McClaren: Yakubu is extra special

Middlesbrough boss Steve McClaren is hoping that his search for electric pace up front has come to an end with the recruitment of Aiyegbeni Yakubu.

The Teessiders agreed a fee with Portsmouth and personal terms with the Nigerian international earlier this week and expect him to become a Boro player on July 1.

Since his arrival at the Riverside Stadium in the summer of 2001, the former Manchester United number two has spent heavily on his forward line.

McClaren is happy with the power and guile provided by the likes of Mark Viduka and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and his other forwards but he believes Yakubu offers something extra..

He is one who has definitely got pace and power," he said. "It is a vital component of the game, and something that we have not really had since I have been here and something we have always been searching
for."

"We were interested in him last summer, but nothing could be done, so we have kept an eye on him since and followed him very closely. And of course, whenever he played against us, he always scored - that is the reason why we bought him!

"He scores left foot, right foot, headers, he is strong, quick powerful, and he is only 22. He is one for the future.

"We have to create more competition to progress to the next level, and get better quality players into the squad - and I am not just looking at the first-team level."

The England assistant decided last summer to invest heavily in striking talent when hemanaged to team up Hasselbaink and Viduka in a hugely experienced partnership with Joseph Job and Szilard Nemeth providing the back-up.

Hasselbaink led the way with 16 goals for the season, although injuries limited Viduka's participation. Job and Nemeth both joined the luckless Malcolm Christie on the casualty list at different times as well, giving youngster Danny Graham a few chances to impress.

McClaren knows he has a healthy compliment of strikers, but is equally wellaware that the pool can be depleted rapidly and that the club needs strong back-up, as they did during the season just ended.

"We ended up with Jimmy playing over 40 games, 45 games, of which most he played on his own," he said. "He led the line, which is not his real position - he likes to play off somebody - and we had that many injuries to the other strikers.

The Boro boss is clearly delighted with the latest addition to his squad. He may now look at offloading some players and strengthening other areas of his squad, as he prepares for European football next term.

yakubu is a legend

In my opinion he was way over priced BUT he's definitively showing massive potential and most importantly providing the goods on the pitch!

Its just a shame we carn't have Yak, Viduka and Jimmy in the same set up!

Cheers