This article is part of Football League World's 'Regular Punter' series, where we gather original opinions from select, passionate fans of the clubs concerned on matters surrounding their team and share them with a wider audience...

Football League World's Middlesbrough fan pundit Phil Wrightson has backed Jonathan Woodgate in his endeavour to keep unpopular striker Martin Braithwaite at the club next season.

The Northern Echo reported the new Boro boss's intentions over the weekend and, although Wrightson accepts his opinion will be an unpopular one with some of the fans, he believes the Dane could be a serious asset in the right set-up.

"Everyone accepts that Braithwaite hasn’t covered himself in glory in the last couple of years," the regular punter told Football League World.

"He appeared to be incessantly trying to engineer a move to pretty much any team in La Liga and was less than positive about his time at Boro in the press.

"However, I believe that if he can play for a manager who plays the style of football he, and pretty much every Boro fan, wants to see, then he could be a real asset."

Braithwaite made the move to the Riverside back in the summer of 2017 from Toulouse for around £10million but has only ever shown flashes of brilliance, scoring eight goals in 36 Championship appearances since.

Last season saw him spend the second half of the campaign on loan in La Liga with Leganes and a permanent move away looked likely this summer.

But Wrightson believes that, after Woodgate's comments about wanting to play attractive football, he could start to enjoy his time in the North East.

"Under Garry Monk I thought Braithwaite started well," he said.

"It was only when Pulis came in and made it very clear Braithwaite wasn’t for him, dropping him to the bench and playing his prehistoric brand of football that we all came to know and hate, that Braithwaite became unsettled.

"There are people saying that his brief good form in August was in order to secure a move away but with the transfer window closing before a ball is kicked this season, that won’t be an option.

"If he lines up against Luton, playing in a side that are playing the style of football that Woodgate has promised, we might have what seems like a new signing so, for now at least, I think we have to back him."

With the club's parachute payments having now ran out, it will need to be a shrewd summer for Woodgate and Boro.

And, for those reasons, Wrightson believes that giving up on the big money signing is not a smart idea for the coming campaign.

"I would like to hold on to an international who played in the World Cup last year and who we paid £9million for," he said.

"We aren’t going to get that type of money back and we won’t be able to replace him with a forward of similar pedigree."