Middlesbrough’s £15m transfer gamble fell flat - but Nottingham Forest hit the jackpot | OneFootball

Middlesbrough broke their transfer record to sign Britt Assombalonga, but he couldn't take them to the Premier League

When Middlesbrough were relegated from the Premier League in 2017, they made a big splash to try and return at the first time of asking.

Garry Monk was hired as manager, having come close to finishing in the top six at Leeds United the year before and had Premier League experience behind him while at Swansea City.

The incomings didn't stop in the dugout either, as Boro were serious in the transfer window, using their parachute payment money to try and craft a squad ready to challenge atop the division.

The likes of Jonny Howson, Ashley Fletcher and Martin Braithwaite were all brought in for decent fees, but topping all of them was Britt Assombalonga, who Middlesbrough smashed their transfer record for, signing him for £15 million from Nottingham Forest.

The Congolese frontman had just come off the back of a 14-goal campaign at the City Ground, as Forest narrowly avoided relegation. That was his first full season back after a knee injury took him out for well over a year.

Forest would have been sad to see him go, but the money at the time was right for someone who could have easily gotten injured long-term once more, and the Reds used that money to help steer further and further away from the bottom three, until they earned promotion in 2021/22.

For Boro, he was a serviceable frontman, but never tore up the league at the Riverside, and couldn't help his side back to the top flight.

Britt Assombalonga's four years at Middlesbrough

Assombalonga had scored 30 goals in 62 Championship games at Nottingham Forest before he made the move to the Riverside.

He hadn't played more than 32 times in a season, and there were expectations that, if he could be fit for 40–46 games, he'd score in the 20s, as he did in his sole League One campaign with Peterborough United.

Middlesbrough gambled on that expectation, but ultimately it was a gamble which didn't pay off.

That's not to say that Assombalonga was a failure himself during his four years at the Riverside. With three separate campaigns in double-digits, he'll be remembered as a solid forward option at Boro. However, the club didn't break their record fee for a solid option — they wanted something special.

In Middlesbrough's first campaign back in the second tier, they finished in the top six, finishing 5th on 76 points.

They scored 67 goals, and Assombalonga was responsible for 15 of those, equalling his season-high goal tally in the Championship, but there was some frustration, as 12 of the 15 came in the first half of the campaign, before just three followed in the latter half.

Unfortunately, he wasn't able to rediscover that scoring form in the play-offs, as Boro scored none in their 1-0 aggregate defeat against Aston Villa in the semi-finals.

The season after, Middlesbrough scored 18 fewer goals as a team, but Assombalonga remained steady, netting 14 himself. Ultimately, the Championship got stronger in the 18/19 campaign, and Boro finished outside the top six, despite only registering three fewer points than the season before.

As Middlesbrough had only been in the Premier League for a year before their relegation, this meant that they received no parachute payments in their third year, and the club regressed massively, finishing 17th.

Assombalonga still managed 11 goals that year, but the writing was on the wall regarding earning promotion back to the top flight. The club stabilised itself in mid-table, and after a five-goal campaign in 2020/21, Boro let him go when his contract expired at the end of the season.

Britt Assombalonga never lived up to the hype of a record-breaking transfer in an underachieving Middlesbrough side

No one at Middlesbrough regards Assombalonga as a flop — he just never lived up to the hype that comes with a record-breaking striker arrival. If he had come to the Riverside for half the fee and put up the numbers he did, many would have labelled him as a good signing.

Equally, if Boro went up at the first time of asking in the 2017/18 campaign, people would have pointed at Assombalonga's goals as a catalyst for doing so, meaning he'd go down as a great signing.

Ultimately, the size of the fee plus the failure of the squad as a whole in their first years back in the Championship means that the Congolese striker's time at the Riverside isn't looked back upon with the fondest eye.

With 47 goals in 161 appearances for Middlesbrough, Assombalonga will be remembered as a decent striker during his time at the club. But with a record that still stands eight years later, Boro were expecting a lot more than "decent" from their new £15 million arrival.