Middlesbrough are gearing up for another season in the Championship after missing out on promotion.

Middlesbrough spent much of last season in the automatic promotion spots, but a run of only four wins in their final 15 games saw them fall out of the top two, with Kim Hellberg’s side eventually finishing fifth.

Despite losing 2-1 to Southampton in their play-off semi-final, Borough were given a promotion lifeline when the Saints were kicked out of the final as punishment for the’spygate’ scandal, but the Teesside club failed to capitalise on their second chance, losing 1-0 to Hull City at Wembley.

Borough have made one new acquisition this summer, with forward Myles Peart-Harris joining on a free transfer from Brentford, but they have also lost two key players, defender Dael Fry and midfielder Hayden Hackney.

Fry left the Riverside Stadium after more than two decades to join Championship rivals Birmingham City last week, while Hackney moved to Premier League club Everton for an initial fee of £16.5 million, plus an additional £8 million in add-ons.

Sebastian Berhalter transfer details released amid Middlesbrough speculation

Hackney won the Championship Player of the Season title following a fantastic season in which he scored six goals and assisted eight times in 41 games, thus Middlesbrough will face a difficult problem in replacing their academy graduate.

After Hackney’s departure to Everton was revealed last week, social media rumours grew that Borough would recruit Vancouver Whitecaps midfielder Sebastian Berhalter.

Berhalter has 20 goals and 26 assists in 167 games for the Whitecaps since joining from the Columbus Crew in February 2022, and he has also become a regular for the United States at the international level under Mauricio Pochettino over the last year.

The 25-year-old appeared in all five of the USMNT’s World Cup matches as they advanced to the round of 16, scoring and assisting in his sole start, a 3-2 loss to Turkey in the group stage final.

Borough have previously successfully recruited from the MLS, with Aidan Morris being a standout at the Riverside Stadium after joining from the Columbus Crew in 2024, and they have once again been connected with his old teammate Max Arfsten this summer.

Rumours about Berhalter erupted after it was discovered that he follows Borough on Instagram, but Teesside Live’s Craig Johns has stated that the club is not interested in signing the midfielder.

While Berhalter is not a player on Boro’s radar, the club is thought to be working on a number of transactions that are not yet public, so there could be more arrivals at the Riverside Stadium in the near future.

Middlesbrough faces a major midfield dilemma with Hayden Hackney’s departure.

Middlesbrough won just two of their ten games without Hackney during the end of last season while he was sidelined with a calf injury, and their automatic promotion bid collapsed in his absence, highlighting how significant a vacuum he will leave in midfield.

Berhalter caught the eye with his efforts for the USMNT during the World Cup, and his statistics for the Vancouver Whitecaps show that he may have been a good replacement for Hackney, so Borough fans will be disappointed that he is not on the club’s list of objectives.

However, Borough will have been preparing for Hackney’s exit for some time, and the £16.5 million profit from his sale to Everton will undoubtedly help them in their search for midfield reinforcements.