How Tony Pulis helped Middlesbrough FC to £18m transfer jackpot | OneFootball

Tony Pulis helped Middlesbrough earn a major transfer windfall of £18 million for winger Adama Traore.

Adama Traore is always a player that flatters to deceive with seemingly all of the potential in the world but very little end product – but Tony Pulis and Middlesbrough managed to at least harness some of that potential to earn a hefty profit.

In the summer of 2016, Middlesbrough were preparing for their return to the Premier League under the management of Aitor Karanka and, after a very busy summer transfer window, they brought in attacker Adama Traore for an undisclosed fee from Aston Villa right before the deadline.

Adama had been a hot prospect for Barcelona, and even made his way into their first-team having made his La Liga debut at just 17, replacing none other than Neymar as a substitute in a 4-0 win over Granada before a move to Villa in the summer of 2015.

But he was a part of Remi Garde's side that were humiliatingly relegated from the top-flight in 2016, failing to make any impression at Villa Park.

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Despite that, Boro believed they could still get a tune out of the Catalan-born winger, and so they opted to bring him in to try and stave off the drop, with hugely popular winger Albert Adomah going the other way.

It was a forgettable campaign for both the club and the player, however, with 27 goalless Premier League appearances contributing to the Smoggies’ 19th-placed finish, with his raw talent still yet to be refined.

His burst of speed and power were unlike anything Riverside regulars had ever seen, but just as quick as he was to dazzle as he thundered down the pitch with the ball, he'd have 30,000+ Smoggies letting out cries of frustration as his end product routinely culminated in him over-playing, running down blind alleys or failing to deliver an accurate cross/pass to a teammate.

However, the 2017/18 campaign saw Garry Monk and then, more notably, Tony Pulis, tasked with guiding Middlesbrough back to the top-flight with immediate effect, get some of the best football out of the Spaniard.

Having returned to the second-tier from the Premier League, there was pressure on Middlesbrough to immediately perform and re-establish themselves as one of the better teams in the division.

It was an indifferent start in terms of results for Boro, and Traore couldn’t find the consistency of game time that he was looking for under the management of Monk.

After being a substitute or not even in the squad in the opening few games of the campaign, Adama then put in a genuinely world-class display at the then Macron Stadium to help Middlesbrough beat newly-promoted Bolton Wanderers by three goals to nil, with a brace of assists on an afternoon in which he tormented his future Fulham teammate Antonee Robinson.

After continued inconsistency throughout the first-half of the campaign in which Adama was often an unused substitute, with Monk losing faith after a fourth minute red card received by the future Spain international against former club Aston Villa, Monk was eventually replaced by Tony Pulis on Boxing Day.

Pulis’ first game in charge saw Adama remain an unused substitute in a 2-0 defeat of Bolton, before he came off the bench in a 1-0 loss a few days’ later against Aston Villa and then established himself as a key man for Pulis’ side in the second-half of the season.

Having started again against Preston North End at Deepdale on New Year’s Day, Adama went on to start each of Middlesbrough’s final 21 games in the Championship that season.

In those 21 games, Middlesbrough propelled themselves from the middle-of-the-table and into the play-off places, with Adama scoring five and assisting eight in an excellent run of form for both the club and the player, with notably memorable performances in 2-1 victories against Bristol City and Derby County in April.

Overall, he'd finish the 17/18 season with five goals and 13 assists to his name in 40 appearances, as he established himself as one of the most unstoppable and unique attacking weapons ever seen in the second tier.

Middlesbrough netted a huge profit on Adama Traore thanks to Tony Pulis

He went on to be unable to prevent a 1-0 aggregate loss to the Villains in the play-off semi-finals that season, and those would be the last games he played for Boro.

Over the summer, having won the Championship, Wolverhampton Wanderers were the latest club, under the management of Nuno Espirito Santo, to trust their top-flight riches with a move for Traore.

It is believed that Middlesbrough accepted a fee of £18 million for Adama after his release clause was triggered, which seems fairly remarkable considering he was a squad rotation player for a mid-table second division club just a few months before.

The coaching and managerial nous of Tony Pulis allowed for Boro to regain some hope in what they could achieve in the Championship, and also got the best form anyone has ever perhaps got out of the mercurial Traore.

Speaking in an interview via The Athletic in May 2020, Pulis said of his time working with Adama at Middlesbrough: "I cannot speak higher of a player I've ever worked with.

"He's just a wonderful human being. Never mind his football ability. The big stumbling block he had at Boro was that he needed confidence... he has that now.

"He needed someone to love him and trust him. We spent a lot of time together chatting over a cup of tea, I was trying to build up that relationship and confidence.

"It was about encouraging him to express himself and not worry about making mistakes. I used to say; 'Don't worry if you do something wrong, it's about the next time you pick the ball up and what you do with it then, or it might be the second time, the third time, the fourth time, but when it works you have the ability to change a game'.

"At Boro we dropped him deeper. We wanted to find him space, so we'd spend ages building up play on the left wing down George Friend and Stewart Downing's side, draw the opposition across to that flank, then quickly switch it through midfield to Adama so he had space to run into. He was absolutely devastating."

Many failed before and many have failed since, but Pulis managed to harness the potential of Traore for long enough to ensure that Boro hit the jackpot in terms of his sale.