🎧 'Not reaching play-offs was failure by Carrick'
Were Middlesbrough right to sack Michael Carrick?
- Published
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."