Football League World
·2 November 2024
Football League World
·2 November 2024
The Scottish international cost more than just the multi-million fee that Boro paid for him.
Tommy Conway has settled in fairly well at Middlesbrough after securing his summer move from Bristol City to the northeast.
Signing with Boro brought the Scottish international much closer to the country that he represents at international level, but it is some journey from his hometown of Taunton.
It became increasingly clear at the start of the summer that Conway was going to leave City. He was into the final year of his deal with the club, whose manager, Liam Manning, sent the forward to train with the under-21s after Conway rejected the club's latest offering to him.
His contract status combined with his obvious talent made him a very attractive asset for other Championship teams to go after. Alongside Middlesbrough, Burnley and Hull City were also linked with Conway.
The Clarets and the Robins were in talks over a potential swap deal which would have involved Scott Twine and Luke McNally heading to Ashton Gate - the Burnley pair ended up there, anyway - and Conway going the other way, while the Tigers were just looking to try and buy him.
He ended up joining the Teessiders for a reported fee of £4.5 million, and it's safe to say he hit the ground running. Through his first eight Championship games for Boro, Conway averaged a goal every other game. That pace was way ahead of what he managed to achieve in the previous season.
Of course, when these sorts of multi-million pound deals happen, it's not just the transfer fee that affects the bank balance of the buying club. They also have to take on the wages of the player; wages which, in the case of the 22-year-old, went up quite a bit upon signing for his new club.
Conway came through the Robins' academy system. Your first contract in football is almost certainly not going to be your most lucrative unless you fail to get a second one, but that's particularly the case with players who come through the youth setups of clubs and then get into their first team.
The striker signed a three-year deal upon making it to the City first-team. That contract paid him a solid £2,500 per week, according to estimates made by Capology.
Of course, for many people of Conway's age - late teens/early 20s - earning that sort of money every week to play football is the absolute dream but he's earned a much more lucrative deal on Teesside.
The two parties agreed on a four-year deal when the 22-year-old moved to the Riverside this summer. That should keep him in the northeast until at least the summer of 2028 if he sees out the full duration of the contract.
With Boro, his wages are estimated to have quadrupled, going from £2,500 per week to £10,000 per week, according to Capology.
That means that he is now supposedly earning as much in seven days as he used to in an entire month at City. That is a big step up for him financially and the pressure is on the forward to deliver.