IT'S funny how things work out.

Had Graeme Lee not been harshly sacked by Hartlepool United at the back end of the 2021/22 season, he'd have made an effort to sign Hayden Hackney on loan last summer.

And considering the young midfielder wasn't at all part of Chris Wilder's plans, there's every chance the former Middlesbrough boss would have been willing to sanction the move.

Lee's exit meant Pools potentially missed out and Wilder's eventual exit ensured Boro certainly didn't.

Hackney might well have started last season out of the first team picture on Teesside but come the end of the campaign he had established himself as one of the brightest young lights in the Championship, the latest star to roll off the Rockliffe conveyor belt.

"He's been fabulous," said Michael Carrick at the end of a breakthrough season.

And to think Hackney spent the season previous struggling at the bottom of League Two with Scunthorpe. It was a challenging and at times frustrating year at Glanford Park for the Redcar-born midfielder, but extremely beneficial for Hackney - and Boro - in the long run.

Before Lee got the Pools gig he was in charge of Boro's Under-23s and played a major role in Hackney's progression through the ranks at Rockliffe.

On a Tuesday night in October, 2021, Lee made the trip to Barrow to watch Hackney in action for Scunthorpe. The Boro midfielder created Scunthorpe's only goal that night from a corner in a 1-1 draw and yet when Lee spoke to Hackney afterwards the youngster was frustrated.

Lee soon lifted his spirits.

"It was a scrappy game but Hayden did some of the stuff off the ball really well," recalls Lee, now manager of Marske United.

"He took a good corner, made a couple of good passes but on the ball that was about it. After the game, I had a conversation and he was frustrated thinking he hadn't done much.

"I said to him, 'Hayden, you battled and did so well off the ball, that's the stuff you have to do in this league and you showed your quality twice in the game. That might be the only chance you get to show your quality but the other side of the game, the manager knows he can trust you and that's massive. And the higher you go, the more chance you'll get to show that quality'."

The manager was Neil Cox and his assistant was Tony McMahon - both former Boro full-backs.

Having been part of the Boro first team and academy coaching set-up, McMahon knew Hackney well and the pair also share an agent, Teessider Lee Matthews, of the well-respected Sports Management International.

Scunthorpe were in the market for a midfielder and it was McMahon who suggested they look to take Hackney on loan.

The ball was rolling and when Cox met Hackney for the first time, one thing immediately grabbed his attention.

"His dad had come with him," Cox tells the Northern Echo.

"I know that might seem small but straight away I thought it was excellent that his family were involved.

"Middlesbrough said to us, he's your player, treat him like any other first team player, and not a lot of clubs do that. With some clubs you have to be a bit careful but Middlesbrough have always been really good."

Boro told Cox and Scunthorpe they wanted Hackney to develop the defensive side of his game

Cox says: "We spent time individually doing a lot of defensive work to make sure when he did leave Scunthorpe he had the best chance to go and play for Middlesbrough's first team. And that for Middlesbrough was what it was about, he needed to show he was good enough to play Saturday-Tuesday for Middlesbrough, not for Scunthorpe."

One of the problems Hackney had at Scunthorpe was - with respect to his teammates - a lot of them weren't on the same wavelength as him on the pitch.

Cox explains: "We could all see in training. He was playing balls that were too far ahead of my players. Myself and Tony McMahon used to say to him don't worry about that because when you're back to Middlesbrough they'll expect those balls. He learnt that. He was a young lad who took everything on board.

"His work rate and his fitness and his endeavour to defend was excellent.

"It was tough for him at times. I can remember I left him out one game but his attitude was first class and he came in on the Monday morning and did a great session and worked really hard.

"Middlesbrough knew what was going on, I spoke to his agent and they said this is probably what he needs, he probably needs to realise he has to be twice as good as these players. It's never easy playing for Middlesbrough and with him being a local boy it's even harder. I was trying to get that over to him. He was excellent. He went above and beyond. He worked hard in the gym.

"I saw someone who wanted to improve and went back to his club and gave himself the best chance of getting into the first team.

"As a manager, it's a pleasure to get a young player in like that who comes in and works his socks off. His attitude was first class and that's credit to himself and his family.

"He has a good agent which is really good because they have his best interests at heart."

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Carrick has talked a lot this year about how a testing loan can often be even more beneficial than one where everything goes to plan. The year at Scunthorpe was challenging for Hackney. There was anger from supporters at the ownership and the way the club was being run, which inevitably had an impact on results. Scunthorpe won just two of Hackney's first 20 appearances, before the midfielder had to serve a six-game ban for spitting.

