3 Rav van den Berg replacements Middlesbrough FC must consider if he leaves for Crystal Palace | OneFootball

Boro's excellent young defender has been linked with a January move to Selhurst Park, so FLW takes a look at 3 possible replacements if that happens.

Middlesbrough defender Rav van den Berg is reportedly being tracked by Premier League side Crystal Palace ahead of a potential January move.

Football Insider are reporting that Palace are among several clubs that are keeping tabs on the Dutch youth international, as the 20-year-old continues to draw interest from top clubs.

It's understood that the Eagles have been watching the Middlesbrough starlet for ever since his move to Teesside in July 2023, and are now ready to test Boro's resolve in the winter window.

Fellow Premier League side Tottenham were also heavily linked with a move for Van den Berg in the summer, but interest from elite clubs won't come as a surprise to the Teessiders, given the fact they beat the likes of AC Milan, Borussia Dortmund, Juventus and Ajax to his signature.

Middlesbrough won't want to lose their flying Dutchman, but if Van den Berg does depart in January, we've taken a look at three potential replacements Boro could move for.

Ben Cabango

Swansea City

Ben Cabango is perhaps one of the more underrated centre-backs in the Championship, given the fact the Welsh international has been playing at a high level for Swansea City since 2019, despite still being just 24 years of age.

The defender has been one of Swansea's biggest academy success stories in recent times, and has already played a big part in the Swans' senior squad for the last five Championship campaigns.

Van den Berg's profile is that of a tall centre-back, who is good in the air, tough, and extremely comfortable with the ball at his feet and playing out from the back. Cabango fits that profile perfectly.

What makes him an extra appealing potential target is the fact that he's out of contract with Swansea at the end of the season, as the two sides haven't been able to get round the negotiation table and thrash out the details of a new deal as of yet.

Should that rumble into January, Boro could look to capitalise on the uncertainty surrounding his future at the Swansea.com Stadium, and potentially secure a cut-price deal for the talented central defender.

Andrew Omobamidele

Nottingham Forest

A name that will be familiar to a lot of Championship followers, Andrew Omobamidele's move to Nottingham Forest from Norwich City hasn't quite worked out so far.

The 22-year-old Irish international signed for Forest in a deal understood to be worth £11m on Deadline Day in the 2023 summer transfer window.

However, since then, Omobamidele has made just a handful of appearances for the Garibaldi, and appears to be right down the pecking order in Nuno Espirito Santo's high-flying squad.

During his time with Norwich from 2020-2023, the young Irishman established himself as one of the best young centre-backs in the Championship, and as such, a move to the Premier League didn't come as a surprise.

Like Van den Berg, Omobamidele is a confident and accomplished ball-playing centre-back, registering an 87.9 per cent passing accuracy for the 2022/23 Championship season - per FotMob.

Now seemingly out in the cold at The City Ground, he could be looking for an escape route out of Nottingham to get his promising domestic career back on track, and bringing him back to the second tier could be an extremely shrewd move by Middlesbrough.

Jorne Spileers

Club Brugge

Boro have become quite the shrewd operators when it comes to the transfer market in recent years, which was evidenced in superb fashion with the signing of Van den Berg.

That deal also showed that Middlesbrough are absolutely tapped in to the European market for young and emerging prospects, so why not go back to that same well again?

One young defender that's beginning to make a name for himself in Belgium is Club Brugge's Jorne Spileers, as the 19-year-old has emerged from Brugge's academy system and already established himself in the starting XI in recent times.

Having already represented Belgium from Under-15 level right through to the Under-21's, Spileers was handed his first senior call-up in November 2023 for a friendly against Serbia.

The teenager is a superb passer of the football for a centre-back of his age, and looks to have all the ingredients to become a top-class ball-playing defender in the future.

Tottenham were linked with a move for him in the summer, and it is understood that playing in the Premier League is a preference of his. As such, Middlesbrough may be able to successfully pitch their track record of improving young players under Michael Carrick, as well as their promotion credentials this season.

Spileers looks to have every chance of going to the top of the game, so whilst it would present as an ambitious move, if Boro were to move quickly whilst his price-tag would likely still be in their price-range - given the size of the fee they could expect from a Van den Berg sale -, then they could land a real gem and a cornerstone of their future.