The Wolves factor that may be affecting Middlesbrough's Emmanuel Latte-Lath: View | OneFootball

After a summer of speculation, one striker is yet to really fire for 'Boro this season

Going into the 2024/25 season, Middlesbrough will have been among many people's favourites to win promotion from the Championship.

Michael Carrick's side narrowly missed out on a place in the play-offs last season, and looked to have strengthened their squad significantly in the summer transfer window.

So far however, 'Boro are yet to really lay down a marker to show that they are one of the standout contenders for a place in the Premier League this season.

With two wins, two draws and two defeats from their six league games so far putting them 12th in the current standings, this has certainly been a mixed start to the campaign for Middlesbrough.

One individual player at The Riverside Stadium who has perhaps embodied that pretty accurately so far, is Emmanuel Latte Lath.

A slow start for last season's top Middlesbrough scorer

Having joined 'Boro from French side St Etienne in the summer of 2023, Latte Lath enjoyed an outstanding debut campaign with the club last season.

In total, the striker scored 18 goals in 36 appearances in all competitions during his first year in the Championship, to end the season as his side's top scorer.

That included a remarkable run to conclude the season, in which he scored nine goals in Middlesbrough's last eight games.

This time round though, things have been rather different from Latte Lath, whose only goal since the campaign began, was a penalty in the opening day win over Swansea City.

Since then, things have been more of a struggle for the forward, who has failed to take any more chances to get on the scoresheet, despite having opportunities to do so.

Now, it could be argued that the events of the summer transfer window, are influencing the struggles the Middlesbrough striker has been enduring in recent weeks.

Emmanuel Latte Lath attracted Premier League transfer interest

Perhaps not surprisingly given his form last season, there was a fair amount of speculation and uncertainty around the future of Latte Lath while the market was open.

Early in August, it was reported that Premier League side Wolves were among those to have made an approach for the 25-year-old.

Those rumours would continue, and on deadline day, it emerged that Latte Lath had initially not travelled with the Middlesbrough squad for their clash with Cardiff the following day.

That apparently came amid a bid for his signing from another Premier League side, newly-promoted Ipswich Town, a day earlier.

In the end, Latte Lath did link-up with his teammates in the Welsh capital, and would come off the bench for the final 21 minutes of that win over the Bluebirds, after staying beyond the deadline.

To his credit, the striker has since insisted that he is fully committed to playing for Middlesbrough, but it would perhaps not be a huge shock if what happened is impacting his performance.

Having seemingly had the chance to play in the top-flight, and with the financial rewards that come with that, there may be some frustration for Latte Lath in missing out on such a move.

That could therefore be causing something of a distraction for the Middlesbrough striker on and off the pitch, where he may still wondering about what might have been just a few weeks ago.

In turn, that could be affecting his performance, if he is still feeling some disappointment at missing out on such a big move.

Of course, he may also be feeling more pressure, if he believes he has to perform well in order to attract that interest when the market reopens.

If that is the case, it could also create some extra nerves, or a situation in which he tries to hard in order to that, leading to him missing chances he had previously been taking.

With that in mind, it seems that while they may have been able to keep Latte Lath, this speculation around him at the time means the summer transfer window may still have created a problem for Middlesbrough when it comes to the striker.