Supports Middle Eastern bosses (7)

I believe the answer is:

trivets

'supports' is the definition.
(trivet is a kind of support)

'middle eastern bosses' is the wordplay.
'middle' indicates the central letters.
'bosses' becomes 'rivets' ('rivet' can be a synonym of 'boss').
The middle letter of 'eastern' is 't'.
't'+'rivets'='TRIVETS'

(Another definition for trivets that I've seen is " Tripods for cooking".)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.

Want a hint initially instead of a full solution? Install my app