Middlesbrough told to eye £4m Everton player as Sol Brynn upgrade | OneFootball

FLW's Middlesbrough fan pundit admits that a goalkeeper upgrade during the season cost them, and has urged the club to bring someone in this summer

Middlesbrough were beaten in the Championship play-off final on Saturday, despite dominating the ball and restricting Hull City to few clear-cut chances.

However, when Yu Hirakawa crossed in late on, Boro shot-stopper Sol Brynn dived out and parried into a dangerous area, where Oli McBurnie was more than happy to tap in and send the Tigers to the Premier League.

To many at Middlesbrough, Sol Brynn is a well-liked shot-stopper, having grown up in the area and come through the academy at Rockliffe Park. In what was his first experience as the Boro number one this season, many were wanting the 25-year-old to succeed.

But Brynn hasn't covered himself in much glory at times this year, and the mistake leading to the decisive goal in the biggest game of the campaign has led some of those fans who liked the local lad to sour on him.

Middlesbrough told to invest in a quality goalkeeper next season

FLW's Boro fan pundit, Liam Day, wasn't holding back on his assessment of the goalkeeper position, believing that the club's refusal to upgrade the position in January "cost us promotion."

On who he hopes his side will target to add competition and likely become the club's number one, Day outlined possible pushes for exciting Sheffield Wednesday shot-stopper Pierce Charles, and Everton's back-up Mark Travers, who spent the latter half of the 2024/25 campaign at the Riverside on loan from Bournemouth.

"Pierce Charles stands out for me," he said. "I think he's been linked with a few other Championship clubs, and I'm not sure how realistic he'd be, but he seems a very, very decent player.

"It might be too tough to get him, though. I've seen him being linked with Manchester City.

"Other than that, Mark Travers, who was at Boro. He's not getting much game time at Everton, so you wonder how pleased he is with his current situation there."

Understandably, with Jordan Pickford ahead of him, it's been difficult for the Irishman to play any football this season. His only appearances for the Toffees came in the EFL Cup this season.

But, Everton spent £4 million to bring him to the Hill Dickinson Stadium last summer, so the likelihood is that Boro would have to pay a decent fee to take him off their hands, something which some parts of the fanbase aren't completely on board with.

"I've seen people say that we shouldn't spend £5 million on a goalkeeper," Day continued, disagreeing with that sentiment. "But not having that investment has arguably cost us promotion, so I hope we do upgrade.

"Sol Brynn's a local lad, and I think that's got him out of a lot of abuse this season, really. I thought in January that we needed a keeper upgrade. We didn't get one, and that cost us."

A Sol Brynn replacement arguably should be atop the Middlesbrough priority list this summer

A lot was said towards the end of the campaign about Middlesbrough's struggles at the top end of the pitch, that Kim Hellberg's side would create chances at will, but they lacked someone to convert them.

However, when they came out on the losing end of those games, it was often the case that opposition sides didn't need too many chances to convert past Brynn and the Boro defence.

Per Fotmob, the 25-year-old was the fourth-worst goalkeeper in the Championship for goals prevented, conceding 6.6 more than the overall total expected goals that Middlesbrough allowed over the course of the season.

Meanwhile, their fellow top six sides all had shot-stoppers with positive goals prevented, especially Coventry City's Carl Rushworth and Southampton's Daniel Peretz, who prevented 6.7 and 6.5 goals, respectively.

It's a concerning stat, and as Day alluded to, Brynn's status as a homegrown talent has almost deflected from that. As seen with Leeds United and their switch from Illan Meslier to Karl Darlow in the 2024/2025 season, just having a safe pair of hands in goal can improve promotion chances.

Whether Boro will give Brynn another chance or not is still to be seen, but if someone like Charles or Travers becomes available this summer, Middlesbrough have to take advantage.