Neil Warnock has admitted that Middlesbrough completed the signing of Chuba Akpom without seeing him play.

The former Arsenal man signed in September last year for a fee thought to be in the region of £2.75million but has struggled to make the sort of impact that many would have hoped to have seen.

Despite scoring two in his first two games the 25-year-old has found the net just four times in 27 appearances for the club.

That has led to criticism from certain corners of the fanbase but according to Warnock there's a justifiable reason as to why things may not have gone as smoothly as planned.

As quoted by Teesside Live, Warnock said: "I think it's different types of players.

"The recruitment team, he was top of their list really. We couldn't watch games in that period, we only looked at Chuba on the internet. He looked the best of the bunch from what we were looking at so that's why we signed him.

"I think on the stats, the recruitment were convinced he was the best one. He started off really well.

"In his personal life, he's just had a baby in the last few weeks. That is a tremendous change in your life when you have a baby. All of a sudden you're used to sleeping all night long and then you're up every two hours and you don't have a sleeping pattern.

"When that happens, I think it took me about six months when I was playing.

"So you have to consider that at the moment, and I don't really expect too much from him at the moment because he's not sleeping well, and anybody who has children knows it can be difficult at times."

The verdict

Surely these comments will be a little bit worrying for Middlesbrough supporters.

To think that Chuba Akpom was signed without even watching him live suggests a big gamble was made in the signing of the player - a gamble that doesn't look to have paid off just yet.

Of course Akpom needs time to settle into life at the club but fans will be hoping to see much better from the players in the weeks and months ahead.