West Bromwich Albion and Middlesbrough are two of the teams who will be hoping to compete for promotion to the Premier League next season.

The Baggies finished 21st in the Championship in the 2025/26 campaign, narrowly evading relegation to League One, and they know that they have a lot of work to do this summer to build a team that can compete for promotion.

James Morrison's side failed to score in three of the last six games of the league season and need to add more quality to their frontline if they want to push higher up the table.

Middlesbrough, meanwhile, lost 1-0 to Hull City in the play-off final after progressing through the semi-finals thanks to Southampton's Spygate punishment, having initially lost to the Saints in the semi-finals.

One thing that Boro and the Baggies have in common is that they both had attacking midfielder Finn Azaz on their books, and he is now one of the best players in the Championship.

Why West Brom and Middlesbrough need their next Finn Azaz

Southampton signed the Ireland international from Middlesbrough last summer for £14m, and he racked up 12 goals and eight assists for the Saints this season.

That came after he scored 17 goals and provided 17 assists in 68 matches for Boro in all competitions, showing his quality as a scorer and a creator of goals on a regular basis.

Azaz started his career in West Brom's academy and played 85 times at U18 and U21 level before Aston Villa snapped him up before he could make a first-team appearance at The Hawthorns.

Now, both clubs need their new Azaz this summer because none of their players hit double figures for assists in the league, whilst the Irish star has assisted ten or more goals in two of the last three Championship seasons.

Kim Hellberg and Morrison both, therefore, need more Azaz-like creativity in their respective squads, and they could find it by dipping into the transfer market.

One way in which the two Championship teams could improve their squad could be to explore the free agent market to pick up a bargain in the coming weeks.

Norwich City have already confirmed that attacking midfielder Emiliano Marcondes will leave at the end of June when his contract expires, and the Baggies and Boro should both target him as a free agent.

The Danish playmaker played 16 times in the Championship for the Canaries, who have Paris Maghoma and Anis Ben Slimane in his position, but his per 90 numbers suggest that he still has plenty to offer that that level.

His rank against his positional peers in a host of creative metrics shows that West Brom and Middlesbrough could both benefit from the creativity that he can provide in the number ten position.

In fact, he averaged more xA per 90 than Azaz (0.22) did in the Championship this season, which speaks to the level of quality that he can bring to Hellberg or Morrison's side at the top end of the pitch.

When playing regularly under Johannes Hoff Thorup in the 2024/25 campaign, Marcondes also racked up five goals and six assists in 25 starts in the league.

Prior to his time at Carrow Road, the experienced star was something of a promotion specialist in the second tier, scoring in the play-off final for Brentford against Swansea at Wembley in 2021.

The 31-year-old playmaker also helped Bournemouth to earn automatic promotion to the Premier League by finishing second in the Championship in the 2021/22 campaign, which meant that he won promotion in successive seasons.

Now, West Brom and Boro should both aim to bring him in on a free transfer in the hope that he can help them to earn promotion out of the second tier by being an Azaz-like force in the number ten position.

It would be a risky move, given his lack of game time for Norwich this season, but his underlying numbers suggest that it could be a brilliant move if they hand him regular minutes and allow him to be a star creator in the number ten position.