just yet in the EFL – at least not to a consistent level, simply through not playing enough.

With key players in the same position as him, such as Riley McGree and Finn Azaz, it would appear that Gilbert is a long way down the pecking order at the Riverside.

Rob Edwards could have a plan for Gilbert

Pre-season is always a time when a manager decides to give players a clean slate and a fresh start, and that is even more so the case when that player is someone who has been out on loan and there is a new manager through the door.

Edwards’ preferred system, whether it be at Forest Green or at Luton, has often been a 3-5-2 shape, and so that leaves just one role in the team for the aforementioned likes of McGree and Azaz.

However, he has also been known to deploy a 3-4-2-1 shape and, with a striker in Tommy Conway as well as Azaz and Morgan Whittaker, who both thrived in the ‘two’ behind the striker for Plymouth Argyle, it would be no surprise to see that used again by Edwards.

Now, if that was to be the case, and it was to be a lone striker with two so-called number tens - or at least nominal number tens but supporting attackers - then depth will be required in that position.

At least four, perhaps even five players for those roles would surely be required over the course of a long Championship season, if that is indeed the way in which Edwards goes.

If that is to be the case, then whilst Gilbert may be reasonably impatient and want to be playing regular football, there could well yet be a route back into the first-team picture at Middlesbrough for him as the club enters a new era.