Adama Traore has been accused of having “zero concept of time”, with Stewart Downing revealing that Middlesbrough had to scrap fines for lateness during the Barcelona loanee’s time at the Riverside Stadium as they were taking so much money off him.
A jet-heeled Spain international spent two years on Teesside between 2016 and 2018, taking in 27 Premier League appearances and a further 34 in the Championship.
It was clear back then that La Masia academy graduate Traore had the potential to retrace his steps to Camp Nou at some stage, but he was a lost cause on the time-keeping front and would often come close to missing games as coaches threatened to leave without him.
What has been said?
Boro legend Downing has told Ladbrokes of working with a player that re-joined Barca on loan from Wolves in the January transfer window: “One player comes to mind straight away when I think of the biggest culprit for club fines: Adama Traore… a great, great lad, but he had absolutely no sense of time.
“He didn’t drive, and he lived right next to the training ground so he’d come to training on his little scooter, and he’d always be late. We’d all be travelling from 40 minutes or so away, he’s two minutes around the corner and he was always late.
Getty“One time he went home for an afternoon nap and we were leaving on the coach for a game later on in the day. Garry Monk just told the driver to leave him, because he wasn’t waking up!
“He was a really good lad and we all tried to help him as much as we could – we’d just be saying ‘Adama, come on… just set your alarm on your phone’.
“I think he just liked paying fines! He must’ve just liked paying them. In the end it got too out of hand; we decided between us we just couldn’t take the amounts of money from him that he was having to pay us in fines.
“We couldn’t just keep fining him, it clearly wasn’t working, so we just had to literally drag him on the bus. He was a great lad, but he just had zero concept of time.”
The bigger picture
Traore left Middlesbrough for Wolves in 2018 and has taken in over 150 appearances for the West Midlands-based club.
His searing pace made him a handful for opposition defenders, to the point that senior international recognition eventually came his way in October 2020.
He was included in Spain’s squad for Euro 2020 and, after making no secret of a desire to return to his Catalan roots at some stage, linked up with Barcelona in the winter transfer window on a short-term loan agreement that includes the option for a permanent deal to be pushed through.
A positive impression has been made back in La Liga, with two assists recorded through six appearances, but a team rejuvenated under the guidance of Xavi are being linked with several other big-name forwards heading towards the summer.