Aitor Karanka has confirmed that Middlesbrough have ended their interest in lethal Championship forward Jordan Rhodes, Gazette Live reports.
Whilst there have been several reports over the past month or so of rumoured interest and also rumoured bids from Middlesbrough for the 25-year-old, however it seems they have now ended their hunt to bring the Scottish international to Teesside for the 2015/16 season.
Rhodes has been a prolific goalscorer at this level for Rovers since his summer transfer deadline move from Huddersfield in 2012, scoring a hugely impressive 73 goals in 144 appearances.
Blackburn were at risk of losing another of their star strikers in Rhodes, to follow Rudy Gestede out of the exit door who, despite their prolific form, have failed to fire Blackburn Rovers back to the Premier League after several poor attempts.
Middlesbrough have been very keen over to summer to replace the significant losses of Championship Player of the Year 2014/15 Patrick Bamford - who has secured another loan deal away from Chelsea with Premier League Crystal Palace - as well as forward Jelle Vossen who will play the 2015/16 campaign with fellow Championship rivals Burnley.
Karanka has admitted the chase for Rhodes, who despite his Championship goals was circulating figures of around anywhere from £10-14 million to acquire his services, was effectively ended with Friday's capture of Leicester City's David Nugent for a lesser £4m.
Nugent was seemingly pushed down the Leicester pecking order following the arrival of Japanese forward Shinji Okazaki from the Bundesliga.
Karanka is quoted by Gazette Live as describing not only his delight at signing Nugent, but also for the financial stringency shown by the club in ensuring their strike force is ready to fire on all cylinders to aim to better their Play Off final defeat of last season.
Karanka confirmed the news by saying: “Of course [we have ended our interest in Rhodes] because we have David Nugent, we have Stuani, we have Kike.
"The main thing I would like to say is how well Boro are working. Within a month we've been speaking about £15m, £14m but now we have the striker we wanted at the beginning and we haven't spent £15m, £14m or £10m. We've signed him for £4m."
That may spell the end of Middlesbrough's transfer dealings for the summer window, having hopefully now a strike force to better last year's slow goal return for a team so high up in the Championship table and one that performed so admirably, aided by the return of winger Stewart Downing to Teesside.
Boro fans...... What do you make of this news? Would you have liked to have seen Rhodes at the club? Let us know your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!