Neil Warnock blast over Middlesbrough loan deal collapse

Bolasie looked set to join Boro on a season-long loan, with a deal close to being agreed on Friday afternoon ahead of the 5pm domestic transfer deadline.

However, problems emerged in the final hour of the window.

With Ashley Fletcher set to be sidelined for up to four months with an ankle injury, Warnock desperately needs more attacking firepower, and he said: “I’m disappointed that we didn’t get him, but that’s life. There were numerous things that happened in the afternoon and it just wasn’t meant to be. I’m disappointed, but you have to move on and we’ll see what happens now.

“He was disappointed, but he was partly to blame as well. There were things I should have known before four o’clock on Friday afternoon about his problems at Everton. They were problems that we couldn’t overcome. Well, we tried to, and eventually we did, but it was too late.

“I’ve asked him why I didn’t know about those problems beforehand. He said, ‘Well, I told my agent’, but I said, ‘Well why didn’t the bloody agent tell us that?’ The agent was talking to (chief executive) Neil (Bausor) quite a lot – he should have come up with these problems, not at four o’clock.”

Boro’s goalless draw with Reading highlighted Warnock’s lack of attacking options, although he felt his side had a second-half effort from Jonny Howson wrongly chalked off for offside.

Middlesbrough: Bettinelli, Dijksteel, Fry, McNair, Howson; Tavernier (Spence 83), Morsy, Saville, Bola; ssombalonga (Johnson 46), Akpom. Unused substitutes: Browne, Wood-Gordon, Roberts, Stojanovic, Coulson.

Reading: Rafael Cabral, Holmes, Morrison, Moore, Richards, Rinomhota; Laurent, Meite (Puscas 76), Olise (Aluko 81), Ejaria; Lucas Joao (Semedo 70). Unused substitutes: Tomas Esteves, McIntyre, Gibson, Southwood.

Referee: D Bond (Lancashire).

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