Darragh Lenihan

Central Defender - Middlesbrough
20 Sep 2026
Sunday
Process

Marked for Darragh Lenihan

7 Edition

The Middlesbrough Gazette

14 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Transfer targets

Rhian Brewster stays at Derby County as time runs out

A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Middlesbrough will try again when the window opens; Derby County may not be selling by then.

Match

Hull City take the points off Middlesbrough

Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Andrey Santos

Middlesbrough asked and Manchester United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

The dugout

No hiding place for Radek Vítek

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Radek Vítek, and the manager let it.

Squad

Words at Middlesbrough training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Riley McGree 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.

Squad

Darragh Lenihan 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.

The dugout

The view from the dugout

“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Charles Thompson to a room that had heard them before.

Squad

The division's best last weekend was a Middlesbrough man

It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Tommy Conway was the best thing in any of them.

Loan watch

The goals keep arriving from Sontje Hansen’s exile

7 goals in 5 games at Gaziantep — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Middlesbrough updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.

In brief

Back issues
2 Edition

The Middlesbrough Gazette

10 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

Middlesbrough bid $18.6M for Stefanos Tzimas

The offer went to Brighton this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Georginio Rutter

Middlesbrough asked and Brighton said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Transfer targets

An offer of $1.3M for Calvin Ramsay

Middlesbrough have gone to Liverpool with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.

Market

Middlesbrough say no — this time

The offer from HJK for Marcus Forss was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.

Squad

Dávid Strelec stays put

“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.

Squad

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 dugout

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.

Squad

A row about effort at Middlesbrough

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Law McCabe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Market

Darragh Lenihan told to find a new club

“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Darragh Lenihan has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Middlesbrough.

In brief