Bojan Krkić seemed to have the footballing world at his feet when he broke into the Barcelona first team in 2007.

But alas the forward hasn’t managed to hit the footballing heights that were expected of him. After failing to hold down a starting spot in the Barca side; he had short uneventful moves to Roma, Milan and Ajax.

In the summer of 2014, Bojan left the Catalan giants for good and the Spanish international joined Stoke City for around £3m.

Bojan impressed during his debut season at the Britannia Stadium, until a knee injury in early 2015 forced him to miss the rest of the campaign.

When he returned, he again showed signs that he could be influential going forward.

This season has seen the twenty-six year old struggle for game time at the ‘Potters’ with Mark Hughes seemingly preferring to have Joe Allen, Marko Arnautović and Xherdan Shaqiri playing behind a main striker.

So Bojan has been restricted to just four starts and three substitute appearances in the league this term. But he’s still managed to bag three goals, with only Allen scoring more for Stoke City so far this term.

His lack of starts has left the wideman disillusioned with life at Stoke and wanting to depart if the right move materialises.

This month has seen Middlesborough manager Aitor Karanka linked with a move for his Spanish compatriot.

It has been suggested that Stoke want £12m for the former Barca man but Boro are only offering £8m at the moment.

For me, I’d suggest that Middlesbrough up that bid if they want to stand a better chance of staying in the English top flight.

While Karanka’s side have done well since their return to the Premier League, they aren’t out of trouble as they’re still only four points away from the relegation zone.

The problem for Boro has been their lack of goals. Defensively they’ve impressed and have actually conceded the least amount of goals amongst the teams in the bottom half of the table. But in front of goal, no side in the entire league has scored less!

Now measures have been made to try and rectify that problem with strikers Patrick Bamford and Rudy Gustede arriving this month to challenge Alvaro Negredo for the lone strikers role.

But Middlesbrough have also struggled to find goals from wide areas and that’s where Bojan can come in and make an impact.

Karanka is said to be happy to let veteran maestro Stewart Downing leave the club during this window.

The addition of Bojan, a proven player in the Premier League would enhance Boro’s survival hopes and his arrival would give them a threat from either wing.

Sometimes you really should speculate in order to accumulate.

With that in mind, why not up the Bojan bid up to £10m and hope Stoke City do the deal?

Posted on January 25th, 2017 by scott
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