Gareth Southgate's £3.2m Middlesbrough gamble successfully failed | OneFootball

Marvin Emnes endured an up and down time on Teesside, with flash-in-the-pan brilliance overshadowed by frequent struggles in-front of goal.

The 2008/09 season is one that Middlesbrough supporters have been trying to forget ever since, but it did mark the beginning of the strange Riverside career of Marvin Emnes.

Having finished 13th in the top flight the season before, Boro, under the management of former club captain Gareth Southgate, were looking to record a strong 2008 summer transfer window that would provide the platform for further progression in the upcoming campaign.

The Teessiders would make just three signings, however, leading to sections of the fanbase becoming skeptical that Southgate had strengthened his squad sufficiently to push on in the Premier League once again.

French midfielder Didier Digard arrived from PSG, right-back Justin Hoyte signed from Arsenal to replace the outgoing Luke Young, and £3.2m was spent on a little-known forward from the Netherlands - Emnes.

Marvin Emnes endures slow start to his Middlesbrough career - Gordon Strachan arrival threatened to end his Boro spell

A 20-year-old at the time, Emnes arrived on Teesside from Dutch Eredivisie side Sparta Rotterdam in July 2008.

He was Sparta's player of the season from the campaign prior, and was a Netherlands youth international. "We feel we have signed an exciting young player in Marvin," Southgate said at the time.

Middlesbrough certainly had added a promising young forward to their ranks, but after 15 Premier League appearances without a goal or assist, the excitement surrounding his debut season fell flat.

However, with Boro now in the Championship, the versatile Emnes looked set to play a key role in the team, and for the first few months, he did.

A goal and three assists from his opening seven league games showed positive signs that his ability and potential were starting to seep out onto the pitch, but after an inconsistent start in terms of results, Southgate was sacked in late October.

His replacement would be Gordon Strachan, and, unfortunately for Emnes, he wasn't in the Scotsman's plans. Under Strachan, he would make just three Championship appearances for the remainder of that season, scoring no goals and providing no assists.

Boro would finish 11th in the Championship in the 2009/10 season, but having not even been included in the matchday squad for the opening 11 league games of the 2010/11 campaign with Strachan still in charge, Emnes wanted out.

Tony Mowbray sparks life into Emnes' Middlesbrough career

He would get his wish too, but only temporarily, as he joined fellow Championship side Swansea City on a one-month loan on 18 October 2010.

Whilst with the Swans, he bagged two goals and one assist in four second tier appearances, and upon his return to his parent club, he was met with a different gaffer in the dugout - Tony Mowbray.

Strachan had torn up his Middlesbrough contract on the same day that Emnes departed for Swansea, with club legend Mowbray coming in to replace him. For Emnes, it was the catalyst to a Riverside revival.

He would go on to score three goals and provide three assists in 23 Championship appearances in the remainder of the 2010/11 season, but the best was yet to come.

2011/12 would be a blockbuster campaign for Boro's flying Dutchman. 14 goals and one assist in 42 second tier outings, with a further four goals in cup competitions, took his total tally for the season to 18.

His investment had finally bore serious goalscoring fruit, and he now looked like that top talent which Southgate had gambled on all those years ago.

Aitor Karanka appointment marked decisive moment in Emnes' Middlesbrough career

His second season under Mowbray wouldn't be as productive, however, as he scored just five times in 24 Championship appearances during the 2012/13 season.

"Mogga" would depart the club in October 2013, and was to be succeeded by former assistant to José Mourinho at Real Madrid, Aitor Karanka.

Like Strachan had, the Spaniard saw no place in his future plans for Emnes, and by January 2014 and after scoring just one goal in 22 league appearances during the 2013/14 season, Emnes was shipped back out on loan to Swansea for the second half of the season.

The summer transfer window of 2014 would see Karanka bring in a number of new forward options; Kike, Patrick Bamford, Jelle Vossen and Yanic Wildschut would all join the club.

Emnes was sold to Swansea on a permanent basis that summer, bringing an end to his up and down time on Teesside.

His flash-in-the-pan 2011/12 season was one of the most impressive individual campaigns Boro fans had seen from an attacking player since the club's relegation from the Premier League, but unfortunately, Emnes couldn't hit those heights again.

He would, however, go on to struggle for goals during the rest of his career, with even his six-goal campaign in 2012/13 never being replicated again for the rest of his career.

As such, Middlesbrough probably did get the best out of Emnes, but for a player who clearly had the ability to be a prolific goalscorer at Championship level, there remains a real 'what if?' surrounding his spell at the Riverside.