Middlesbrough FC: £3.5m Watford disaster ended with a terminated contract | OneFootball

Adlene Guedioura signed for Boro from the Hornets in January 2017, but his time on Teesside would go down as a complete disaster...

Middlesbrough signed Algerian international Adlene Guedioura from Watford in January 2017, as Boro boss Aitor Karanka looked to bolster the Teessiders' Premier League survival bid.

Signed for a reported fee of £3.5m from the Hornets, Guedioura completed his move to the Riverside Stadium in the final hours of the winter transfer window, providing Karanka with a last-minute boost to his midfield options.

It was a deal that presented as being a solid addition for Middlesbrough, as he'd racked up a fair bit of Premier League experience during his career with the likes of Wolverhampton Wanderers, Crystal Palace and Watford respectively.

However, it would turn out to be a signing that Boro supporters will want to forget, as he would endure a nightmare spell on Teesside that ensured his legacy as a major Middlesbrough transfer miss.

Adlene Guedioura fails to make Boro impact

With Middlesbrough sitting 15th in the Premier League and two points above the relegation zone by the close of play on 31 January 2017, Boro hoped that they could begin to pull away from danger in the second half of the season.

Speaking on his new signing shortly after his arrival, Karanka said: "He's (Guedioura) a player who I liked a lot for the last three years because even when Watford was in the Championship he looked like a man.

"He's the kind of player who has a personality, quality, and he has experience in the Premier League. He's a player who is not for just now, I liked him a long time ago."

Evidently then, the Middlesbrough head coach was confident that Guedioura would come in and make a real difference in Boro's team, but that just wasn't to be the case.

After making just five substitute appearances between his January arrival and the end of the 2016/17 Premier League season, the Algerian found himself way down Middlesbrough's midfield pecking order.

Marten de Roon, Grant Leadbitter, Adam Clayton and Adam Forshaw were all favoured ahead of him, and that meant he often found himself excluded from the matchday squad altogether.

So, it's perhaps a bit of an understatement to state that his first few months on Teesside didn't go the way he, nor Middlesbrough Football Club would've expected. But, with Boro now back in the Championship after suffering relegation from the top-flight, would the 2017/18 be the season Guedioura properly announced his arrival in the North East?

Unfortunately, it wouldn't be. In fact, the 2017/18 campaign would be his last in a Middlesbrough shirt, as he once again failed to kick his Boro career into life.

Guedioura would make just one appearance in the first half of that season, in which he was substituted off after 50 minutes in a 3-2 away win at Preston North End on 1 January 2018.

Despite missing a number of games whilst recovering from a hamstring injury out in the Middle East, the midfielder was clearly not part of new boss Garry Monk's plans.

Come Deadline Day in the 2018 January transfer window, and with no future at the Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough and Guedioura agreed to a mutual termination of his contract, which enabled him to secure a return to former club Nottingham Forest.

He would leave Teesside having started just one game in a Middlesbrough shirt, sealing his fate as one of the club's biggest transfer flops in recent times, and cemented Watford as the clear winners of the deal.

£3.5m was a sizeable chunk of money for Boro to invest in the Algerian, and given his Premier League, Championship and international pedigree, it's safe to say that the club were expecting much more of a return on their investment than what they received.