Jonathan Woodgate’s Boro are still struggling at the wrong end of the Championship and missed out on the chance to bring Alan Hutton to the Riverside.
Alan Hutton has officially announced his retirement on talkSPORT this afternoon, after turning down the chance to join Middlesbrough on a free transfer.
At the age of 35, a veteran right-back appears to have played his final game of professional football.
A 50-cap Scotland international, Hutton has enjoyed a career he can be proud of and it’s fitting that a man who became a cult hero in claret and blue helped Aston Villa secure a long-awaited return to the Premier League in his final ever season.
The one-time Rangers youngster was released shortly after the confetti settled on the Wembley turf and found himself without a club as the summer of 2019 got underway.
Middlesbrough made an attempt to reunite Hutton with his former Tottenham team-mates Jonathan Woodgate and Robbie Keane but the Glasgow-born defender, after weighing up his options, decided that the time was right to choose family over football.
“It was close. On one side I felt bad cause I knew Woodgate and Keane they were desperate for me to go there,” Hutton admitted to Jim White (19 February, 12.20pm).
“But leaving the family for the sake of one year… in the Championship you’re constantly playing and you’re away for the full week.
“Is it worth it? When I weighed it all up, it wasn’t.”
Hutton’s decision, however, appears to have worked out quite well for all parties. The 2005 Scottish Premiership champion is loving life since hanging up his boots and, all the while, 19-year-old Djed Spence has established himself as one of England’s most exciting full-backs at the Riverside.
Had Hutton put pen to paper at Middlesbrough, Spence’s path to the first team might have been blocked.
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