Middlesbrough will be aiming for promotion in the 2024/25 Championship season.
Boro last secured promotion to the Premier League in the 2015/16 campaign under Aitor Karanka.
Middlesbrough finished second in the division that season behind Burnley but were relegated back down to the second division one year later.
Steve Gibson has hired and fired several managers in a bid to take his club back to the top flight but things have, for the most part, not gone to plan.
Around £50m was spent in the summer of 2017 and Garry Monk was the man tasked with returning Middlesbrough to the Premier League.
However, Monk was sacked in December of that year and what followed was several managers who failed to bring any sort of clear vision to the club.
Tony Pulis, Neil Warnock, and Chris Wilder were all lackluster appointments, setting the Teessiders back several years in their promotion push.
Under Michael Carrick, however, Middlesbrough’s promotion chances are looking up.
Opta predictions show where Middlesbrough will finish 2024/25 Championship season
Carrick guided Middlesbrough to a fourth-place finish during his first season at the Riverside Stadium.
Boro lost out to Coventry City in the Championship play-off finals but it was still a big step up from previous years.
2023/24 saw the North East outfit fail to live up to expectations somewhat as they ended the campaign eighth and four points off the play-offs.
However, Middlesbrough’s struggles last term are easily explained by injury woes and too many new signings.
Now those problems have been solved this summer, big things are expected of Boro in the 2024/25 Championship season.
Per Opta Analyst, Middlesbrough have been predicted to finish in second place, with only Leeds United set to end the season above them.
Boro are the second-most likely team to win the title (13 percent) and second-most likely to gain automatic promotion (27.5 percent)
Does Michael Carrick have to win promotion with Middlesbrough this season
Just looking at their position from 2023/24, Boro climbing up to second place would be quite the achievement.
However, based on how the squad should have performed, the play-offs must be the minimum aim for Carrick.
The Reds ended 2023/24 with just one loss in their last 12 Championship outings – title-winning form if repeated across a full campaign.
The majority of Middlesbrough’s injury issues have also subsided, while they have, so far, lost no key players this summer.
Carrick and co. have been careful not to bring in too many new faces this summer as well, avoiding the problem that impacted their form dramatically in the early months of last season.
14 players were signed in 2023/24 and, unsurprisingly, it took time for them all to embed into the squad and get used to the manager’s system.
With only two new faces through the door in 2024, however, (Luke Ayling was on loan last season), Middlesbrough should have a much stronger start to this campaign and, in turn, mount a proper promotion push.