Rotherham manager Paul Warne has confirmed that Blues target Matt Crooks is close to joining Middlesbrough.

Boro are reported to have increased their offer for the 27-year-old to an initial £1.1 million.

Crooks had been the subject of two rebuffed Town bids, £400,000 and then either £500,000 or £600,000.

Boro had an earlier offer of £750,000 rising to £1.25 million turned down by the Millers before making their successful bid earlier this week.

“It’s not top secret that a bid has been accepted,” Warne told the Rotherham Advertiser. Crooksy’s got his medical to have. I cannot foresee him playing another game in a Rotherham United shirt.

“Middlesbrough increased their bid to a level where the chairman felt everyone came out feeling happy. Obviously the player wants to play in the Championship and he deserves that right.”

Warne added: “We’ve had a good two and a half seasons out of him. He’s improved no end physically and in his understanding of the game. That’s down to my coaches.

“He will be sorely missed in the dressing room, that is for sure. Your best players always move on.”

Town were still keen to sign Crooks despite signing Scott Fraser from MK Dons last week but will now have to look at different options as they add to their midfield strength.

Photo: Action Images

Counagoal added 22:02 - Jul 21 Warne was never going to let us have him anyway, did really want him but need to focus on other positions now, especially CB!!
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OwainG1992 added 22:06 - Jul 21 Warne clearly thinks alot of himself and his coaches! I disliked him previously and that's not changed. I'd have liked Crooks but I trust Cook and Ashton to continue our exciting rebuild.
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BlueNomad added 22:09 - Jul 21 No need to ever discuss Crooks again. End of subject.
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DBlues added 22:19 - Jul 21 Headline should of been "Warne Confirms Deal With Crooks"
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midastouch added 22:23 - Jul 21 This one was getting far too dragged out and was getting as boring as the the Curtis Tilt transfer saga. The Tilt transfer debacle started tilting me over the edge! Crooks was being made out to be like Vieira and Tilt was being made out to be like van Dijk! The only time Crooks looked like Vieira was probably when he played against us! :-) If we signed everybody who looked good against us last season we'd need to start using the Spiral Car park as our changing rooms. :-) As for Boro, the best ever Boro team got relegated! Remember Juninho, Ravanelli and Emerson! Two cups finals (with no silverware to show for it!) and relegation, happy days! Essentially they became the first English club to lose both major cup finals and also be relegated from the top division in the same season.

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midastouch added 22:37 - Jul 21 And as the saying goes... Never Trust A Tory... And Never Trust a Budgie! You have been Warned! :-) And no, I don't much like Liebour or the Liberal Demoprats either!
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Karlosfandangal added 23:31 - Jul 21 Well at least Rotherham midfield is weaker
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BurleysGloryDays added 00:22 - Jul 22 Be great hearing less from Warne on this at least, what a pillock.
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Knightsy added 07:22 - Jul 22 Move On with this Story Please getting boring now, what are we going to get next, Crooks holding up a Middlesbrough Top?
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BlueBlood90 added 09:11 - Jul 22 Well at least this Curtis Tilt 2.0 saga has finally finished. I trust that Ashton already has several other irons in the fire. We also still have Flynn Downes to bring back into the picture if nobody makes an offer for him.
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Monkey_Blue added 09:37 - Jul 22 The idea Warne is the reason he isn't joining us is ridiculous. He's moving to a club that could easily become a premiership side for 2022. I also assume they can offer better wages and I'm sure he's “seen the stadium, the training ground and heard the managers plans” 😉
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BeattiesBackPocket added 09:47 - Jul 22 Monkyblue considering Warne has publicly stated he doesn't want him going to a rival is an indication that there's truth to it a lot more than Middlesbrough going up!
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Len_Brennan added 10:14 - Jul 22 Beatties: If it was the other way around financially & we had offered more than Boro (seems like they're paying £500,000 more up front than we offered) it wouldn't have mattered what Warne wanted; Rotherham's board & shareholders would have agreed terms with us. Maybe Crooks would have rejected the move or demanded a higher wage with clauses on promotion, but unless Boro matched our offer, he wouldn't be going there.

