Martyn Waghorn opens up on his Middlesbrough transfer decision, ‘abuse’ and legal battle

Martyn Waghorn opens up on his Middlesbrough transfer decision, ‘abuse’ and legal battle

After a contentious transfer involving Derby County and a subsequent legal dispute between the clubs, Martyn Waghorn has spoken out about his choice to reject a transfer to Middlesbrough.

 

In August 2018, the Sunderland academy graduate was the subject of a bid from Boro.

The forward comes clean about his conversations with former Boro boss Tony Pulis, who nearly sanctioned a transfer from Ipswich Town to the Riverside, but the Rams’ late entry into the race derailed Boro’s plans.

 

It cost Boro dearly as Waghorn’s Derby edged them out of a play-off berth and Pulis’ tenure as manager at the Riverside came to an end.

With nine goals by Waghorn, Derby finished in first place, one spot ahead of Boro.

 

“I had my year at Ipswich, and it was before I was signing for Derby,” Waghorn remarked in an interview with the Sunderland Echo following his retirement announcement earlier this month.

Over that period, I had a conversation with Tony Pulis.

After then, Derby were also involved, and everything was essentially agreed upon.

In the end, I settled on Derby after considering Sheffield United and Middlesbrough, who were all in close proximity to it.

 

“That’s how simple it was. The allure of Lampard was enormous, to be honest; I wanted to be a part of that team after seeing them play and learning about the project they were working on.

There was a near-miss with moving to Middlesbrough.

I believe everything was agreed. I only had to make a selection within a split instant because the time was running out as well.”

 

The struggle for the final play-off berth stretched up to the final day, and despite Boro beat Rotherham, Derby’s 3-1 win over West Brom – in which Waghorn scored – meant they pipped Boro to the final play-off spot.

 

The two clubs would subsequently end up in a legal battle over that season, with Steve Gibson seeking, and ultimately receiving, compensation from former Derby owner Mel Morris for lost play-off revenue when it emerged that the Rams, in signing Waghorn and many others that season, had broken Championship FFP rules.

Later financial documents revealed that Boro got £2.7m from Morris before of the encounter between Boro and Derby at the Riverside two years ago.

 

The two sides meet again on Teesside on Saturday afternoon for the first time since that ill-tempered affair.

And Waghorn claimed ahead of it that he was the focus of Boro fan ‘abuse’ from the moment he went to Pride Park.

 

He continued: “I feel like over the last few years I got a lot of stick from Boro fans regarding that and I don’t know where that kind of materialised from.

I don’t know what was going on behind the scenes or whatever, but I got a lot of flak going back there for selecting Derby over them.

 

“I don’t know how it’s come from that. It’s only there was a player link with the club and I elected to go to a different one.

It’s certainly obviously the way it went, but I believe there’s a lot to do with the playoffs and how it finished at the end of the year and they missed out and we got in.

So, I think there’s a lot of needle going on, clearly, with stuff behind the scenes that I’m unaware of.

I got abuse for a few years with that.”