Middlesbrough finally bagged Brazilian Afonso Alves from Heerenveen for the princely sum of £12million on a four and a half year contract. Sky Sports reports that Gareth Southgate was overjoyed to finally get his man after fraught negotiations which went right up until one hour before the deadline; Southgate said:
“I’m delighted to have completed the deal. As usual at this time of the year, it was a late night but Afonso brings us something different in that he is a goalscorer who does much of his best work inside the box.
“His goalscoring record in Holland in particular but in Sweden too has been prolific. We hope he will reproduce that sort of form for us in the Premier League.”
So will Alves provide the spark to drag Boro up from the doldrums?