AITOR KARANKA claims Jordan Rhodes’ critical comments have made it all but impossible for Blackburn Rovers to hold on to the Scottish striker.

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Middlesbrough’s hopes of signing Rhodes suffered a setback last week when Blackburn rejected the Teessiders’ offer of a package worth around £12m, but the situation changed markedly on Friday morning when the 25-year-old issued a statement criticising his current employers and questioning the extent of their ambition.

Rhodes, who was not involved in Blackburn’s weekend friendly win at Oldham as he continues to nurse a minor injury, claimed he was “unhappy” at Rovers’ refusal to give him permission to talk to Boro officials, and outlined his desire to enter into talks with the Teessiders.

That has left the Blackburn board in a difficult position as they wrestle with an £80m debt, and Karanka clearly believes it would be in the best interests of everyone to allow Rhodes to move before the start of the season.

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The Spaniard is determined to complete as much of his transfer business as possible in the next two weeks, and claims he would not be holding on to Rhodes if the roles were reversed and he was in Gary Bowyer’s position at Ewood Park.

“I don’t know what is going to happen, but everybody knows Jordan and what he can do,” said the Boro head coach, who watched his side continue their own pre-season preparations with a goalless draw at Doncaster Rovers on Saturday.

“For me, it is important that Jordan said what he did (on Friday). If I was the Blackburn manager, or the people at the club, I would not like to have a player who is not happy in my team.

“I don’t know what is going to happen though, so let’s see. At the moment, Jordan is not with us so I can’t really say anything about him.”

Nevertheless, Karanka is clearly determined to push through a deal for his number one transfer target, who scored 21 Championship goals for Blackburn last season.

Boro chairman Steve Gibson is reluctant to increase his original offer, which is understood to involve an initial payment of around £8m, but further talks will take place this week in an attempt to break the current impasse.

Boro supporters have launched a #FreeJordanRhodes campaign on social media, mirroring their efforts to persuade Jelle Vossen to leave Belgium last summer, while an internet poll amongst Blackburn fans has revealed that a majority would support selling the Scotsman in the wake of his comments at the end of last week.

While Rhodes’ future is unlikely to be resolved in the next 24 hours, Boro should complete another two signings later today after Christian Stuani and Diego Fabbrini both attended Saturday’s game at the Keepmoat Stadium.

Stuani, a Uruguayan striker who was part of his nation’s squad at the recent Copa America, is set to complete a £3m deal from Spanish side Espanyol, while Fabbrini, an Italian attacking midfielder, will move to the North-East on a season-long loan from Watford.

Stuani’s capture is especially notable given Boro’s ongoing attacking struggles during their pre-season programme, and the 28-year-old has turned down more lucrative offers from Spain and South America in order to move to the Riverside.

“He is a player who has played in Italy and Spain, and who has also played in the World Cup and Copa America,” said Karanka. “He was part of the last Uruguay squad with players like (Luis) Suarez and (Edinson) Cavani, so for that reason, he has a lot of experience.

“He was always scoring goals in Spain, and I have known him for a long time. He has always scored goals, so I think he can be important for us because we are missing goals at the moment.

“We had to work hard to get him, although it wasn’t difficult for me to convince him to come here. He knows me, and he wants an ambitious project. He wants to play in the Premier League, and he felt that coming here could allow him to do that.

“He knows the project we have here, and even though he had other offers that were worth much more money to him, he accepted ours. I think he will be an important player.”

Stuani and Fabbrini joined in Boro’s pre-match warm-up at Doncaster, but were not involved in a game that was mainly notable for the presence of Stewart Downing, who made the first domestic appearance of his second spell with his hometown club.

Downing spent the first half of the game on the left-hand side, but looked considerably more dangerous when he was switched inside after the break.

Boro should have had a penalty when Doncaster goalkeeper Thorsten Stuckmann appeared to chop down Bradley Fewster in the first half, but referee Darren England booked the Boro striker for diving.

Stuckmann made decent saves to deny Downing and Mustapha Carayol after the interval, with the best chance of the game going begging when an out-of-sorts Kike blazed over with the goal at his mercy following a poor clearance from the goalkeeper.

“It was the same thing again,” said Karanka. “We need to score goals. This was our fifth (pre-season) game and we have only scored three goals. It’s the same problem – we created chances but did not score.”

Middlesbrough: Konstantopoulos (Ripley 70); Kalas (Jackson 84), Ayala (Nsue 64), Burn (Husband 46), Friend (Fry 84); Leadbitter (Clayton 64), Forshaw (Maloney 84); Carayol (Adomah 64), Tomlin (Reach 46), Downing (Wildschut 84); Fewster (Kike 46). Sub (not used): Mejias (gk)