PLAYER PROFILE MIDDLESBROUGH STRIKER
EMMANUEL LATTE LATH
MICHAEL Carrick said in December that Middlesbrough supporters were finally starting to see the real Emmanuel Latte Lath.
Hamstring and ankle injuries meant they were forced to wait an additional two months to understand what he meant, but Latte Lath is now demonstrating why Boro paid an initial £4.3m to sign the striker from Atalanta last summer.
The 25-year-old Ivorian’s fourth-minute opener in Wednesday’s 2-2 draw at Hull was his sixth goal in eight games and pre-weekend he had 13 goals in all competitions.
“We always knew Manu had goals in him,” said Carrick recently. “It’s taken a little while, but he’s grasping the league and adapting all the time. To get double figures, in his first season in what is an intense league that isn’t easy to come into - that’s a really good return.”
Latte Lath’s potential was spotted early. Born in Abidjan, he joined Atalanta at 16 and within a year was part of the Serie A side’s first-team setup.
“A pure winger who makes speed and unpredictability his strength,” said long-serving Atalanta boss Gian Piero Gasperini. “He is a boy who has class, a real talent, who sees the goal.”
Rumours of interest from major European players - including Chelsea - soon began to swirl, but just as quickly dissipated amid a seemingly endless sequence of haphazard loan moves.
Pescara, Pistoiese, Carrarese, Imolese, Pianese, Pro Patria, SPAL; Latte Lath moved seven times in four years without ever getting any closer to Gasperini’s team and by the summer of 2022 was quite literally begging to be sold.
Those pleas fell on deaf ears, but another loan move - this time to St Gallen in the Swiss top-flight - proved transformative.
Typically used as a wide forward at previous clubs, Latte Lath was played exclusively as a central striker by head coach Peter Zeidler and scored 14 times.
Despite that impressive return, however, he was not Boro’s first choice. Carrick wanted to resign Aston Villa’s Cameron Archer, who spent part of the previous season on loan at the Riverside, and the club failed to complete deals for several other forwards with Championship experience.
As a result, a deal was not completed until mid-August, leaving Latte Lath to tackle a new league in an unfamiliar country without the benefit of a pre-season to find his feet.
“It’s so easy to think ‘Oh, he’s a good player, p
