Mourinho’s former assistant Karanka to take over at Boro as Mowbray’s successor

The ex-Real and Athletic Bilbao defender’s first match in charge of Boro will be their derby against Leeds United at Elland Road on November 23, with the Riverside faithful hopeful they have found their own version of the ‘Special One’ to restore their flagging fortunes.

Karanka had been attracting rival interest from managerless Crystal Palace.

But the London club have lost out in the race for his services, with Karanka, who managed the Spain Under-16 side five years ago, being Boro bound.

The 40-year-old, born in the Basque country, travelled to the North East yesterday ahead of his unveiling today.

He is set to sign a two-and-a-half year contract and is expected to bring his own management team to Teesside.

Karanka is well regarded in Spanish football circles and his links with a renowned managerial winner in Mourinho are likely to excite the Teesside public.

Chelsea manager Mourinho recently spoke glowingly about the credentials of Karanka and backed his assistant at the Bernabeu Stadium to be a winner wherever he found himself in his first managerial post.

The Portuguese’s comments were further music to the ears of the Boro faithful.

On Karanka, Mourinho said: “I know Karanka very, very well.

“He was my assistant for three years and I think the club that gets him will be very lucky.”

The move to bring in a continental coach at Boro marks a departure for chairman Steve Gibson, who has previously appointed Bryan Robson, Steve McClaren, Gareth Southgate, Gordon Strachan and Tony Mowbray.

But Gibson quickly identified Karanka as a leading candidate in the wake of his decision to show Mowbray the door on October 21.

He will be keeping his fingers crossed Karanka will have a similar impact to arguably his most successful appointment in McClaren, who joined Boro in the summer of 2001 after the perfect managerial grounding as deputy under another iconic managerial figure – Manchester United’s Sir Alex Ferguson.

Karanka, a fluent English speaker, had been at the forefront of the betting to replace Mowbray for the past few weeks and has met Gibson several times.

Karanka’s agent Jorge Mendes is well known to Gibson, with ex-Manchester United and Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon, who advises the Boro chairman, having helped facilitate his path to Teesside.

Karanka has visited the Riverside Stadium and Boro’s Rockliffe Park training base and has reportedly watched all of Boro’s games on DVD, wasting no time in getting himself familiar with his new charges.

Boro famously embarked on a lavish spending spree on continental talent during their golden era in the Premier League from the mid Nineties to the mid Noughties. They spent a small fortune bringing to Teesside the likes of Juninho and Fabrizio Ravanelli – who were both in the betting to replace Mowbray – Emerson, Alen Boksic and Afonso Alves.

Their days of wafting the chequebook with abandon might now be over, but it has not stopped them looking overseas in their quest to breathe new life into the club.

Boro reside in 16th spot in the Championship table, eight points adrift of the play-off positions.

Only recently Boro announced a tie-in with La Liga club Atletico Madrid, with several of their young players having already travelled to broaden their footballing education.

With an ex-Spain international in Karanka in charge at Boro, the mutually beneficial relationship is tipped to lead to several development players from the Vicente Calderon heading to Teesside.

With a new backroom team a key proviso in Karanka’s decision to join Boro, a number of coaches with strong links to the club are expected to depart shortly.

They include caretaker-boss Mark Venus, who took charge of Boro for three games following Mowbray’s sacking.

First-team coach Mark Proctor and goalkeeping coach Stephen Pears, former team-mates of Mowbray’s during his playing days on Teesside, are also expected to leave.