Middlesbrough FC were left baffled by Preston’s £10m transfer masterstroke on Riverside evidence

Middlesbrough FC were left baffled by Preston’s £10m transfer masterstroke on Riverside evidence

For the young Boro supporter, Jordan Hugill’s summer 2018 transfer to Middlesbrough was a dream come true,

although the striker’s success on Teesside was not as great as it was at Preston North End.

For Middlesbrough, the summer transfer window of 2018 proved crucial.

Tony Pulis, who took over for Garry Monk in December 2017, would lead Boro to fifth place in their first season back

in the Championship following their Premier League relegation in 2017.

Even though they lost to Aston Villa in the play-off semi-finals, there was a lot of hope on Teesside that if Pulis

managed to spend his first summer as Boro manager well, he could put together a team that would make amends

and return to the top flight in the 2018–19 season. One of Middlesbrough’s summer acquisitions was Jordan Hugill,

a native of Boro, who was signed on loan from West Ham United. It was hoped that the local kid would lead his

boyhood club back to the promised land.

Hugill started his career with a number of non-league Northern teams, including Whitby Town, Marske United, and

Seaham Red Star. In the summer of 2013, he signed with League One team Port Vale.

The centre forward was acquired by Preston in the summer of 2014 for a reported fee of just £25,000 after spending

just one season with the Valiants and then going on loan to Gateshead during the same 2013–14 season.

He would make just a handful of appearances for North End during the first half of the 2014/15 season, before

spending the second half of the campaign out on two separate League Two loan spells with Tranmere Rovers and

Hartlepool United respectively.

However, the 2015/16 season would be a breakthrough one for him at Deepdale, as Hugill would go on to make 32

first-team appearances in all competitions, bagging five goals in the process.

Hugill would score 23 goals in all competitions during the following season and a half with the Lilywhites, 20 of

which came in the Championship.

West Ham United, a Premier League team, was drawn to his goal-scoring ability and in January 2018 finalised an

agreement with Preston to sign him for a reported £10 million.

Hugill had submitted an unsuccessful transfer request to Deepdale in the summer of 2017, but when the winter

transfer window rolled around and North End was presented with an offer like the one West Ham had tabled, they

made the decision to not thwart his big-money move.

Middlesbrough didn’t see £10m centre-forward with loan swoop for Hugill

Although it was a disastrous deal, Hugill’s transfer to West Ham had guaranteed him a dream move to the Premier

League.

According to FootMob, he would only make three fleeting appearances for the Irons in the top tier during the second

half of the 2017–18 season, for a total of just 22 minutes of Premier League action without any goals or assists.

It was announced on August 8, 2018, that Hugill, a former barman in Middlesbrough during his non-league days,

had completed a season-long loan switch to the Riverside Stadium. Then, Boro manager Tony Pulis wanted a tough

and industrious center-forward to suit his direct style of play, and Hugill seemed to tick a number of those boxes. As

a result, West Ham was willing to let their £10 million man leave the London Stadium on a temporary basis come

summer transfer window of 2018, and his hometown.

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