Boro Bag Gunner

Middlesbrough FC today announced that Arsenal's 24-year-old French striker Jeremie Aliadiere has agreed, in principle, to join the club.
The striker, who bagged 4 goals last season for Arsenal, all of which came during a series of appearances in the club's Carling Cup run will complete his move within the next couple of weeks when he returns from his holiday.
Boro's chief executive, Keith Lamb "We have agreed a fee with Arsenal for Aliadiere and completed a deal with them...Everything is also agreed in principle with Jeremie and his transfer will be completed in the next couple of weeks, the only reason the deal hasn't already been completed is that the player is on holiday."

However the club have confessed that, whilst Aliadiere has the pace and youth that rookie boss Gareth Southgate wants to inject into his team, the striker is far from a replacement for recently departed hitman Mark Viduka. "Lamb made it clear that Boro do not see Aliadiere as a replacement for Mark Viduka, as he had been a transfer target many months before the Aussie's departure. But he believes the Rambouillet-born forward will prove a great addition to the Boro squad." - MFC official website.

Keith Lamb has also strongly denied recurring claims in the media that the club's second highest scorer of last season is unsettled and maybe following in Mark Viduka's footsteps and leaving the club. He insists that Nigerian Forward Yakubu Aiyegbeni will honour his contract with the club and fight for the position that he lost in the dying embers of last season, "We're looking forward to seeing Yak back for pre-season training and he's still very much part of our future."