Middlesbrough could be set for a decision regarding Micah Hamilton's immediate future in the January transfer window, and Michael Carrick should have former star Morgan Rogers in mind when that time comes.
Both Hamilton and Rogers were teammates during their time in Manchester City's youth ranks prior to their eventual Middlesbrough moves, but both took different paths to get to the Riverside.
Since leaving Boro, Rogers has established himself on the Premier League and international stage, earning the Teessiders quite the set of paydays as a result.
Hamilton hasn't quite been able to make the kind of impact the Aston Villa and England star made during his brief time in the North East, but looking at the two routes these former City starlets have taken in the early stages of their career, there may be an obvious explanation.
It's one that might factor in heavily when Carrick and the club make their decisions on who goes and who stays when the January transfer window opens too...
Morgan Rogers loan stints helped to develop the player that starred for Middlesbrough
morgan rogers
For a paltry fee of £1m in July 2023, Middlesbrough landed a player in Rogers who had already racked up crucial EFL experience via multiple loans across the division's.
After Man City plucked him from West Brom's academy, the versatile forward would spend the early stages of his time with City developing in their youth ranks, all the while earning England honours at various youth levels.
Come January 2021, City decided that Rogers was ready to take his first steps in senior football, and sent him out on a short-term loan deal to League One side Lincoln.
Rogers enjoyed a superb spell with the Imps, bagging six goals and two assists in 28 League One appearances for the club, proving he was more than capable at that level already.
Naturally, City now wanted to see if he was ready to make the step-up to the Championship, and so in the summer of 2021, he departed on a season-long loan switch to Bournemouth.
He would score just one goal in 17 appearances in all competitions, however, but come January 2023, Rogers was deemed ready for another crack at the second tier.
This time it was on a short-term deal with Blackpool, where he would make 20 league appearances, scoring once and providing one assist too. It was at this point when City evidently felt as though it was time for him to find a new permanent home.
As Middlesbrough's recruitment team led by head of football Kieran Scott have proven on many occasions in recent windows, they have a real keen eye for emerging young talent, and there was clearly something about Rogers that they'd spotted which had them delighted to secure his signature.
What that was became quickly apparent to the supporters too, as in 33 appearances during his six-month spell on Teesside, Rogers bagged seven goals and eight assists, and caught the attention of Unai Emery and Aston Villa.
In just the first half of the season, Middlesbrough were able to transform Rogers into a player that the Villains were happy to hand over up to £16m for, and even that is looking like a real bargain given what he's gone on to achieve so far at Villa Park.
Middlesbrough: Micah Hamilton may need to follow Morgan Rogers loan path
Micah Hamilton
Hamilton's journey to The Riverside has been very different to Rogers', however, but unlike his former City teammate, the Boro winger was handed the chance to show what he could do in Pep Guardiola's first-team.
The 21-year-old made three senior appearances for City in the 2023/24 season, one coming in the FA Cup, and the other two in the Champions League. It was in Europe's elite club competition that he would enjoy the biggest moment of his career so far.
In a group stage fixture away at Red Star Belgrade in mid-December 2023, Hamilton would give City the lead after 19 minutes, firing the ball into the roof of the net from a tight angle inside the box.
That instantly put his name out there in world football, and not only highlighted the ability that resides in him, but also acted as a real indication as to how highly Guardiola must have thought of him.
To play for him in any competitive competition, let alone an away fixture in a hostile environment in the Champions League, you have to be a player he can trust.
However, after playing 70 minutes in his 14th Middlesbrough appearance in all competitions vs Blackburn Rovers on 27 November, Hamilton is yet to score or provide an assist as a Boro player.
The work-rate and the desire to impress and make an impact in the game was there throughout that 1-0 home defeat to Rovers, but the end product wasn't, as his rawness as a player showed.
It's evident that there's a top player in there, but in order to get there, Middlesbrough may need to usher him down the loan path in order to refine his natural ability into the star winger they believe he can become.
Michael Carrick should have enough cover to sanction Micah Hamilton loan in January
Riley Mcgree, Shane Duffy and Jose Cordoba
Sometimes, circumstances in terms of squad depth prevent a manager from being able to send one of their young players out on loan, but that shouldn't be the case for Carrick when it comes to Hamilton and the January window.
|Carrick's left-wing options in current Boro team - stats per Transfermarkt|
|Player|Career appearances on the left flank|Goals|Assists|
|---|
|Delano Burgzorg|80|18|3|
|Neto Borges|57|4|3|
|Riley McGree|46|9|6|
|Lukas Engel|43|7|6|
|Alex Bangura|35|6|4|
|Isaiah Jones|23|1|8|
|Finn Azaz|20|6|5|
|Alex Gilbert|17|6|1|
|Marcus Forss|4|1|0|
Middlesbrough have a host of players who've all operated numerous times on the left flank during their respective careers, with Riley McGree and Delano Burgzorg the most natural of the available options.
However, Boro's three left-backs, Neto Borges, Alex Bangura and Lukas Engel have all made a large number of appearances on the left-wing over the years, and would appear to offer Carrick with even more capable performers of that role within his squad.
In short, the Middlesbrough head coach looks to have more than enough cover on the left flank to allow Hamilton to head out on loan in the winter window if he so desires, so squad depth shouldn't be much of a concern when coming to a decision on what to do with their talented young winger.
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