Michael Carrick’s Morgan Rogers point after slow start of Middlesbrough’s latest Man City recruit

Michael Carrick has stressed the importance of patience with Micah Hamilton this season, with the process of bedding him in at Middlesbrough compared to Morgan Rogers last term.

Like Rogers, Hamilton joined Boro on a permanent transfer from Manchester City this summer. The 20-year-old is an exciting talent who scored early into his Champions League debut for Pep Guardiola’s side last season. But in six appearances for Boro so far we’re yet to see anywhere near the young forward’s best.

That comes as no surprise to Carrick or other Boro officials who always felt when securing his signature this summer that he might take a little while to settle on Teesside. It’s later in the season they expect Hamilton to thrive at Boro, with their rich array of options allowing him that settling period without the pressure of needing to make an immediate impact.

Carrick said: “I think I said when he first came, being patient with Micah was important. He’d been away to the States for pre-season and played some minutes but it’s not always easy to get much training time in on those tours. Then he comes here and it’s a big change after he’s been at Man City since he was a young boy.

“Certainly, over the last couple of weeks, you can see the spark in him starting to show, and you can see him growing in confidence. His fitness is growing and he’s getting sharper too. So we’re really pleased with the way he’s going. I’m sure he will progress and improve as the season goes on, no doubt.”

Rogers played a role in convincing Hamilton that a move to Boro would be a good one, after his meteoric rise that started with his move to Boro last summer. But he also had a slow start at Boro. He arrived with far more experience than Hamilton, too, having spent the previous three campaigns out on loan in the EFL. Despite that, after being forced to start his Boro career as a makeshift centre forward, Rogers then dropped out of the side after Emmanuel Latte Lath joined and once Josh Coburn regained fitness.

The now-Aston Villa star would then rebuild from there, gradually growing on Teesside as he used substitute appearances to leave a mark and force his way into the Boro side. It’s easy to forget given that Rogers was so quickly leaving for Villa for a fee more than ten times what Boro had paid for him just six months earlier, but as late as early December he still wasn’t starting regularly for Boro.

But as injuries took hold, Rogers hit a solid patch of form and, when Villa began scouting Boro for the FA Cup third-round clash at the Riverside, Unai Emery spotted something in the Boro forward that they liked. Boro plan on keeping Hamilton at the Riverside for far longer, but the Rogers example is one that highlights Boro’s process with younger players and helping them improve and integrate into the side – as they’ll now hope to do with Hamilton.

“We certainly don’t want to compare the two players because it’s different,” Carrick said. “Morgan had been on three loans before he came here whereas Micah has just been at City for a long period of time and is now experiencing a completely new environment for the first time. So there are differences.

“But in terms of younger players, being patient with them, picking the right moment to put them in the team, or give them a rest; when’s the right moment to look after them and help them etc, it’s all part of their development and it’s part of what we enjoy doing here to a degree.

“We feel Morgan is an example of where we’ve done that well and our record in that is not bad so far. Micah is right in that bracket and I’m sure we’ll get the best out of him and he’ll have a good season.”