4 Middlesbrough players who'll surely leave in January ft £6.5m star | OneFootball

FLW takes a look at the four Middlesbrough players who will surely be leaving the club in the January window

Middlesbrough have started the 2026/27 season strongly following their play-off heartbreak last time around, and you would do well to find a better summer transfer window than the one Boro have recently enjoyed, though there are still players at the club who will surely be on the cusp of an exit come January.

Had you told Middlesbrough supporters before the window that both Hayden Hackney and Morgan Whittaker would leave the club in the summer, alarm bells would naturally start ringing.

However, raking in some £45 million from their sales, including the sell-on fee they received from Morgan Rogers' move from Aston Villa to Chelsea, Boro did not hold back in reshaping their squad for the upcoming campaign.

Will Lankshear, Radek Vitek, and Ashley Phillips arrived for big fees with heavy potential add-ons, whilst the likes of Max Arfsten, Sebastian Berhalter, Rokas Pukstas, and Kyle Joseph also joined for multi-million-pound fees.

Head coach Kim Hellberg will have one eye firmly set on a place in the Championship top eight this season at a minimum, and one glancing at the automatic promotion places as well, though by the time the January window rolls around, there could still be work to do, as FLW takes a look at four players who will surely be on their way out of the Riverside in the winter.

David Strelec

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Slovakian forward David Strelec joined Boro last summer for an initial £6.5 million, with the potential to rise to £8.5 million from Slovan Bratislava, and it would be fair to suggest he hasn't quite hit the heights hoped for of him upon his arrival.

Strelec, between two prolific spells with Slovan Bratislava, spent time in Italy with Spezia and AS Reggina to varying degrees of success, and upon his move to Teesside, it was hoped he could spearhead Boro's attack for the foreseeable future.

Eight goals and one assist in 35 league appearances during his first year at the club are fairly respectable numbers, but not ones that justify the fee, and following an array of additions in the final third over the summer, he has seemingly fallen out of favour under Hellberg.

With only a three-minute cameo against Burnley in the first six league games of the season, Strelec, who was heavily linked with a move to Greek side PAOK in the summer, could well leave come January, and it would be no surprise if an exit was on the cards after 18 months.

Leo Castledine

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Leo Castledine shone on loan in League One with Huddersfield Town during the first half of last season, scoring ten and assisting two in 23 third-tier games for the Terriers from attacking midfield.

His performances tempted Boro into paying just shy of £1 million to bring the 21-year-old to Teesside on a permanent deal from Chelsea, but since he arrived in the Championship, he has struggled to make an impact.

Starting just one game in nine appearances during the second half of last season, and then being left out of the matchday squad for the 4-3 home victory over Norwich City, the Englishman is wasting valuable development time and should be seeking a January exit to remind people what he is capable of.

Alex Bangura

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Sierra Leonean left-back Alex Bangura has had a truly rotten time with injuries ever since his move to Middlesbrough from Dutch side SC Cambuur in the summer of 2023, making just 31 appearances across all competitions in the following three years.

The defender, alongside the next person on this list, has been left without a squad number for the campaign and is not training with the first team; despite this, Hellberg has stated that he hasn't shut the door on him returning to the fold, but as things stand, a January exit appears the most likely outcome.

Micah Hamilton

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Once upon a time, Micah Hamilton was scoring in the Champions League for Pep Guardiola's Manchester City, and upon his permanent move to Middlesbrough in the summer of 2024, it was viewed as a potential coup.

However, fast-forward two years, and Hamilton, still just 22, has made 21 appearances for Boro's first team, and spent time out on loan with Stockport County last campaign to little success, whilst being left without a number for this season.

Time is on the winger's side, but he really needs to find a new home to kickstart his career ASAP, and the January window could provide the opportunity for exactly that.