Over the past two days, Hammarby IF manager Kim Hellberg has emerged as the leading candidate for the vacant managerial job at the Riverside Stadium.
On Monday, multiple claims from Sweden reported of the 37-year-old agreeing a deal with Boro. They were able to overtake Swansea City in the chase for the Swedish coach.
Earlier today, Expressen stated Middlesbrough will trigger his SEK 3m [€270k] clause. They also reported the Championship side are working on his work permit, which may take a while.
Fotbollskanalen were the first to report on Middlesbrough taking the lead in the race for Hellberg. They have contacted Hammarby IF sporting director Mikael Hjelmberg about the situation around his coach.
Last week, the Allsvenskan side’s director confirmed the manager was in England for talks with Championship sides. He’s now spoken further on that.
“That he is in London is no secret, but as long as we have not heard anything else, Kim is Hammarby’s coach. We have a dialogue and update each other regularly,” he said.
“But we are no more naive than that we understand that we need to have a contingency plan in this situation.”
When asked what it means, Hjelmberg explained: “That we are preparing. That we have an idea, a plan about what to look for and how it [a possible recruitment] will go. If necessary.”
Unable to compete with Middlesbrough
The director confirms they haven’t any concrete steps to look for a new manager. Instead, he spoke about their efforts to try and extend the Middlesbrough managerial target’s contract.
“We have had an ongoing dialogue with Kim [about an extension] for quite some time but it has obviously not resulted in a new contract. But we have had dialogue,” he added.
When asked whether Hammarby IF had ‘raised their stakes’ to extend his contract, the director said: “Yes, we have offered him a contract that is extremely good by Swedish standards.”
They have offered a bumper deal as per Swedish standards which he hasn’t agreed. If he had agreed for an extension, it would have been difficult to compete with Championship clubs.
“I don’t know how much of a role it would have played when big clubs from the Championship come into the picture. At the moment we have a hard time competing with them,” Hjelmberg said.
