Championship

Karanka: “I can understand how jealous other managers are”

by
The LeaguePaper Team
5 February 2016

Middlesbrough boss Aitor Karanka has stated his understanding for how other Championship managers feel ‘jealous’ over Boro’s January transfer activity.

£9m signing Jordan Rhodes is set for his debut in tomorrow’s fixture against former club Blackburn Rovers, with fellow additions Gaston Ramirez, Julien de Sart, Ritchie de Laet and Kike Sola also in line to feature at the Riverside.

Rhodes scored 85 goals in 169 appearances for tomorrow’s visitors and Karanka expressed his gratitude for getting the deal done, to other managers’ concern.

“Sometimes I can understand how jealous other managers are, because on January 30 I had my squad – and then Rhodes arrived,” the 42-year-old Spaniard divulged.

“When we tried in August and we couldn’t bring (Jordan) here, we started to work on new players.

“At the beginning of January, he wasn’t on the list as I didn’t want to spend that amount of money when I needed different positions.

“We needed a midfielder, a defender, and when Diego Fabbrini left I needed a No 10. For that reason he wasn’t on the list, but at the end (of the window) when every player I asked for had arrived, we tried again (for Jordan).”

In his press conference Karanka also praised the inner workings of Boro chairman Steve Gibson.

“I don’t always want to speak about Steve Gibson as I can’t say any more good things about him. When I wasn’t expecting anything more, he arrived with Jordan Rhodes.

“So my motivation is to give my chairman, my crowd, and my players back the support and the confidence they show me,” Karanka declared.