Exclusive: Lee Hendrie tips Middlesbrough FC star for Premier League transfer if promotion bid fails | OneFootball

Lee Hendrie believes Boro will need to get promoted if they want to keep this key midfielder.

Lee Hendrie believes Middlesbrough will need to get promoted if they are to keep hold of star midfielder Finn Azaz this summer.

With 10 goals and eleven assists in the Championship so far this season, Azaz has displayed the kind of form that is sure to attract interest from Premier League clubs, and Boro could face a battle to keep hold of him in the summer.

However, achieving promotion back to the top flight through the play-offs would surely make their task a significantly easier one.

Three wins from their last four league games have seen Michael Carrick’s men force their way back into contention for the top six, after a woeful run of form since the New Year had caused them to slip down the table.

Lee Hendrie believes Middlesbrough need to go up if they want to keep Azaz

As we have seen on several occasions over the years, it is extremely common for Championship clubs who ultimately miss out on promotion or the play-offs to get raided by Premier League sides and lose their best players.

In many cases, it can be an almost unavoidable situation for second tier sides, as success on the pitch will always draw eyes to some of the more impressive members of their squad.

Middlesbrough’s form over the last few weeks has given them renewed hope of securing a return to the Premier League for the first time since 2017, and Lee Hendrie believes that could be vital in deciding where Finn Azaz’s future could lie.

Speaking exclusively to Football League World, the former Aston Villa and England man said: "Over the last few seasons they’ve got so close (to promotion) and have just fallen away.

"Boro are a side that have always brought loan players in to bolster the squad and bring quality, but then obviously those players go back and it’s almost like a rebuild every season.

“They brought Finn Azaz in and he’s been one of their key players. He dropped off quite recently and his form wasn’t as good as it had been, but then he’s jumped back into his boots and he’s back doing what he has been doing since joining the club.

“I think for any club, if you’re stuck in a situation where you’re not taking the club forward and you’re not getting promoted, you will end up looking at whether a player will move on because of what he has achieved.

“Attacking midfielders, goal-scoring midfielders, they always raise a lot of eyebrows for Premier League sides, so I do feel that getting promoted is going to be key to keeping him (Azaz), as it always is in the Championship.

“That’s the unfortunate thing and it wouldn’t surprise me if teams do come looking at Azaz.”

Finn Azaz has been outstanding for Middlesbrough this season

It is testament to the Irish international’s performances that the numbers he has produced are up there with the very best players in the Championship.

He struck seven league goals and five assists for Plymouth Argyle in the first half of last season, before Middlesbrough bought him from parent club Aston Villa for an undisclosed fee last January. Azaz hit the ground running at the Riverside Stadium, notching four league goals and five assists from just 20 games following his mid-season move.

While those numbers were already impressive for a midfielder, he has gone one better this term.

His tally of 21 goal contributions can only be matched by Borja Sainz and Joel Piroe, while his 11 league assists sees him level with Tom Fellows at the top of the division’s assist rankings.

League Two loan spells with Cheltenham Town and Newport County, before a League One stint with Plymouth mean that Azaz has had to work his way through the divisions to get to where he is today.

But with the way the 24-year-old has performed over the last two seasons in the Championship, surely a move to the Premier League is on the horizon.

A recent injury blow has seen Ben Doak return to parent club Liverpool, and with Emmanuel Latte Lath also having moved on a few weeks ago, the responsibility to create for Boro is likely to fall on Azaz’s shoulders even more between now and the end of the campaign.

If he can fire them to play-off success and with it, a return to the big time, it could be enough to keep him at the club for another year at least.