Middlesbrough have a £1.5million ($1.8m) option to buy Sam Greenwood at the end of his season-long loan from Leeds United.
Middlesbrough – and Greenwood – have the remainder of the season to assess the potential of a permanent transfer.
The 21-year-old forward scored his first Middlesbrough goal during Saturday’s 4-0 win over Sunderland at the Stadium of Light to cap an impressive performance.
For the club, it would offer a contrast to last season’s experience when players such as Ryan Giles and Cameron Archer made a major impact on Teesside on loan, only to then return to their parent clubs and be moved on for significant sums.
The departure of those players and Chuba Akpom helped explain Boro’s slow start to the season, but Saturday’s 4-0 victory at their neighbours was a fourth consecutive Championship win for Michael Carrick’s rising team.
After four substitute appearances, Greenwood has started the last two and could in time become a solution to the hole left by Akpom’s move to Ajax.
“As you go through a season, you kind of have waves naturally,” Carrick said of Greenwood. “That’s for me to work with, it doesn’t mean you’re losing faith in anyone. Sam’s come in from Leeds and hadn’t played a lot of football and had an injury in pre-season, so it was about getting him up to speed.
“I know when he first came in he was a little bit frustrated but now, speaking to him, he realises it takes a little time to get that sharpness.
“We’re patient with him and now we’re definitely seeing over the last week or two in training, that’s starting to come. I think you’ve seen that over the last couple of games.”
Greenwood’s near-post finish to make the score 0-1 was a striker’s goal. The game was distorted by the dismissal of Sunderland midfielder Dan Neil just before half-time with the score 0-0, but Boro still showed composure and nous to create the space that led to three more goals.
There was additional pain for Sunderland in the fact that the previous boardroom regime sold Greenwood from their academy to Arsenal when he was 16. After two years in London, Greenwood moved back north to Leeds for £1.5m.
Last August, he signed a new contract until 2026 but that was under Jesse Marsch, who saw a midfield role for Greenwood. Since then Leeds have had Michael Skubala, Javi Gracia, Sam Allardyce and now Daniel Farke in charge. Greenwood was not in Farke’s plans so was made available.
“My actual position is a striker or a No 10”, Greenwood said on joining Boro, “When I played midfield he (Marsch) saw something different with my passing range and said I was good at counter-pressing, so that’s why he put me there. But my main position is up front and anywhere up-top.”
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(Photo: George Wood/Getty Images)
