Middlesbrough missed out on a chance to earn promotion back to the Premier League, as they were ousted by Aston Villa in the semifinals of the playoffs.
With former West Bromwich Albion manager Tony Pulis at the helm, the Teessiders had a strong finish to the 2017/18 campaign, finishing 5th in the Championship table.
Having narrowly missed out on a return to the English top flight, the Welsh manager will be hoping to have another tilt at promotion next season and will want to build a squad suited to achieve that.
New players coming in is inevitable at the Riverside this summer but Pulis and the club should also look to offload players who don’t feature in the plans for the club. Here are three such players that Boro should sell this transfer window.
Marvin Johnson
The 27-year-old was signed by Middlesbrough only last summer from Oxford United, by Pulis’ predecessor Garry Monk for a fee of £3million. Heavily involved in the team during the first half of the 2017/18 season, Johnson saw very little game time once Pulis took charge of the club.
He finished the season with 19 appearances in the Championship, scoring one and assisting two but only featured for just 8 minutes under the Welsh manager.
Johnson was picked in the matchday squad on just five occasions following Pulis’ appointment, further indicating that the Englishman doesn’t belong in his plans. The club would be better off letting him go, only a year after signing him.
Martin Braithwaite
Another of Monk’s summer signings that seem to have no place in Pulis’ scheme of things, Martin Braithwaite was loaned off by the manager to French side Bordeaux.
The 26-year-old was a regular under Monk at the Riverside and had managed a return of 5 goals and 2 assists in 19 Championship appearances.
However, the centre-forward hardly fits the type of strikers that Pulis likes in his teams, which seems to be the main reason behind him being shipped out on loan in the winter window.
With Bordeaux understood to be keen on signing the Danish forward on a permanent deal, Boro would be better off cashing in on him.
Julien De Sart
The 23-year-old midfielder has been with the Riverside outfit since February 2016, having arrived from Belgian outfit Standard Liege. However, till date, De Sart has managed just three appearances for Boro and it seems highly unlikely that he has a long-term future at the club.
The midfielder spent the second half of the last season on loan at Derby County and was shipped out to Belgian outfit Zulte Warengem this past summer, for whom he went on to appear 40 times across all competitions.
The club will not be signing him on a permanent deal but the player has said that he would prefer to stay abroad over a return to Boro. With only a year left on his contract, it is the ideal time for Middlesbrough to cash in on him.