AITOR KARANKA has revealed that Cristhian Stuani turned down an offer of a move to the Premier League in order to join Middlesbrough, and is tipping the Uruguayan to extend his recent scoring spree into the remainder of the campaign.

Stuani’s double in Tuesday’s 3-1 win over Brentford means he has now scored seven goals this season despite only making four senior starts.

The Uruguayan striker joined Middlesbrough in a £3.6m move from La Liga side Espanyol, with Karanka moving quickly at the start of the summer to ensure the 28-year-old was not persuaded to head elsewhere.

He scored an impressive 25 goals in 64 appearances for Espanyol, having previously played for Albacete, Levante and Racing Santander, and his 23 senior caps for Uruguay, including appearances in both the World Cup and Copa America, meant Boro had to fight off strong competition from a number of quarters in order to sign him, with Karanka’s personal links to the South American proving key.

“I knew him, and I always knew that he wanted to come to England,” said the Boro head coach. “Not necessarily to play in the Premier League, but to play for a Premier League club, and that is what he considers Middlesbrough to be.

“It was easy to convince him because he wanted to work with us. He wants to play in the Premier League, and he had offers to play in the Premier League or in the Primera Division in Spain as well as other offers from different countries with a better contract.

“But he decided to come here and fight with us because he sees himself playing in the Premier League with Middlesbrough. He is really committed to this club.”

In the wake of his performance against Brentford, Adam Clayton likened Stuani to Germany international Thomas Muller, claiming his ability to cut in from the right-hand side enabled him to offer the same kind of unorthodox attacking threat that has made Muller such a potent weapon for both his country and Bayern Munich in the last few years.

Karanka is reluctant to go quite that far, but while he will not be guaranteeing Stuani an extended run in the starting line-up despite his glut of goals in the opening six weeks of the season, he regards the 28-year-old as a key part of an attacking line-up that already appears to boast more firepower than the unit that was ultimately unable to fire Boro to promotion last term.

“I think one or two teams were interested in signing Muller for £100m – Stuani was a little bit less than that,” joked Karanka. “I am really pleased because the main thing is that he has settled in really well.

“His English is not as good as Carlos de Pena’s, and he has only been here for a month, but he is happy here, and that is the main thing. When he is comfortable and playing in the right environment, he will score goals.

“I said after the (Brentford) game that he could score more than (Patrick) Bamford did last season, but I have to be careful with him because everybody knows how difficult this league is.

“He is scoring goals now, but maybe he will go one or two games without scoring at some stage. He has to be patient, but he has everything you need to score goals, especially when you are around good players.”

With more than a decade of senior experience under his belt, perhaps it should be no surprise that Stuani took his summer move to England in his stride.

Having cited a lack of experience as a key factor in last season’s failure to win promotion, Karanka made a point of signing more battle-hardened players this summer.

Stewart Downing, David Nugent and Fernando Amorebieta are all in their 30s, and having watched his side recover from the concession of an equaliser against both Sheffield Wednesday and Brentford to record impressive 3-1 wins, Karanka claims the positive effects of his transfer policy are already apparent.

“The experience within the squad has already made a difference,” he said. “Last season, we lost some stupid points against teams that we didn’t deserve to drop points against. We made mistakes, and were punished for them.

“Especially in the games after the matches against Arsenal and Liverpool, the squad wasn’t big enough for me to be able to rotate the players and keep enough experience in the team. This season, we have more players and more experience, and that is important.

“Maybe, last season, we would have lost games like Sheffield Wednesday or Brentford. This season, we had a very good reaction in both games, and I think a lot of that was down to the fact we are more experienced.”

Amorebieta’s return on a season-long loan means left-back James Husband is expected to remain at Fulham when his initial one-month loan expires later this month.

“We have cover for that position so I prefer for James to be playing at Fulham than to stay here and play just one game per month,” said Karanka. “For his development, it’s best to play.”

Ben Gibson returned to training yesterday after damaging his hamstring in last weekend’s win over MK Dons, and is expected to be available to start tomorrow’s game at Nottingham Forest.