What Promotion Challenge?

After having been promised the world through seven figure signings and big name arrivals under Gordon Strachan, Middlesbrough Football Club is beginning to see the after affects of a ghost promotion campaign.

Steve Gibson entrusted Strachan with his cheque book but unfortunately for him and all those optimistic Teessiders, the squad massively failed to live up to expectations.

But what long term effects have Gibson’s debatable naivety and Boro’s downfall under Gareth Southgate and Strachan had on the club’s long term future?

Thankfully, and many would say rightly, Strachan left without a big pay-off after ripping up the remainder of his contract that was believed to have been worth around £3million in total.

So it seemed only right that one of Boro’s heroes of 1986 would prove the Scot’s natural successor to breathe life back into the club.

But even Mogga was quoted this week as saying that he wrote off around £350,000 of money owed by his former club Celtic to come to back to Teesside.

So thankfully the club’s managerial switch-up didn’t cause anywhere near the financial damage that relegation did although it seems that the effects of the drop felt nearby could have been catastrophic.

Newcastle have reported losses of £17.1million as a result of their relegation from the Premier League alongside Middlesbrough and West Brom in 2009.

Thankfully for them, the Magpies managed to bounce back to the Premier League at the first attempt and have since seen big name arrivals and departures as well as bringing in Premier League TV money.

European names like Hatem Ben Arfa have arrived at St. James’, while assets like Andy Carroll have been sold for unbelievable prices (although promotion and the Carroll sale aren’t reflected in the figures).

Newcastle’s gamble with their finances paid off, in keeping many top flight players with the aim of achieving immediate promotion back to the Premier League. In contrast Boro’s more conservative gamble backfired.

Seeing such losses at close quarters doesn’t bode well for the Reds, who in comparison delayed that relegation push a season before splashing out on talent that has again knocked back Boro’s ambitions.

Having had the luxury of top flight parachute payments following relegation, Boro’s fortunes have repeatedly failed to improve and now a final reduction in such payments means that finances will become even more stretched if changes aren’t implemented.

It could be argued that the window to a Premier League return has passed as the club relies on ever reducing turnover that isn’t helped by this season’s record low Riverside attendances.

Now it seems that the club will have to cut costs in order to mount any sort of serious Championship campaign next season as the club’s finances continually come under scrutiny.

Some rumours have even gone as far as suggesting that the club may have to go into administration in the near future.

Scott Wilson, chief sports writer for the Northern Echo, said via his Twitter account: “Wage bill is currently about £20m and total turnover next year will be about £14m. Desire is for wages to drop to £6m.”

This quite sobering yet somewhat unsurprising idea that cutting the wage bill is the way to ensure the club’s future certainly casts doubt on whether Boro’s Premier League ambitions are at all realistic.

Despite this TEAMtalk.com estimate that Strachan’s marquee signing, Kris Boyd, for example is earning around £1.5million a year, which makes reductions in costs sound not all that damaging.

Especially when you consider that the likes of Justin Hoyte and Didier Digard, who are also believed to be on big money, could be out of the door as well without causing too much of a loss to Mowbray’s current favoured squad.

Julio Arca is one player with a thickset pay packet that Mowbray has taken a liking to however, but whether pay cuts can appease every wage-related headache before next season is extremely questionable.

It seems that for Boro to mount any sort of challenge for next season’s Championship crown, given that the Reds avoid the drop to League One this season of course, drastic changes will need to be made.

Mowbray himself has pledged his belief in the young players that have made a name for themselves since his arrival, such as Joe Bennett, Jason Steele and Cameron Park, although they continue to be leered at by top flight hawks.

Another evident pattern in Mowbray’s more recent transfer activity is his reliance on foreign and lower league players, which again may yield more Zemmama-style bargains but whether they can replace the Teesside club’s current big earners remains to be seen.

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Jonathan Brown