Middlesbrough must accept the danger of selling Emmanuel Latte Lath, a striker who is close to leaving the club.
After a month-long saga, Emmanuel Latte Lath is on the approach of leaving Middlesbrough. On Thursday, an agreement was reached with MLS side Atlanta United to sell Boro’s top striker. With his medical already finished, there should be no obstacles that prevent the move from going place.
Boro achieved a record fee of £22.5 million, surpassing the previous high established when selling Adama Traore to Wolves. The club has made a significant profit on the Ivorian, who was purchased for just over £4 million 18 months ago.
Make no mistake, it is a risk – a significant one, maybe, given what could be at stake. Selling your top scorer in the middle of the season despite fighting hard to make the play-offs for a chance at promotion to the Premier League. Latte Lath has scored 29 goals since joining Atalanta, so replacing him will be difficult.
To put it simply, Boro must accept this risk. Finally, it is the model, and it is driven by the harsh financial landscape of the Championship. Signing and nurturing players like Latte Lath can help Boro’s finances improve. It can also work when done properly. Brentford and Brighton serve as archetypes for such a successful model.
Boro revealed their financial accounts at the beginning of the month, covering the period through last season. They emphasised the importance of player trade and the fact that proceeds from player sales will be reinvested back into the squad.
Over the course of the year, the club’s total operational loss exceeded £12 million. Over £1 million every month… let it sink in. The accounts showed the club made £19m on player sales and despite the projected losses, and the fact Steve Gibson put in a further £13m to ensure the deficit wasn’t even bigger, they then spent £18m on buying players. Within that £18 million was spent on bringing Latte Lath to the club.
Fast ahead to this season; such financial data will not be available until next year. However, we can fairly anticipate that Boro would have been heavily in debt if this Latte Lath deal had not occurred. Without any major sales in the summer, they continued investment in the squad with big purchases such as Aidan Morris and Tommy Conway. This month, as well as bringing Ryan Giles back on loan, adding Mark Travers until the end of the season, and turning George Edmundson’s loan into a permanent switch, they’ve also splashed an initial £5m on signing Morgan Whittaker. It is not difficult to calculate that a £22.5 million offer simply cannot be turned down.
We probably all have our own opinions on the move from the 26-year-old’s perspective. The MLS is an ever-growing league, and he’s about to earn life-changing money which he cannot be begrudged for. To his credit, throughout the whole saga, he’s never once downed tools or not given his everything for the Boro cause. Alas, at his age, and with his recent achievements, an MLS move feels underwhelming to say the least.
That’s ultimately not Boro’s concern though. Their focus quickly turns to finding an adequate replacement. Without one, Boro’s massive investment in their squad could be for nothing – in the short term at least.
Tommy Conway is nearing a return from injury and actually has a better goals-per-minute ratio than Latte Lath this season. Having the Scotland international back will be boost for Boro’s play-off aspirations, and might also take some pressure off whichever striker Boro do move for in the final days of the transfer window.
But Boro will still likely need whoever comes in to get amongst the goals too – and it’s what makes the mid-season sale of Latte Lath such a risk, albeit an understandable one to take. In that sense, the recruitment team have done more than enough to earn our trust.
Let’s not forget, it was the same recruitment team that found Latte Lath from relative obscurity in the first place. Struggling to break through in Italy, it was one good season on loan in Switzerland that prompted Boro to take the risk that has ultimately paid off so handsomely. In buys like Morgan Rogers, Rav van den Berg, Aidan Morris and many more, they’ve proven their eye for a gem. Let’s hope their extensive work to prepare for this moment pays off with another.
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