But through the ups and downs, he was learning.

"It wasn't all rosy for him," says McMahon.

"He came in, we were struggling and he struggled at times. But he managed to play 30-odd games in League Two and through it all I saw a young lad growing and learning.

"I used to sit down and speak to him a lot about what he had to do when he went back to Middlesbrough. Going out on loan makes you realise the standard, every day he has to be on it, he needs to be the best player in training every day at League Two level - and needs to perform in games.

"When he went back to Boro I spoke to him and said, 'right use that now, use all your experience good and bad. You know what it takes to be a professional footballer. Go back, work hard, you know you're fit, be the best player you can be in training'. That was the best advice I could give him."

Regardless of how much Hackney had learnt, as is so often the case in football, he needed a bit of luck. McMahon knows that only too well, for it was an injury to Franck Queudrue that presented the former right-back with the opportunity to make his Boro debut back in 2004. For Hackney, the stroke of luck was the change of manager.

When Wilder was sacked after a below-par start to the season, Leo Percovich was appointed as interim boss and assisted by Craig Liddle, the academy chief who had watched Hackney come through the ranks at Boro and knew better than most exactly what the youngster was capable of.

The interim coaching team made the bold move to put Hackney straight into the starting XI. It turned out to be one of the best decisions of the season.

Carrick is honest enough to admit he didn't know much about Hackney before he arrived at Boro but he quickly realised he had a real talent on his hands.

"I didn't know a great deal about Hayden before I got the job or the opportunity to get the job came into play, but then I started watching and realised what he could do or potentially what he could do," explains the head coach.

"He played in a couple of games before I came so I saw that but I could never have really hoped for him to play every single game. I don't think you can when he's a young player who hasn't had much experience. He went to Scunthorpe last year and had a loan, you never really know with young boys until you give them a chance.

"He just kept going from strength to strength, doesn't take much managing, doesn't need much from me, just gets on with his business, he's a real pleasure to have in the squad."

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And for his former coaches - Lee, Cox, McMahon - and the many others who helped Hackney on his journey to the Boro first team, it's been a pleasure to watch him make such an impact in the Championship.

"I'm buzzing for him because first of all he's a great kid from a good family," says McMahon.

"His mam and dad were at every game at Scunthorpe. When he came I saw a good kid who wanted to work hard and do well. He's one of them kids who you just want to do well. When he got the opportunity to play I was buzzing for him and his family.

"I knew all the miles he'd put in, what he'd been through. A lot of people played their part. I can't speak highly enough of his family. They were so supportive. Every time I was at an Under-23s game at Boro they were there. It was the same at Scunthorpe, and I was sat behind his mam and dad at Sheffield United away this year.

"It's nice to think I've played a little part in his development but ultimately it's down to Hayden and how well he's done."

Former Under-23s boss Lee adds: "I've watched loads of Boro this year because I've been to the majority of the home games and my son's dragged me to away games. Hayden has just grown from strength to strength.

"Playing in that deeper position, he receives the ball and will always play forward. What he does is the basics excellent. He's not complicated. He moves the ball, gets it back, moves it again, it's always in a positive action. He's always brave.

"A young lad doing that is fantastic and playing alongside Jonny Howson is one of the best things you can ask for as a young player. Playing alongside Jonny has brought him on so much, and you have a manager who played in that position at an incredible standard, so he's in great hands and I think he's destined for bigger things.

"With Hayden, there's no ego, he's just a lovely lad. Whatever you ask of him he'll do. He's just a really nice genuine lad who wants to do the best for himself. The only advice I used to always give him is keep the intensity high. When the intensity was high in training he'd run the sessions, if he dropped it then those are the fine margins. If his intensity was high he was the top player. You only had to say it to him once and he'd recognise it straight away.

"As a lad he's lovely and so are his family. It's been brilliant being in the concourse this season and bumping into his dad and sharing a few little stories of how well he's doing. He's the type of lad you want to do well because of how he is, his personality and attitude, it's brilliant to watch."

On more than one occasion in the past season, Carrick has had to remind himself of just how young and relatively inexperienced Hackney is.

"It's easy to take for granted because he's been so consistent," said the head coach.

"He hasn't needed much looking after if you like. I've let him develop himself really and learn on the job. He gets on with it. He isn't fazed, he plays his football and it's a joy to watch.

"It's a bonus in some ways when you get one like Hayden, a local lad who has such an influence on the first team so young.

"It's great, it's what the academy is geared towards and what the club is geared towards and why so many people work so hard to produce these players like Hayden. Hopefully there's a few more in the system."