However, it is understood that the 32-year-old, who has had the remaining year of his contract at Chelsea paid up, has successfully completed a medical and is discussing personal terms.

Boro’s move for Hasselbaink, who scored 70 goals in 136 league appearances for the Stamford Bridge club, represents a change of direction after they initially announced that Viduka, Patrick Kluivert and Aiyegbeni Yakubu were the men they were targeting this summer, with any two of the three acceptable.

However, there is little doubt there were more names on the list, and the availability of a player who has proved he can do it consistently in the English top flight has proved too tempting to resist.

Chief executive Keith Lamb, the man who worked out the details of both the Viduka and Reiziger transfers, will be in the hot-seat again, but he had few doubts yesterday there would be further signings, although he steadfastly refused to comment on the club’s interest in the Dutchman.

“I hope so, yes, but none of these deals are ever done until they’re done,” he said as he presented Viduka to the media. “But I’m reasonably confident that this won’t be the last time that we’re assembled here introducing a new signing.”

Boro’s need to attract strikers who can compete with the likes of Thierry Henry, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Alan Shearer and break the 20-goal barrier each and every season has been apparent for some time.

Not since Fabrizio Ravanelli plundered 31 during the 1996-97 season – and even he did not manage 20 in the league – has a Boro player gone through that mark, with Colombian Hamilton Ricard coming closest.

In recent times, record signing Massimo Maccarone, Joseph Job, Szilard Nemeth, Michael Ricketts and the luckless Malcolm Christie have failed to find the back of the net with the kind of consistency McClaren’s side needs to make an impression in the Barclays Premiership.

Last season’s Carling Cup triumph, however, has galvanised the club for the kind of big push which they once made under Bryan Robson, although all chairman Steve Gibson’s money and the big-name signings which arrived as a result of its investment could manage was ninth place, still their highest in the new-look top flight.

Now, however, there is a sense that the Teessiders are ready to mount a serious challenge for Europe through the league – they will play in the UEFA Cup this season as the reward for their win at Cardiff – and having suffered a bad start last time around after waiting until the death to land Gaizka Mendieta, Bolo Zenden and Danny Mills, they have got in early this summer.