Huth deal fading so Boro look elsewhere
Middlesbrough boss Gareth Southgate is spreading his net with his move for Chelsea defender Robert Huth now unlikely to go through.
Boro today declined to comment on the delay in the 21-year-old’s proposed move to Teesside three days after he arrived for a medical.
However, as PA Sport reported on Tuesday evening, the process has hit a major snag, and it is understood that the problem is a damaged ankle.$< Huth missed most of Germany’s World Cup campaign through injury, but it is thought that the complaint could be more deep-seated than was first thought.
The player’s agent, Manfred Schulte, was also silent on the matter today, but Boro are now extremely unlikely to push ahead with a deal which could have eventually seen them hand over around £5m (€7.25m).
Southgate’s interest in Standard Liege’s American international Oguchi Onyewu has already cooled after an indifferent World Cup campaign, and he is now facing a serious shortage at the back.
The 35-year-old does not intend to play himself next season, and while Ugo Ehiogu, Matthew Bates, David Wheater and Andrew Davies are central defenders and Franck Queudrue and Emanuel Pogatetz can play there, he was looking for a dominant and proven partner for Chris Riggott.
Boro have not only been concentrating on central defence with Fulham’s Steed Malbranque and Blackburn’s Brett Emerton also targets, while they have repeatedly been linked with Manchester City's Joey Barton.
