The Middlesbrough Gazette
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Will Lankshear, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.79
A mark of 7.79 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Middlesbrough
Callum Brittain 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.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
The crowd has taken to Will Lankshear
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad31 Aug 2026
No hiding place for Alan Browne
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alan Browne, and the manager let it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Nobody could get near Riley McGree
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match29 Aug 2026
Middlesbrough and Bristol City take a point apiece
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Middlesbrough pick somebody else ahead of Luke Ayling
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Layton Campbell 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Middlesbrough bring in Rafael Melo on loan
A season-long audition: Torino still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Middlesbrough's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
In brief
- Market Middlesbrough bring in Marius Savidan on loan
- Player ratings Darragh Lenihan spends the afternoon fouling
- Market The stand keeps filling up for Will Lankshear