🎧 'Not reaching play-offs was failure by Carrick'published at 16:27 5 June
16:27 5 June
Media caption,
Were Middlesbrough right to sack Michael Carrick?
Middlesbrough's failure to reach the Championship play-offs is what ultimately cost Michael Carrick his job.
That is the view of Boro's BBC Radio Tees commentator Mark Drury and former midfielder Neil Maddison.
"Since they got to the play-offs, it's a story of regression," Drury told BBC Radio Tees.
"Basically, that's it. Boro have been going backwards. This season in isolation was a massive failure.
"To not reach the play-offs this season with the squad that had been assembled last August, with the make-up of the Championship as it was - to not get there was a failure and it was a big one."
Maddison agreed and said the club have "gone backwards" since they lost 1-0 on aggregate to Coventry in the play-off semi-final in May 2023.
"There were so many factors leading up to why it hasn't been a successful season," Maddison said.
"There wasn't enough. For me this season, it's one of those where I haven't really enjoyed watching us in terms of the football, the results.
"Go back to his [Carrick's] first season, I've never seen anything like it. It's the best football I've seen at the Riverside in my opinion. It was so exciting.
"But since then, we have gone backwards. And if you don't push on, this is the outcome."
'If he was sub par four weeks ago, why not change then?'published at 09:40 5 June
09:40 5 June
Image source, Getty Images
We asked you what you thought about Middlesbrough's decision to sack boss Michael Carrick and it's fair to say there are some mixed feelings out there.
Here's what you had to say:
Tony: I think Carrick took us as far as he could. Started last season brilliantly, full out attack but it soon dropped off and became a boring possession team playing around our own box with no idea, then had no plan B and we were punished far too often. Would like to see Steve Cooper take over, he's a proven Championship winner.
Daniel: I think seeing Carrick is one of the better midfielders of his generation, he should have been given one more chance. His ball-playing ability and vision as a player clearly translated as a manager and results on the pitch improved vastly.
Martin: Yes it was time to go. The football was too laboured and he was too slow in adapting to the opposition's changes which cost us.
It really did end up a chore watching his tippy-tappy football and lots of fans like myself lost interest.
We lost 24 points from winning positions last season.
He's a great bloke but had taken the club as far as he could as he was too stubborn to change things.
Stuart: Sacking Carrick was not a good move. Like building a team you also build your managers/management rather than leave them to get on with things. Carrick has a lot more to offer and he will not be replaced by anyone better.
Craig: Shame it never worked out for Carrick but with no plan B we were sussed out by other teams. This club deserves to be in the top flight but it's been refreshing to see attacking football in the Championship rather than defensive grind in the Premier League. Sometimes grinding out wins is necessary in the Championship though, a la Bristol City, Coventry, Millwall etc. The season crumbled when Doak got injured but we shouldn't rely on a teenager on loan, and again selling our best players (ELL) was a big mistake. Hopefully no more talent will be allowed to leave again. Would like to see Mogga given another chance for his home club.
Dan: Understand the frustration with his in-game management and inexperience, but the question is who can we get next that's a step up? Carrick's style was entertaining, even when we weren't getting results. I can't go back to watching the sort of football we had under Wilder or Pulis.
Jerry: I think it was the right call to sack Carrick. He was determined to play a certain way, which is admirable, but he should have changed the team formation when the game needed it. He could have shown a bit more passion on the touchline.
Mark: Although the season was disappointing I feel the stewardship under Carrick has mostly been positive. I feel like the instability caused by changing the management team again when a promotion push next year is not beyond Middlesbrough could end up being short-sighted. The Championship is such a competitive league it does not take much to be towards the top or the bottom of the table. Will be happy to be proven wrong though!
Jack: It was definitely an announcement that no one was expecting but a lot of fans were certainly losing patience. It is probably the right time as well before pre-season and a transfer window.
Malcolm: The decision to sack Carrick is a mistake. The major problem this season was the injury list. So many key players out for long periods. Plus the sale of Latte Lathe. A new manager will be starting from scratch, whereas Carrick would just have needed a couple of new signings. Bringing back Doak will be important.
John: The new season is in eight weeks and transfer activity underway. Carrick's replacement has not been immediately announced. How long is the new manager going to get to prepare for 2025-26, especially if a clear out is required? If last season was sub par four weeks ago, why not make a change then?
