Marked for Robert James
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Nov 2033
10 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market28 Nov 2033
Derry Murkin has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Middlesbrough they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad28 Nov 2033
Words at Middlesbrough training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitor Reis 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.
Boardroom28 Nov 2033
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Matai Akinmboni has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Middlesbrough have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Match26 Nov 2033
3 matches without a goal for Middlesbrough
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The dugout28 Nov 2033
“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.
Match26 Nov 2033
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad28 Nov 2033
The medical room confirms 16 days on the sidelines for Robert James, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout28 Nov 2033
Something was said to Jurriën Timber and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match29 Oct 2033
A 0‑4 beating by Manchester City was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market31 Oct 2033
Derry Murkin has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Middlesbrough they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad31 Oct 2033
Vitor Reis 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.
Match29 Oct 2033
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad31 Oct 2033
46 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout31 Oct 2033
“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.
Boardroom31 Oct 2033
Nobody left the Middlesbrough dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout31 Oct 2033
the manager: “No excuses”
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑4, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Player ratings31 Oct 2033
There was no pressure on him and nowhere he had to be. Middlesbrough lost a goal to a decision that took half a second and will be discussed all week.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market21 Feb 2033
Franco Castro 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.
Match21 Feb 2033
Position 3 and 78 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market21 Feb 2033
Only the photograph left for Derry Murkin
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Derry Murkin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Middlesbrough the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match19 Feb 2033
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Middlesbrough have 5 straight wins of it.
Market21 Feb 2033
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
The dugout21 Feb 2033
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Middlesbrough may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad21 Feb 2033
Alexis Mac Allister 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.
Squad21 Feb 2033
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Freddie Simmonds was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Dec 2032
96 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Middlesbrough lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market20 Dec 2032
“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.
The dugout20 Dec 2032
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market20 Dec 2032
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Teddy Sharman-Lowe will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Middlesbrough the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad20 Dec 2032
Madiodio Dia and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout20 Dec 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alex Cochrane, and the manager let it.
Squad20 Dec 2032
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.
The dugout20 Dec 2032
Riley McGree knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Middlesbrough, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Boardroom20 Dec 2032
Wages swallow 86% of the Middlesbrough income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.