HE has already been hit in the pocket with an FA fine this week, but Aitor Karanka will happily splash the cash again to buy Steve McClaren dinner if Middlesbrough beat Derby County to move to the top of the Championship table this lunch-time.

McClaren, who guided Boro to Carling Cup glory and reached the UEFA Cup final during his five years in charge, returns to the Riverside for the second time as an opposition manager as fourth host first in a top-of-the-table encounter.

While the former England boss has been in charge of Derby since September 2013, he continues to have a base in Yarm, close to where Karanka has settled with his family.

The pair bumped into each other on a couple of occasions in the summer, and although they will not be together on the touchline today as Karanka serves a one-match ban imposed in the wake of his furious reaction to last weekend’s stoppage-time concession against Blackburn, he will be more than willing to buy McClaren a meal if things go well.

“I met him last season, and I have seen him a few times in Yarm,” said the Middlesbrough head coach. “I have a good relationship with him outside of the pitch, and sometimes we were in the same restaurant in the summer.

“When we played against them last season we had a good relationship, and for me he achieved the biggest objectives in the history of this club.

“He is an important person for this club. He will be here with Derby, I will shake hands and hopefully we can beat him.

“I would like to beat Steve McClaren and Derby because it would be an important three points for us. If that happens and we win this weekend, I will pay the bill at the restaurant. Maybe he can pay my fine in return!”

When McClaren left the Riverside to take over as manager of England in the summer of 2006, there were plenty of Middlesbrough supporters who were glad to see the back of him.

It had not been too long since a season ticket was flung in his face in the wake of a 4-0 defeat to Aston Villa, and despite being the first Boro boss to lift a major trophy and lead his side into Europe, the Yorkshireman was regarded in some quarters as too tactically negative and nakedly ambitious.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but with the Teessiders having spent the last five-and-a-half seasons in the Championship, it seems incredulous that McClaren’s tenure was regarded with such suspicion.

You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone, and the final three or four years of McClaren’s reign were something of a golden period for a club that is still striving to reclaim its top-flight status, let alone return to a position where it can compete for major honours and continental competition.

Admittedly, McClaren benefited from Steve Gibson’s largesse, with a succession of big-name signings passing through the door as Boro compiled a wage bill that would eventually prove unsustainable as attendances began to fall.

Despite Gibson’s continued support, the club is in a different position now, but while Karanka accepts he has to operate under radically different financial constraints, he is happy with the position he finds himself in.

“It was different then (under McClaren),” he explained. “Now, we have had to build a team without spending too much. The only players we have paid money for are Adam Clayton and Kike.

“We have sold (Lukas) Jutkiewicz and (Marvin) Emnes, so the money is almost the same. Jelle (Vossen) is on loan. We are doing well without spending big money.

“Maybe at that time it was about paying a lot of money to convince them to come here. Now, it is about getting players here who believe in the project. That’s the most important thing.”

Given their coaching backgrounds, there are obvious parallels between Karanka’s current standing and the position McClaren found himself in when he first moved to Middlesbrough.

Just as Karanka is attempting to prove he can stand on his own two feet after a lengthy apprenticeship under Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid, so McClaren was stepping out of Sir Alex Ferguson’s shadow at Manchester United when he moved to Teesside.

McClaren rebuilt a squad that was faltering when he took over, and Karanka has successfully restructured the side he inherited that was floundering in the bottom half of the table, but Boro’s current head coach feels it is much too early to start comparing him to one of the most successful figures in Middlesbrough’s history.

“I’ve looked at what he did,” said Karanka. “He was here five years - I have only been here a year so it’s wrong to compare things. But my aims could be to do the same.

“If I knew now that in the future I would achieve what he did here, then I would be happy man. I know what he did here. It will take time. We are just one year in and we are in the Championship - promotion is the first step and that is very tough.”