Marked for Darragh Lenihan
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Defensive actions: 38, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad5 Apr 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Middlesbrough may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 25 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Riley McGree is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.51 with 12 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match3 Apr 2027
Nobody wants to play Middlesbrough right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad5 Apr 2027
At 21, Leny Yoro is already the best thing here
An average of 7.18 in a first team he is several years too young for. Middlesbrough have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad5 Apr 2027
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.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.29, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
A performance of 8.94 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market23 Nov 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Middlesbrough, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
A defender's afternoon for Aidan Morris
Defensive actions: 27. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
A performance of 9.32 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad23 Nov 2026
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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.64, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match21 Nov 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Diogo Leite’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Middlesbrough.
Squad23 Nov 2026
John Ruddy 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 32, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market7 Sep 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Middlesbrough, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 25, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Match5 Sep 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Middlesbrough have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Leny Yoro 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Wages eat 230% of everything Middlesbrough earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.80 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match5 Sep 2026
A 1‑0 win over Blackburn Rovers, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Middlesbrough have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
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
Aidan Morris 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.
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.