AITOR KARANKA has brought an end to his pursuit of Jordan Rhodes after landing David Nugent from Leicester City following an even longer chase.

Nugent impressed Karanka in his first six months at the Riverside when the striker’s goals spearheaded the Foxes to promotion to the Premier League in May 2014.

He found opportunities at that level a little harder to come by last season and Middlesbrough had explored the possibility of taking him to Teesside a couple of times.

But Karanka has got his man this time around and has put pen to paper on a three-year deal following a £4m switch from the King Power Stadium.

And while the Middlesbrough boss is looking at other possible arrivals before the end of the transfer window, he admitted that a deal for Rhodes will not be going ahead after Blackburn’s refusal to lower their £14m-plus asking price.

Karanka said: “Of course (forget Rhodes) because we have David Nugent, we have Cristhian Stuani, we have Kike.”

He added: “I am very pleased because David is a player I wanted in my first season here. He's a player I like a lot but it was impossible then. Finally, it has been possible.

“The main thing I would like to say is how well Middlesbrough are working. Within one month we have been speaking about £15m, £14m and now we have the striker we wanted at the beginning and we haven't spent £15m or £14m or £10m.

“Once again we are showing that we are working together – the chairman, the chief-executive, the club – everybody is working together and we are bringing in the right players and, especially for me, good people, and players who want to come here and for me that is the main thing.”

Nugent, who scored 59 goals in 148 appearances for Leicester, is available for tomorrow’s first home game of the season against Bolton.

The 30-year-old, who has also played for Preston and Portsmouth, is looking forward to getting started.

"We did the final bit of the medical this morning, I'm happy to be here and ready to start playing and get Boro back where they belong,” said Nugent. “I'm in the squad, looking forward to it and I'll be supporting the lads whether I'm involved or not.

"Boro just missed out on the Premier League last year, Stewie Downing has signed, I've come and hopefully we can get automatic promotion this season.

"I know what the Championship is all about. Home form is key, people will come to Boro and play five at the back but we have the quality to break them down.

"Nobody's place is guaranteed in a team, I'm not sure what the gaffer will do tomorrow, but if selected I'll give 110 per cent and play with passion. I love closing down defenders and getting behind the defence.”

Karanka added: “I think always the crowd and the people are hoping for good players and this season we are bringing in a lot of good players, a lot of quality players, a lot of big character players.

“David is one more, along with Stewart Downing, Diego Fabbrini, Stuani, so we have brought a lot of new players and the main thing for me is they all want to join us. David is one more and for this reason I think the crowd is excited. Last season we reached the final and this season I hope is going to be exciting for everybody.”

Neither Ben Gibson nor Jonathan Woodgate (both hamstring) are fit to face Bolton, but Karanka is still hopeful of a positive start at the Riverside following the midweek Capital One Cup win over Oldham.

“Home form will be very important but I would like to say to everybody that it will be difficult,” said Karanka. “After the play-off final especially, we have to be careful and we have to work more than we did last season because last season we were a surprise.

“This season we are not a surprise and we need all our crowd to be the same as they were last season and this season we are hopefully more so it is going to be very, very important for everybody but going the way we have been going I don't think it is going to be a problem.”