Via Graeme Bailey
Middlesbrough midfielder Matt Crooks is in advanced talks to join MLS outfit Real Salt Lake after Michael Carrick’s side gave him permission to seek a move away from The Riverside.
HITC Football understands that, despite being a regular fixture in Carrick’s team this season, the powerful, rangy Matt Crooks could now leave the club with 18 months left on his Boro contract.
Real Salt Lake of the American top-flight are leading the chase. There are a number of other interested clubs, with Crooks’ agent holding talks with various parties, but the Utah-based team are at the front of the queue as things stand.
Negotiations, HITC have been informed, are now at an advanced stage.
Real Salt Lake finished fifth in the Major League Soccer’s Western Conference last season. Crooks, if a deal is completed, will link up with another player who spent time in the North East, former Sunderland full-back Bryan Oviedo.
Matt Crooks could leave Middlesbrough for MLS
Crooks joined Middlesbrough from Rotherham United back in 2021 for a reported fee of around £1 million. The one-time Rangers man has been a big hit with supporters since then, and was a key part of the side who reached the play-offs last term, beaten by Coventry City at the semi-final stage.
The Leeds-born targetman has put his 6ft 4ins frame to very good use in a Boro shirt too. He reached double figures in his debut season at the Riverside, and could leave the club with five goals and six assists to his name this term.
“I think first and foremost Crooksy is a terrific player,” Carrick told the Northern Echo in November, shortly after the Leeds-born 30-year-old played his 100th game in a Middlesbrough shirt.
“When you get talked about as a great character and person and great around the group, it can take away from the quality that you bring on the pitch.
“Crooksy brings both sides to it and that’s why he’s so important. He leads by example with how he trains every single day and the impact he has when he’s on the pitch in terms of being such a threat.
“The work that he does for the team, with and without the ball, is really important for us. As is his threat and combination play in and around the box. He brings an awful lot.
“Being a stable character, for me, a lot of it is about people as well and having good people around the place. Good people and good players. He goes about things the right way.”
Another key player leaves Carrick’s squad
Crooks’ departure will be a blow for a Middlesbrough side just four points adrift of the top-six. Boro have already lost one key player this year in Aston Villa newbie Morgan Rogers.
The MLS transfer window, meanwhile, does not close until March.
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