We Are Middlesbrough

Image source, Getty Images

Middlesbrough have notified the Football Association of its plans to change the club crest from next season.

The decision comes after a survey sent to 21,000 supporters came up with a 57% majority in favour of changing the design, which dates back to 2007.

Research company YouGov carried out the survey, which found 19% of supporters opposed to a new crest, which would coincide with Boro's 150th anniversary next year.

The responses also indicate that fans would prefer a round crest featuring the founding year of 1876, the lion rampant and the club's red and white colours, as well as using the full name of Middlesbrough Football Club.

Mark Drury
BBC Radio Tees Middlesbrough commentator

Image source, Rex Features

"I'm carrying on."

Those were Michael Carrick's words to me in the bowels of Coventry City's CBS Arena in the minutes after Middlesbrough's 2-0 defeat had condemned them to another season in the Championship.

A win would have taken Boro into the top six and a play-off semi-final against Sheffield United. Instead, attention this week has centred on Carrick's future as the club embark on an internal review into a season that began with talk of pushing for automatic promotion and ended mired in mid-table mediocrity.

Boro's finishing position of 10th, four points outside the play-off places, cannot be viewed as anything other than a failure.

Head of football Kieran Scott told BBC Radio Tees Sport last September this was a season the club had identified as being an opportunity because of the particular nature of the Championship.

As it played out two things became clear. Firstly, Scott and Boro's hierarchy were absolutely correct. Leeds United, Burnley and Sheffield United excepted, the division was wide open. Secondly, Boro were making an almighty mess of things.

The points total required to make the top six this season was the lowest in more than a decade, yet Boro finished on 64 points, four behind Bristol City in sixth.

They finished 12 points behind Sunderland in fourth and found themselves below Blackburn Rovers, Millwall and West Bromwich Albion too.

For a bit of context, when Boro won at Blackburn at the beginning of April, Rovers were winless under new manager Valerien Ismael. The Rovers fans were in revolt and everyone confidently declared their season was over. Boro ended up two points beneath them.

Last summer's transfer window was widely regarded as Middlesbrough's best for years, but fans' frustrations built throughout the season as they watched a talented squad win back-to-back Championship games on just four occasions, with one of those incorporating their only three-game winning run of the season.

Then there was the January transfer window.

Striker Emmanuel Latte Lath was sold to Atlanta United for a club record fee of £22.5m, money that precious few Championship clubs can turn down. They did it late in the window and replaced him with Sevilla loanee Kelechi Iheanacho.

To say it did not work out for Iheanacho and Boro would be an understatement. One goal and two assists was the sum total of his output, and by the end of the season he was being jeered from the pitch by his own fans and booed on to it when introduced as a substitute.

Carrick also pushed for the signing of previous loanee Ryan Giles, who had been a great success two seasons ago. This time was different though and long before the season's end Giles had been displaced by another loanee, Sam Illing-Junior.

Injuries also hampered Boro considerably. Liverpool loanee Ben Doak lit up the Championship with his displays in the first half of the season, but his January injury deprived the team of his attacking verve and their only point of difference.

They also endured a sustained spell where there was not a fit senior central defender at the club. That put the spotlight on the manager's decision not to sign a replacement for Matt Clarke when he was allowed to join Derby County in January.

Despite all these issues, going into the final three games Boro's fate was in their own hands. Cue a 2-1 defeat by Sheffield Wednesday from a position of 1-0 up and a missed penalty kick, a goalless draw against a Norwich City side who had just sacked their manager, and then the final day loss at Coventry.

Fans have bemoaned a style of football that was often slow, passive and predictable. Opposing managers queued up to lavish praise on Boro's squad while adding "we knew how they were going to play".

This team has a soft centre. Possibly the most damning statistic among many unfavourable numbers is that on the 18 occasions they conceded the first goal of the game they came back to win only twice, whilst losing 13 times. Both of those comeback wins came against newly promoted Oxford United.

Carrick is well liked by chairman Steve Gibson, who backed his man after February's home defeat by Watford, a game that seemed to signal the end of the road. However, with fans patience running out - this week's online poll in a local paper had 68% of respondents wanting Carrick sacked – the decision over whether to maintain his faith in his head coach is far from straightforward.

Nearly three years into the job, Carrick is the longest-serving manager in the Championship - we will find out in the coming days if that is a record he can hang on to.

Former Middlesbrough defender Tommy Smith says a lack of consistency was to blame for Middlesbrough's disappointing season.

Boro sat fifth with six games to go but a run of four points from their final half-dozen games saw them slide to finish 10th, four points short of the play-off places.

Smith, who retired in February due to an ankle injury, told the BBC's 72+ EFL podcast: "I think Middlesbrough have been one of the teams who have really struggled for that consistency.

"I've seen runs where we've gone unbeaten for a few games and runs where we haven't won for a few games.

"To finish 10th is obviously disappointing, it's a tough league but there are some big clubs who have languished in mid-table, you look at Norwich, Sheffield Wednesday, West Brom - it's a really difficult league to get out of and I think Middlesbrough are finding it tough.

"They've spent one season in the Premier League in the last 15 which just shows how tough the league is."

Smith feels the departure of his former teammate Emmanuel Latte Lath to MLS side Atlanta United in January was the key to Boro's season unravelling.

The Ivorian netted 11 in 29 league appearances, 20 of them starts, but Kelechi Iheanacho, brought in on loan from Sevilla, scored once in 15 appearances and Morgan Whittaker failed to scored in 16 games after his arrival from Plymouth, with the pair combining for only three assists.

Boro scored 38 goals in their first 23 games but only 23 in the second half of the campaign.

"I always find that January is a really tough window to bring people in and bed them in," Smith said.

"You need players to come in and hit the ground running. I don't blame them, I understand it's difficult for them to come in and hit the ground running.

"With Latte Lath the club received an offer that was too good to turn down. The timing of it was unfortunate, quite late in the window which didn't give the club a lot of time.

"The club have missed his goals – second half of the season they have scored nowhere near as many goals as they did in the first half."

"I'm gutted at what I've seen, but I'm also so glad this season is finished because it's been one of the most unenjoyable campaigns that I've experienced in a long, long time and one of the most unlikable teams I have had the displeasure of watching."

The Red Alert team discuss Middlesbrough's final game of the season after missing out on the play-offs with a loss to Coventry City and look back at what went wrong - not just in the match but over the entire season.

From the coaches to the players to the tactics, what has to change?

Includes an interview with boss Michael Carrick.

Listen to the full episode and more on the Red Alert podcast.

Image source, Getty Images

Middlesbrough head coach Michael Carrick says he is "gutted" after seeing his team fail to make the play-offs.

Needing a win to have any chance of reaching the top six, Boro lost 2-0 at Coventry City, as the Sky Blues finished fifth.

"It's a sickening feeling. I'm gutted for the boys," he told BBC Radio Tees.

"They gave everything, put in a really good performance for the most part and didn't get what we wanted from the game.

"We didn't manage to take our opportunities so in the end, we're feeling like we are.

"The fact we haven't got in the play-offs is hurtful enough. We've created our own expectations which is the positive. The boys have shown what they can do and we feel the disappointment we haven't got that."

The result caps a poor end to the season in which Carrick's side won only one of their last six games and ended 10th.

He added: "Seventh, eighth, ninth, 10th, there is not really much difference to be honest."