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Marcus added 11:25 - Jul 22 It's clear he was trying to start a bidding war. When that happens it's best to put a firm offer in and then keep looking for alternatives. Exactly what I did when house hunting. Ended up finding a better place while the one who was being awkward is still on the market.
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Monkey_Blue added 11:30 - Jul 22 And we also now have the idiots claiming he was useless and we didn't want him. It's so predictable
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bigpaulyd1 added 11:59 - Jul 22 Oh well We move on and go for over players that's football Why would he sign for us if championship clubs come in We are where we are let's not kid ourselves to think we will ever sign a player when teams like boro are involved Or any other championship club
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BeattiesBackPocket added 14:37 - Jul 22 Monkeyblue almost as predictable as you saying the new owners manager and ceo at every turn or your own fellow supporters because they want to give the new guys a chance and don't agree with your pointless argument that last two years team was good
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BeattiesBackPocket added 14:38 - Jul 22 Lee Brennan I don't doubt that mate but monkeys idea that it's because they will get promoted is wide of the mark and I don't agree if we'd both offered same money theres a high chance that no way would Rotherham have sold him to us
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runningout added 14:45 - Jul 22 and still you get some on here showing how sad they are with Sour grapes. Give your heads a shake
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Monkey_Blue added 14:52 - Jul 22 BeattiesBackPocket… first of all we got nowhere near Boro's offer. If we'd matched it do you think Crooks would have signed for us over Boro? I've never been hypocritical about the new “owners”. I put it in brackets as those guys own less of the club than evans still does. Do you think the actual owners are making money decisions? Easy to be generous when you have nothing to lose. I don't have an issue with Ashton or the 3 lions in terms of what they've said, but they are hardly going to be saying anything but the best PR lines at this point. I've no real issues with the signings. My issues are the scale of change, cooks lack of man management skills and with some of the players who've been let go and how. If we are mid table come Xmas you'll give cook a pass, if we are top you'll say what cook has done is correct…. Despite the fact we were table toppers around that time both seasons under lambert.

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blues1 added 15:19 - Jul 22 Monkeyblue. What an idiot you are. Of course the new owners are making the money decisions. The money may be coming from the pension fund but they are making the decisions how to spend the money available to them. Do everyone a favour and go away.
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istanblue added 15:50 - Jul 22 He likes to talk this Warne
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BeattiesBackPocket added 16:32 - Jul 22 Monkeyblue again devoid of football knowledge to assume that Middlesbrough will be promoted when they finished 10th yet don't give your own new team manager, owner or CEO a chance is laughable at best. Evans owns 5% of gamechanger who own 87 percent of our club so again factually you've got it wrong. You HAVE slated new signing or just don't comment on anything positive or when do comment it's about how the last two seasons players were better and cool should've got something out of them when only the season before that Lambert couldn't either and now most are in league two or at much smaller clubs so again factually wrong. You may want those players who are now in league two or Cambridge etc who don't care didn't play for the badge or who wanted away but I and most fans don't. Drastic changes had to be made and no one with half a brain expects miracles in one season either! People would have more respect for you if you actually got behind the team or go back to the Norwich page as I've never known anyone other than you and Betty to be so negative about the positive changes at the club.

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Pokermillers added 20:33 - Jul 22 Nothing to do with Warne .He wants the best for the player and our chairmen want's the best deal he can for the club. You really think because Warne has affiliation's with Norwich he wont sell you a player.. He has been at Rotherham for along time now he son plays for our academy he is as much a s a Miller than a NORWITCH FAN .Fact is you lot offered a very low offer ,a offer deemed a fair one by you owners .M 'boro doubled it practically and play in a higher league under a very good manager (ONE OF THE BEST IN THE EFL RIGHT NOW IMHO) Crooks will learn a lot from Warnock and the comment that our midfield is weaker is also wrong we have 3 quality cm at this level. Crooks was used behind Smith for most of the season when he played . Football is a business if you had offered the right deal i am sure you would had equal chance of getting Matts Crooks .Having said that selling to another rival isnt the brightest thing to do .

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Bazza8564 added 07:49 - Jul 23 I think it's far more significant we paid close to £1m to MK for Scott (quoted as a high six figure sum elsewhere) but weren't prepared to pay more than 600k for a 27 year old. Once we had Fraser, we clearly had the one we really wanted, move on, he's younger and a better long term prospect, and we've done nothing to land Crooks since. I'm happy with what we've landed so far, let's get coulson done and then Gibson and Celina to finish it off in readiness for Morcombe COYB

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