McClaren’s interest in the Maccabi Haifa hitman is well-known and dates back, if not before, to the final day of last season when he plundered four goals in Pompey’s 5-1 demolition of Boro at Fratton Park.

The deal is complicated by the fact that a proportion of any transfer fee will go to the Israeli club which still part-owns the player, although the Teessiders have been working on that situation for some time.

Yakubu would be the latest recruit to McClaren’s striking resources after mixed fortunes during his four years at the helm to date, although as he remains under contract to Portsmouth, things may not be finalised for several weeks yet.

Szilard Nemeth was signed by his predecessor Bryan Robson, but only arrived after his departure, while McClaren broke the club’s transfer record to sign Massimo Maccarone from Empoli for £8.15m (€11.8m) in the summer of 2002.

He spent last season on loan back in Italy as McClaren offloaded £2.2m (€3.2m) signing Michael Ricketts and with Malcolm Christie once again sidelined by injury, went for broke when he signed Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Mark Viduka last summer.

Hasselbaink’s 16 goals have left him as top scorer, but Viduka missed all but a few minutes of the second half of the season through injury and contributed only seven.

Meanwhile, Boro will attempt to secure the futures of Brazilian midfielder Doriva and Dutch international Bolo Zenden over the next few weeks after booking a second successive UEFA Cup campaign with yesterday’s dramatic 1-1 draw at Manchester City.