Marked for Will Lankshear
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.85 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market31 Aug 2026
Law McCabe hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Middlesbrough can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Riley McGree in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Middlesbrough this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match29 Aug 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Middlesbrough and Bristol City, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Sol Brynn gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.37 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 8.02 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Alex Bangura falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Will Lankshear at 21 — 8.01
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Will Lankshear did not need any: 8.01, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Riley McGree was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match22 Aug 2026
Charlton Athletic left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Will Lankshear has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Middlesbrough training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Morgan Whittaker is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad24 Aug 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Burnley paid $3.9M and Middlesbrough took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Dávid Strelec and Middlesbrough agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Riley McGree in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Middlesbrough this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Middlesbrough training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adilson Malanda is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Dávid Strelec knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dávid Strelec trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market10 Aug 2026
No place for Law McCabe in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Law McCabe has his answer from Middlesbrough; what he does with it is the next window’s story.