Coventry City tipped to seal Hayden Hackney deal with Middlesbrough | OneFootball

The Sky Blues have no sealed their return to the Premier League, and are set to make a move for one of their Championship rivals' most-prized assets.

With promotion to the Premier League now assured, Coventry City are set to make the highly-rated Middlesbrough star Hayden Hackney one of their summer targets.

They've finally done it. Following an absence of 25 years, an 84th-minute goal scored by Bobby Thomas confirmed Coventry City's return to the Premier League at Ewood Park on Friday night.

The Sky Blues had fallen behind to a goal from Ryoya Morishita for Blackburn Rovers scored nine minutes into the second half, but Thomas's late equaliser put the matter beyond any further doubt by securing the point that Coventry needed.

The big matter at hand over the summer at The CBS Arena will now be strengthening for challenge ahead. And the club are now reported to be focused on signing one of the Championship's most accomplished players.

Hayden Hackney could become a Coventry target this summer

In a lengthy report on Coventry's return to the Premier League published on Saturday morning, the Daily Mail state that Middlesbrough’s impressive playmaker Hayden Hackney could become a target, especially if Boro do not follow Coventry back to the Premier League.

Middlesbrough have been one of Coventry's main promotion rivals for much of this season, but their form has gone to pieces over the last few weeks. Going into this weekend, they're six games without a win, falling from second place in the table to fifth.

Given the admiring reviews that Hackney has been getting for a long time, Boro have done well to hang onto him for this long, but should they fail to secure a return to the Premier League themselves at the end of this season, the pressure on the young midfielder to leave The Riverside Stadium will intensify again.

A Coventry move for Hayden Hackney would demonstrate the gulf between the Premier League and the Championship

Coventry City and Middlesbrough have been duelling for promotion from the Championship all season, but both have faltered since the finishing line has started to come into view. Coventry have now drawn their last three matches, but the slump endured by Middlesbrough has been more severe.

They've now failed to win any of their last six games going into the weekend of the 18th April, and for Boro fans this may reawaken bad memories of last season, when they won just one of their last six matches and dropped out of the play-off places to finish tenth. It was a run which ultimately cost head coach Michael Carrick his job.

In many respects, Coventry City and Middlesbrough are clubs of a very similar profile. Both have a history in the Premier League but have been playing below this level for some years, despite having modern stadiums which are plenty capable of hosting top-flight football. And both have overcome the disadvantage of not receiving Premier League parachute payments to climb to the summit of the table.

Transfer talk regarding Hayden Hackney demonstrates that the Premier League remains the place to be. At 23 years of age, if Hackney's career is to reach its full potential. Born in Redcar, it's clear that the midfielder loves his club, and the transfer speculation that surrounded him last summer only slowed when it was confirmed that the player himself wanted to stay at The Riverside Stadium.

But if Hackney has England ambitions - he's already been capped at under-15 and under-21 levels - he'll need to be playing in a top level league, and now he's reaching the peak years of his career, should Middlesbrough be unable to secure a return to the Premier League themselves, he'll have to start looking elsewhere if Boro are unable to claim a promotion place this summer.

Sunderland's performance in the Premier League this season has demonstrated what the benefits of excellent recruitment work can be for a newly-promoted club. If Coventry City want to replicate that this summer, Hayden Hackney would be a superb place to start, though this may yet come to depend on whether Middlesbrough can turn the end of their season around.