Should Travers be Boro's No.1 summer priority?

FAN PANEL HAVE SAY ON KEEPER

- By CRAIG JOHNS

DON Goodman this week called pushing to re-sign Mark Travers this summer a no-brainer for Middlesbrough, though the club are understood to have a different stance.

Despite their admiration of the Ireland international goalkeeper after his excellent loan spell on Teesside in the second half of last season, the current understanding is that Travers won't be returning to Boro next season. While Boro will closely monitor the situation, right now, a Travers return is off the cards.

That's because Boro have been told that buying Travers from Bournemouth this summer will use a large chunk of their transfer budget, while the wages on offer from other interested parties makes it a costly deal for Boro.

In a summer they have numerous priorities for strengthening, Sol Brynn's return from injury means goalkeeper isn’t an area they wish to spend so much money on.

Is that the right decision? Are they right to plough resources into other areas in the team and put their faith in academy graduate Brynn?

That's the question we put to our fan panel this week, which consists of YouTube analyst Phil Spencer, Boro Breakdown co-host Dana Malt, Boropolis co-founder Chris Cassidy and Twe12th Man member Stephen Jackson.

STEPHEN JACKSON

This is a difficult question to answer as I agree and disagree with the club's stance on this. I think bringing in Mark Travers will be a great piece of business as he was valuable towards the end of the season. But one thing the club and Michael Carrick have stated is their faith in giving the youth a chance and Sol Brynn was brilliant before his unfortunate injury.