Kim Hellberg faces £5.6m Middlesbrough transfer headache | OneFootball

Boro signing US international Max Arfsten gives the head coach the best sort of dilemma as he prepares for an attempt to return to the Premier League.

Now that Middlesbrough have secured the signature of the USA international Max Arfsten, head coach Kim Hellberg has to decide what to do with him.

Middlesbrough's busy summer in the transfer market continues. Six new players have now arrived at The Riverside Stadium this summer, as the club seek to go one step further than their heartbreaking Championship play-off final defeat to Hull City at the end of the 2025-26 season.

The latest new signing is USA international Max Arfsten, who has arrived at the club from MLS club Columbus Crew for a fee of £5.6 million on a four-year contract. Arfsten is the second American player to have joined Boro this summer, following the arrival of Sebastian Berhalter - another former Crew player - from Vancouver Whitecaps in July.

This makes a total of three American players at Middlesbrough, with midfielder Aidan Morris also having been signed from Columbus Crew in 2024. Morris has been reported to be entering negotiations to extend his contract with the club.

Arfsten was part of the USA's 26-man squad for the World Cup finals, and has appeared in the MLS All-Star team for the last two seasons, so there's little doubting his pedigree. But his arrival at The Riverside Stadium does present head coach Kim Hellberg with something of a dilemma, with the new Championship season now looming.

Middlesbrough's transfers this summer have largely been about strengthening their attacking options

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While Middlesbrough's goal-scoring tally for the 2025-26 Championship season was far from terrible, with 72 goals scored in 46 matches, it has been clear from the arrivals at The Riverside Stadium this summer that the focus has been on improving their attacking options.

The big summer arrival has been that of Will Lankshear from Tottenham Hotspur. Lankshear, who scored 11 goals for Oxford United in 2025-26 despite the club's relegation from the Championship, will be expected to be their main source of goals next season, and Arfsten will be expected to play a supporting role.

But some of Boro's other transfer activity does raise a question of two about what Hellberg will be looking to do with their latest acquisition. Arfsten is a left-wing back, and Hellberg isn't struggling for options out wide, with the loan signing of Jeremy Sarmiento from Brighton having been made permanent, earlier in the summer.

Indeed, such is the churn on that left-hand side that Delano Burgzorg, who returned from a half-season loan with Bristol City earlier in the summer, now seems highly likely to be leaving the club for Preston North End, according to reports from The Northern Echo.

What fans are saying about Max Arfsten's arrival at The Riverside Stadium

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The arrival of Max Arfsten at The Riverside Stadium has provoked a considerable amount of talk from Teesside and beyond. Here's a selection of what's been said about him signing for the club.

This fan sees Arfsen's versatility as one of the biggest assets that he can bring to Middlesbrough:

This fan, however, considers three of Boro's big summer signings to be downgrades on the players they had in those positions last season:

This fan, commenting on the fact that Boro haven't brought in a new right-back this summer, feels that not enough consideration has been given to the fact that Arfsten could play in that position rather than on the left:

This analyst feels that Arfsten is a good fit for Kim Hellberg, though his biggest challenge if he's used on the left may be his defensive responsibilities:

And this USA fan agrees that Arfsen is better utilised as a winger than as a straightforward left-back:

Max Arfsten's biggest benefit for Middlesbrough could be his versatility

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With the loan of Jeremy Sarmiento from Brighton & Hove Albion having been made permanent earlier in the summer, it's tempting to wonder what role Middlesbrough might have for Max Arfsten throughout the 2026-27 season.

But the answer to this question lies in his versatility. Arfsten converted from playing on the right-hand side to playing on the left for Columbus Crew during their 2024 MLS season, and has proved to be as successful in his new position.

In addition to this, he can also play as a more conventional full-back as well as a wing-back, though his statistics for the 2026 MLS season indicate that this is an attack-minded player who can also defend.

This fits with Kim Hellberg's own tactical set-ups at Middlesbrough last season, when he sometimes employed a 4-2-2-2 formation. This is a formation in which the importance of wingers is creating width and attacking opportunities.

He may use Arfsten as a winger rather than as a full-back, though the club have him listed on their website as a full-back, with Jeremy Sarmiento listed as a winger. FotMob, meanwhile, have him listed as a left wing-back, left midfielder or a right midfielder.

With 46 games to play in the Championship alone this season, football at this level is more of a squad game than it ever has been before. Arfsten has spent the last two and a half seasons playing as a wing-back, but his history indicates that he is certainly not limited to being able to play in one position alone, and that degree of flexibility is important in itself.

And as Kim Hellberg prepares for the start of the new season, this is exactly the sort of headache that the Boro boss will want. Competition for a starting spot is healthy, and it should bring out the best in all of their players, to be competing for a place in the starting eleven.