The past 24 hours has been a very busy one regarding transfer activity on Teesside.
Yesterday the news broke that Middlesbrough had matched Burnley's £10 million bid for Robert Snodgrass, with the hope of luring the Scottish midfielder to the North East.
Today, Aitor Karanka's attentions turned to fellow Spaniard, Jese Rodriguez.
Firm Boro interest in Jese
Boro's head coach says that the PSG winger is a player who was "one of my favourite players when he was in the national team."
The Boro boss coached Jese along with former target Gerard Deulofeu during his time in charge of the Spanish Under 16 side.
The former Real Madrid man, who cost the French giants £21 million in the summer, has struggled to find his feet in Paris and Karanka has urged Jese to make the decision to join Middlesbrough. "He knows this step between now and the end of the season is really important so he has to be sure."
"So for that reason I am trying to convince him that his best move can be here."
Gaston Ramirez hands in transfer request
The Middlesbrough head coach also confirmed that his Uruguayan playmaker has requested to leave the club, just a year after arriving on loan from Southampton.
Karanka expressed his dissapointment that Ramirez would jump ship so soon after Middlesbrough got his career back on track. Saying how Ramirez wanted to play for Boro last season and how playing for the Teesside club helped him return to the Uruguayan national set up.
"To end up in this situation is frustrating as a coach and a person."
Rumours of a bid from Premier League champions Leicester City were confirmed by Karanka, but he stated that Ramirez would not be leaving for anything less than his valuation - rumoured to be around £12-15m.
This news will mean that the chase for Snodgrass, Rodriguez as well as Bojan will surely be stepped up.