Middlesbrough have been stung by the plunging pound.

The Evening Gazette says the original £12.7m transfer fee for Afonso Alves, for example, will now be considerably higher in real terms.

Boro are still paying regular instalments towards the 18 million euros which Dutch papers claimed was the fee when the deal was struck with Alves' former club Heerenveen in January, 2008.

And with a euro now worth virtually the same as a pound, instead of the 70p or so that it was when the Alves deal was struck, Boro's increased financial commitment is clear.

The same problem applies to the ongoing payments being made for Didier Digard and Marvin Emnes, who were signed for fees of around five million and four million euros respectively last summer.

In real terms, the cost to Boro for all three players has shot up.