I’m really not worried about Hayden Hackney leaving Middlesbrough – Here is why

 

Middlesbrough sensation Hayden Hackney seems ready to leave the Riverside Stadium this summer, with Premier League and European clubs lining up to capture the brilliant young midfielder.

Several clubs, including Manchester United, Tottenham, Liverpool, Newcastle United, Porto, and Stuttgart, have expressed interest in the 22-year-old.

Quite rightly so, as the central midfielder has firmly established himself as one of the EFL’s most exciting young talents in 2024/25, even if there are aspects of his game, such as tackling and being more cautious when it comes to giving away cheap fouls, that need to be improved if he is to become a top-class box-to-box midfielder.

If he leaves Teesside this summer, many young Boro fans (and adults) will cry and be assured that everything would be fine. However, his game has more positive aspects than negative ones.

Well, I’m here to warn all you Smoggies out there that if/when that day arrives this summer, it will indeed be precisely that, and here’s why…

Law McCabe is prepared for his own Hayden Hackney-like Riverside breakthrough in 2025/26.

When then-caretaker manager Leo Percovich gave Hackney his huge Middlesbrough breakthrough in the games between Chris Wilder’s dismissal and Michael Carrick’s hiring in October 2022, he was a relative unknown among Boro supporters.

Don’t get me wrong, his name was familiar to many Teessiders because he’d been with the club since Under-10 level and made three first-team outings in 2020/21 and 2021/22, but he subsequently fell off the radar slightly.

He joined then-League Two club Scunthorpe United for the 2021/22 season, but his zero goals and two assists in 31 total appearances for the Iron that year didn’t resonate with fans on Teesside.

Read more on sportupdates.co.uk