Middlesbrough will head into the January transfer window in a position of strength with regards to Emmanuel Latte Lath.

His agent created a rather unnecessary distraction for Boro this week by discussing his future and an expectation for some movement in next month’s transfer window. It comes as Boro and the Ivorian hit form, with the transfer talk not needed right now as Boro try to focus on their promotion ambitions.

Of course, an agent’s job is to do what’s best for his client and, if a Premier League move is in the offing, then no one should blame Latte Lath for wanting to explore such a life-changing opportunity. But with the window not open and Boro facing four important Championship fixtures before any club can table their offers, both Boro and Latte Lath could do without the distraction.

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Matthias Veneroso has previously said that he and Latte Lath won’t go looking for a move next month, but the constant talking ahead of the window makes the motivations seem pretty clear. With the agent ultimately representing the player, we can only assume that, until Latte Lath indicates otherwise, his agent’s thoughts on a Boro exit represent his own. That’s a shame, because there’s a really good chance that if he stayed at Boro this season he could play an integral role in firing Boro to the Premier League.

Alas, he may have a quicker route to the top flight, and the riches that brings, without Boro. The suggestions in Italy are that West Ham and Ipswich Town - the club who did bid £20 million in the summer - are preparing fresh approaches. Regardless, Boro head into January in a position of strength and those approaches would only be considered if they represented a price Boro were willing to sell for.

As was the case in the summer, Boro are ready to hold a hardline stance on the potential sale of Latte Lath, or any key player for that matter. They knocked back numerous enquiries for the striker in the summer, as well as for his team-mates Rav van den Berg and Hayden Hackney too.

We should not kid ourselves though; every player must have a price in the current financial climate. While we all enjoy the incoming transfer work of Boro under Kieran Scott in recent years, that is ultimately only a possibility because of player sales too. The club lose money day-to-day due to the irregularity of Championship finances. To buy players while continuing to comply with profit and sustainability rules, player sales have to be part of the equation from time to time.

But Morgan Rogers’s sale to Aston Villa last January, and the subsequent bonus payments from that deal received this season, leave Boro in a position where they don’t have to sell next month. It’s exactly why they had such a strong stance in the summer too, with a real desire to help Michael Carrick push for promotion this term. If the money isn’t right, Latte Lath goes nowhere. In January though, clubs in desperate need of players like Latte Lath have been known to panic.

If we’re being honest, Ipswich can’t have been far off in terms of valuation with their late move for Latte Lath in the summer. While it didn’t quite meet Boro’s expectations, it may have been a starting offer leading to further negotiations had it not been so late in the window. In the event, a sale at any price was taken completely off the table because Boro knew they wouldn’t have time to replace him.

That’s another reason why, braced for offers in January, Boro are in a position of strength now. The drama of that late Ipswich offer will have naturally refocused the minds of Boro’s recruitment staff since then, and it goes without saying that since the summer transfer window closed, a big part of their remit looking ahead to January will have been preparing for the eventuality that fresh interest in Latte Lath materialised this month. In such a scenario, replacing the striker will be key.

But in the meantime, Tommy Conway has excelled perhaps even more so than Boro would have expected when landing him from Bristol City in the summer. With eight goals of his own to tie Latte Lath in the goalscoring charts currently, he’s had an excellent start and it should relieve any anxiety on Teesside regarding a potential Latte Lath exit, even if the hope remains they can keep him.

If an offer that met their demands were tabled, Boro would still require a replacement. But Conway’s form gives them options. Be it a short-term Premier League loan or a longer-term signing closer in ilk to Latte Lath himself after his arrival from Atalanta as an unproven striker at this level, any new striker at Boro would not have the pressure on their shoulders of needing to immediately step up as the replacement to the club’s star striker.

For the next 10 days at least, transfer talk around Latte Lath is just if, buts and maybes. Nothing can happen until after Boro’s games against Plymouth Argyle, Sheffield Wednesday, Burnley and Hull City. More key games in which Boro need to assert dominance and pick up as many points as possible in their push for promotion.

In that regard, Michael Carrick was unsurprisingly relaxed when discussing the matter and the comments of the agent this week. As he fairly pointed out, Latte Lath has done the majority of his talking on the pitch of late, and has shown absolutely no signs of downing tools or not being committed, at least in the short-term, to helping Boro get results. For now, that’s all that really matters as Boro continue their push for a promotion challenge. But once that January transfer window opens, Boro’s resolve to keep Latte Lath appears likely to be heavily tested.