Boro reveal Shepherd help on Porritt future

Middlesbrough chairman Steve Gibson has revealed that his club approached his Newcastle counterpart Freddy Shepherd to end any interest in Boro youngster Nathan Porritt.

The Football Association and the Premier League have launched an investigation into the BBC Panorama programme ‘Undercover: Football’s Dirty Secrets’, in which the then 15-year-old’s agent Peter Harrison was filmed discussing a possible move away from Teesside for Porritt without Boro’s knowledge.

Middlesbrough will not report Chelsea, Liverpool or Newcastle for making an illegal approach for the player.

Harrison was shown offering Porritt to representatives of the first two clubs and also talked about another meeting he claimed to have had with the Magpies concerning the England youth player.

Gibson, who appears unhappy with Harrison rather than the three clubs, told The Times: “We got wind of Nathan being offered to Newcastle, but the conversation was taking place at a fairly low level.

“Keith Lamb, our chief executive, rang Freddy Shepherd and told him what was going on. Freddy didn’t know anything about it and his reply was: ‘Right, I’ll stop that immediately.’

“Within 30 seconds, Freddy had made sure that any contact with Harrison had ended and we got a commitment from Newcastle that they would never attempt to poach any of our young players.”