The former Middlesbrough boss has had his say on Sheffield Wednesday and Sunderland’s forthcoming campaigns.
Aitor Karanka has confessed to wanting a pair of recent Sheffield Wednesday and Sunderland signings at Middlesbrough.
In an interview with The Sun newspaper on Sunday, in which he predicted how every Championship would fare this coming campaign, Karanka confirmed that Sheffield Wednesday’s George Boyd and Sunderland’s Lewis Grabban were targets of his during his time at The Riverside.
New Sheffield Wednesday recruit George Boyd in action for Burnley (right)
Speaking about Wednesday’s business, the Basque told The Sun: “The squad is being improved with really good players.
“I really like Boyd. I wanted to sign him at Middlesbrough, he is an amazing professional who always gives 150 per cent.”
And on Sunderland’s, he added: “They’ve found a really good striker in Lewis Grabban who knows the division and again I wanted at Middlesbrough, but it will be tough to fill [Jermain] Defoe’s shoes.”
Karanka named both Boyd and Grabban as Wednesday and Sunderland’s ‘best buys’, before tipping Carlos Carvalhal’s side for a third-place finish, and Simon Grayson’s to fall short of the play-offs.
The 43-year-old, who left Middlesbrough earlier his year and was among those linked with the Sunderland post before it was taken by Grayson in June, also reiterated his past interest in new Nottingham Forest recruit Daryl Murphy, and said he tried to sign Millwall’s George Saville on loan from Chelsea “two or three years ago”.
New Sunderland recruit Lewis Grabban in action for Reading (left)
Ipswich Town’s Teddy Bishop is one of several others Karanka admitted to liking, with the former Real Madrid man adding: “It’s a shame (about Bishop’s injuries) because he was a player that I used to speak about after games with (Ipswich manager Mick) McCarthy, who said he had massive potential.”
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