Middlesbrough haven’t exactly had the kind of start to the summer transfer window that a club that will be chasing promotion generally has, following their play-off heartbreak at the hands of Hull City in May.

Borough were given a second chance to return to the Premier League following the Spygate scandal involving Southampton, but they were unable to take advantage, and will instead play in the Championship in the next 2026-27 season.

However, with the sale of Hayden Hackney to Everton – a move that was always likely to happen to one of many Premier League clubs – and academy graduate centre-back Dael Fry turning down a new contract at the Riverside Stadium in order to join divisional rivals Birmingham City after playing 296 times for the first team, head coach Kim Hellberg’s summer hasn’t started off well.

Fresh faces coming through the door on Teesside would be very welcome – Myles Peart-Harris has arrived on a free transfer from Oxford United to bolster squad depth in the final third, and Jeremy Sarmiento’s loan from Brighton has turned permanent due to an obligation – but Borough fans are desperate for more signings.

The goalkeeper position is set to be a hot topic this summer, with Sol Brynn having been first choice during the previous season.

However, Brynn made a series of sometimes costly errors in-between the sticks, including parrying the ball straight to Oli McBurnie’s feet in stoppage time of the play-off final, securing Hull’s promotion to English football’s top flight, and with a ‘Goals Prevented’ stat of -6.6, according to FotMob, which was the fourth-worst in the league last season, it’s clear that a new goalkeeper could be high on Hellberg’s list.

Legia Warsaw goalkeeper Kacper Tobiasz has recently been touted as a potential target in Polish media sources.

The 23-year-old’s contract with Legia expired this summer, making him a free agent, and a report from the European country suggests he is set to sign for a Championship team on a free transfer.

Despite those links, TeessideLive claims that the second-tier club scheduled to sign Tobiasz will not be Borough, implying that a rival club has jumped in to get the stopper’s services.

Kacper Tobiasz may not have been the best match for Middlesbrough after all.

Tobiasz played UEFA Conference League football for Legia last season after the club failed to qualify for the Europa League, but he wasn’t always the first choice in goal for manager Marek Papszun, who preferred the younger Otto Hindrich in the second half of the season after he arrived in the January transfer window.

Despite only conceding 26 goals in 22 Ekstraklasa games, Tobiasz was dropped for the remaining few months of the season, however it’s possible he was aware he was on the way at the time, and Papszun preferred Hindrich for the future.

In terms of consistently performing goalkeepers in that division, Tobiasz rated 13th out of 17 in Goals Prevented, with a stat-line reading of -3.2 – slightly better than Sol Brynn.

Perhaps Tobiasz is not the answer for Middlesbrough, but Brynn certainly needs some competition heading into the new season – a battle for a starting berth could bring some development and consistency from the Borough academy graduate.