AITOR KARANKA is confident Carlos de Pena’s experience at the highest level of South American football will enable him to slot straight in at the Riverside following his £1.8m move to Middlesbrough.

De Pena was Boro’s sole addition on a deadline day that saw the club retain Albert Adomah despite the winger’s transfer request at the end of last week.

After a weekend of frantic negotiations that featured two cancelled flights, a car accident and countless trans-Atlantic telephone calls, de Pena landed at Heathrow Airport midway through yesterday afternoon to complete the technicalities of his three-year deal.

A left-sided midfielder, who can also play in a more central position, the 23-year-old has scored ten goals in 53 appearances for Montevideo-based Nacional, and Karanka is looking forward to adding him to a squad that now boasts ten players who have been signed since the end of last season.

“Carlos will be a very good signing for us,” said the Boro head coach. “Everyone is going to see that he is a very good player.

“One of the biggest things is how much he wanted to join us. He told me from the first minute that he couldn’t wait to start working with us and that is the main thing.

“He is a young player who I think will settle in here really well. He is a winner, he is experienced – he’s played in the Copa Libertadores – and I am really pleased because he will be a good signing for us.”

De Pena will join up with his new team-mates on Teesside later this week, with yesterday’s events bringing a successful resolution to a chaotic few days that saw the deal come close to collapsing on a number of occasions.

After a series of discussions on Sunday afternoon, de Pena spent most of Monday at Montevideo’s Carrasca airport, only for Nacional officials to twice instruct him not to board his proposed flight to England because a deal had not been agreed with the Middlesbrough hierarchy.

After one of his failed trips to the airport, de Pena drove home with his mother, only to be involved in a car accident that led to them both receiving treatment in hospital for minor head wounds.

While Nacional chiefs remained reluctant to lose de Pena for a fee of around £1.8m, the situation changed when the Paco Casals Group, an agency who owned part of the midfielder’s economic rights, stepped in to accompany him to England.

De Pena underwent part of his medical as he changed flights in Sao Paolo and landed at Heathrow at around 3.30pm.

Boro officials travelled to London to meet him, and successfully wrapped up the transfer ahead of the 6pm deadline.

While de Pena will be available for the Championship home game with MK Dons on September 12, it remains to be seen whether Adomah will be considered for Boro’s next outing.

Despite the winger submitting a transfer request last Thursday, Boro chairman Steve Gibson did not receive a single formal offer for his services yesterday.

Gibson and Adomah are understood to have discussed the player’s future on Monday, with Gibson adamant that he would not allow the 27-year-old to leave for a cut-price fee.

While Boro were potentially willing to sell Adomah, they wanted at least £4m for him and were keen to have a replacement in place.

Nottingham Forest’s Michail Antonio was their main target in the latter stages of the window, but he completed a £7m move to West Ham yesterday.

Adomah and Karanka are expected to hold face-to-face talks later this week in an attempt to start rebuilding a relationship that was badly damaged by a dressing-room row in the wake of last month’s 1-0 home defeat to Bristol City.

Adomah was unhappy with his omission from the starting line-up that faced the Robins, and Karanka has previously been steadfast in his view that he will not select players who do not want to play for Boro.

Given that Adomah submitted a formal transfer request last week, it is safe to assume that at that stage, he was not 100 per cent devoted to the cause. Whether he can persuade Karanka that he has altered his stance remains to be seen.