Middlesbrough set to appoint Garry Monk as manager

Press Association Sport understands chairman Steve Gibson is ready to hand the former Swansea and Leeds boss a way back into the game following his Elland Road exit.

Monk will become Aitor Karanka's permanent replacement, after assistant Steve Agnew stepped in for the final 11 games of the season but was unable to spare the club from relegation to the Sky Bet Championship.

He will face the task of trying to secure a second promotion from the Sky Bet Championship in three years, and will do so with the core of the squad which achieved that feat at the end of the 2015-16 campaign largely intact.

Former Boro defender Nigel Pearson was another strong candidate but it is Monk, who has also been linked with the job at Sunderland, who has got the nod.