Warnock points finger at Bolasie after Middlesbrough move collapse

Neil Warnock has laid some of the blame for the last-minute collapse of Yannick Bolasie’s deadline-day move to Middlesbrough on the Everton winger and his agent.

The out-of-favour Toffees attacker looked set to join Boro on a season-long loan, with a deal close to being agreed before Friday’s 5pm cut-off.

However, problems emerged in the final hour of the window. FourFourTwo claims that while Middlesbrough’s hierarchy did their best to resolve the issues, it proved impossible to complete the loan in time.

Warnock was after more firepower after Ashley Fletcher was sidelined for up to four months with an ankle injury.

And the Boro chief admitted his frustration, following Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Reading.

Warnock 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 yesterday 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.

Agent miscommunication a big issue

“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 on Saturday highlighted Warnock’s lack of attacking options, although the Boro boss was angry his side had a second-half effort from Jonny Howson chalked off for offside.

He said: “We thought one goal would do it, and we scored that. It disappoints me that a linesman looking right across can’t see that was onside. When (George) Saville plays that ball, there’s a kid in the middle of the goal half a yard inside Jonny.”