Fulham are set to loan their Brazilian forward Rodrigo Muniz to Middlesbrough, according to a Sun report tonight, but only after they have completed a deal to sign a replacement striker.
The 21 year-old striker is poised to move to the Riverside Stadium a year after picking Craven Cottage over Middlesbrough when he finalised a switch to England on a permanent basis from Flamengo. Muniz, who was persuaded by the prospect of working under Marco Silva, scored five goals in fifteen appearances last year for the Whites, where he was back up to first choice forward Aleksandar Mitrovic.
Fulham are now keen for the raw Brazilian to get regular first-team football in order to aid his development and Boro boss Chris Wilder has identified Muniz as the ideal candidate to supplement his striking options in the Championship next season. Crucially, Wilder is prepared to wait – possibly beyond Middlesbrough’s first league fixture at home to fellow promotion favourites West Brom on Saturday evening – for Fulham to add another forward of their own before sealing the switch.
Silva and Fulham’s recruitment team are casting a wide net in the search for another striker, with teenage forward Jay Stansfield – who has impressed the head coach this summer – the only other deputy to Mitrovic, who scored a remarkable 43 goals in 44 league appearances last term, at present.
According to Chris Wilder, Middlesbrough have made OFFERS to THREE Premiership clubs in their search for a striker.
He has asked the fans to be patient as EACH of the three have to find a replacement before they can let a current striker leave.
He also said that, without being critical of his other forwards, if Middlesbrough had had a 20 goal plus striker last season they may well have been promoted.
Middlesbrough have the money to spend after Djed Spence sale so I honestly don’t think they would be waiting on a loan deal to clinch the final piece of their jigsaw.
However, if there IS truth to this one, it further highlights the need for a support striker for our forthcoming Premier season as Muniz is NOT Premiership quality and, arguably, is not Championship quality either. At almost 7m I would suggest that he was an expensive mistake-personally selected by Marco Silva.
I would love to see more of Jay Stansfield but, in all honesty, he is not going to cut it in the Premiership either.
These comments may gather a lot of flak but, if Mitro is injured at any stage-or, God forbid, suffers a loss of form, we have a HUGE problem.
There must be a lot of holes in that wide net that the club’s recruitment team are casting because, with just 2 weeks to go before we start our campaign, there are no signs of any fish.
Disagree with Muniz not being good enough. He’s young enough. Had 15 appearances mainly off the bench for five goals. His goals to minutes ratio would have been better than Mitrovic. He can play. Just needs game time. He will do well at Boro .
This is a very important issue just as new CBS and GK are this perhaps sometimes is forgotten Mitro is the Kingpin of the team and Premiership Defenders are better than Mitro has faced than perhaps Championship Defenders I have wondered for a long time now what happens IF Mitro gets injured and it’s long term the cover for him is inadequate this was a worrying issue last season because without his goals we would not have been promoted and another proven Striker. Would take the pressure off him I am sure he would be the first to admit that because God Forbid it would leave us with Cavaleiro from Parkerball days this needs urgently Addresssing now
I think with some game time Muniz could be a good Championship striker. He isn’t Prem quality though. This move seems sensible for all parties.
Unless we get a back up striker, keeper, full backs and 2 centre backs in we will be straight down without a doubt. At which point hopefully Muniz will be ready to play for us.
I’m just hoping Wilders explanation of the transfer situation for him mirrors us I.e. we’re now waiting for the better clubs to decide who they can afford to release and then we can get some players in. I think top club rejects (after their preseasons) is where we are at now. We might get a decent player or two, probably a couple of loans. If we’d done our business early that would have been so much better. But I think we just need to wait now until the fringe players that don’t impress in preseason end up on the market.
I agree we need a proven back up striker one who can challenge Mitro for his position,and we also need 2 good centre backs and a goal keeper but not Rico or Neto neither are good enough for the premiership, if not then give Rodak a chance.
It’s getting a bit ridiculous that everyone thinks we need one back-up striker. We need AT LEAST two. This is the Premier League now. You can just assume Mitro will pick up where he left off. Hopefully he does, and he’s earned the chance to try, but it’s far from a guarantee that he will. Also shouldn’t be getting fooled by the incredible luck we’ve had with Mitro’s availability. He’s barely been injured, but this season, with the World Cup in the middle of it, will be one of the physically punishing for all of the top players. We need multiple goalscoring options if we’re going to stay up, not just Mitro with our fingers crossed, and one back-up in case of emergency. That’s not enough.