Championship outfit Middlesbrough will be unable to lure Bristol City forward Antoine Semenyo away from Ashton Gate this summer unless they launch an "astronomical" bid for his services, according to Bristol World.

Football League World revealed last week that Chris Wilder's side had made an enquiry for the 22-year-old as they look to add depth and quality to their attacking department after making a slow start to the summer in this area.

Andraz Sporar, Aaron Connolly and Folarin Balogun all returned to their parent clubs at the end of last season, leaving Boro with less quality in this position with Duncan Watmore and Josh Coburn remaining as Wilder's only obvious options at that point.

Chuba Akpom and Uche Ikpeazu returned to the Riverside Stadium this summer and were initially told to find new clubs, though the former has been included in the first-team squad once more in a potentially surprising twist.

However, the former Sheffield United manager has arguably been forced to include the ex-Arsenal man in his squad once again due to a lack of options, though Brentford's Marcus Forss is thought to be closing in on a move to the Riverside.

Rodrigo Muniz may also arrive on Teesside when Fulham bring in a striker - but Boro may want to recruit another forward on top of that to give their boss plenty of options to choose from.

Semenyo is one man that probably won't be moving to the Boro at this stage though, with Bristol World revealing it's highly likely he will remain with Nigel Pearson's men beyond the summer unless a huge bid was received for his services.

The Verdict:

Considering the fact Boro haven't got parachute payments to work with anymore, it may be difficult for them to negotiate a deal with the Robins for the 22-year-old's services.

They may have generated a considerable amount of money from the sale of Djed Spence - but they are in need of bringing in at least two or three forwards if they want to give themselves the best chance of having enough attacking firepower to win promotion.

As well as this, there are other areas they would probably want to address before the summer window shuts, with another centre-back and a right wing-back also needing to be on the agenda.

One of those additions could be Tommy Smith and with Boro already having the likes of Darragh Lenihan, Dael Fry, Anfernee Dijksteel and Paddy McNair as options at the club, they won't need to make a marquee signing in this position.

However, a deal for Forss may not have been cheap and the club also need to keep an eye on the size of their wage bill as they look to remain within EFL financial limits, so they could use a chunk of that Spence money to devote to existing salaries.