Was sacking Carrick the right decision?published at 16:10 4 June
16:10 4 June
Michael Carrick came under fire after Middlesbrough lost out in the race for the Championship play-offs and now he will not have an opportunity to make amends next season.
He has been the subject of a surprise sacking, but is it the right choice, Boro fans?
Should he have been given another shot or was his number up?
Do you think now is a good time to be in search of a new boss?
Carrick departure 'not a knee-jerk reaction'published at 14:05 4 June
14:05 4 June
Mark Drury BBC Radio Tees Middlesbrough commentator
Image source, Rex Features
Middlesbrough's decision to sack Michael Carrick may surprise some outside Teesside but one thing it can't be described as is a knee-jerk reaction.
More than a month has passed since Boro's 2-0 defeat at Coventry on the final day of the Championship season.
That loss was their 18th of a desperately disappointing season and was followed by the head coach insisting "I'm carrying on" in his BBC Radio Tees Sport post-match interview.
Many Boro fans had come to the conclusion he would be doing just that as the days and weeks ticked by without any sign of white smoke from the club's Rockliffe Park training ground. However, that silence was not indicative of inaction.
Boro's hierarchy had let it be known they would be conducting an in-depth review into the reasons a season where promotion had been targeted and budgeted for ended in a failure to reach the play-offs despite an unusually low points total – the lowest for a decade - being required to make them.
They were as good as their word, conducting a series of meetings, a number of which involved the head coach, while trying to block out the chorus of disapproval from a fan base which had largely become disenchanted and detached by the season's end.
Chairman Steve Gibson is known to be a big supporter of Carrick and backed his man in February when it seemed his time was up after a home defeat by a Watford side in miserable form led to boos around The Riverside and a seeming acceptance from the man himself that the end could be nigh.
So Wednesday's news is a sign that despite how much everyone at Middlesbrough might have wanted it to work for Carrick, after nearly three years in charge he was judged to be more of the problem than the solution to their promotion woes.
Carrick's first season in charge proved to be his best. He succeeded Chris Wilder in October 2022 and hauled an underachieving squad away from the lower reaches of the table before launching a run to the play-offs boosted by the January loan signings of Cameron Archer and Aaron Ramsey and a striker having the season of his life in Chuba Akpom.
In hindsight, those play-offs were also a sign of problems to come as Boro lost out to a Coventry side they'd allowed to sneak into the top six on the final day of the season while failing to score a goal over 180 minutes of football.
The following season saw Boro start terribly, losing five of their first seven Championship games and not recording a win until the eighth game of the season.
Promotion was effectively lost in those early couple of months but a run to the EFL Cup semi-finals gave the season some excitement and a strong end to the campaign (Boro lost just one of their last 12 games) and an eighth-placed finish gave hope this season would be different.
That was the belief inside the club too with last summer's impressive transfer window and the retention of coveted players like Hayden Hackney, Rav Van den Berg and Emmanuel Latte Lath showing the strength of Boro's backing for their head coach.
Backing brings expectation though and throughout the season Boro failed to meet it.
Carrick's supporters will point to January and the club-record sale of Latte Lath as the reason for Boro's 10th-place finish. The counter to that is the fact the player who replaced him, Kelechi Iheanacho, was one the head coach pushed strongly for. Iheanacho's record of one goal and two assists tells its own story.
The fact less well resourced clubs like Bristol City, Millwall and Blackburn all finished above them was a damning indictment of Boro's performance this season while Sunderland's play-off promotion rubbed salt into the wound.
Regis Le Bris showed what was possible with a squad of largely young, inexperienced players allied to imaginative coaching from a tactically flexible manager.
There will be a sense of sadness on Teesside that Carrick was unable to follow up on the promise of that first season when some of the football left fans purring. That sadness will be weighed against the reality the club have gone backwards in the seasons since.
Attention now will be on who comes next? Rob Edwards is known to be highly rated by head of football Kieran Scott while Sheffield Wednesday's Danny Rohl will be of interest to any Championship club without a manager after his sterling work at Hillsborough.
It is now 10 years since Boro's last promotion to the Premier League.
The next manager needs to be the one who brings that long wait to an end.
