Middlesbrough are eyeing promotion at the first attempt - after £50m spend Garry Monk knows he must deliver

Of the last 18 teams relegated only two have returned immediately automatically - it is a hard ask but Monk cannot say he does not have the tools

Garry Monk is under pressure to deliver at Middlesbrough (Getty)

The embers of relegation had barely turned grey when Ben Gibson was asked if he would move to one of the A list suitors - Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal - on his tail.

“I don't know, that's my honest answer," Gibson said. “Everyone knows how much I love this football club, I always have done since I was 10-years-old and walked in here, I've given absolutely everything. I would say that every player in the world wants to play in the Premier League and at the highest level, and I'm no different to that. No decisions have been made over my future and that's all I can say at this point.”

Gibson was to central defending what Jordan Pickford was to goalkeeping in the craziest transfer market yet. Pickford went for £30 million that already looks remarkably good business. The 24-year-old Gibson’s future was never under discussion once the Middlesbrough owner (and his uncle) Steve Gibson had decided there would be no selling of the club’s crown jewel.

Much has happened this summer to point Teesside’s football club in a different direction, but none was as emphatic as that. The two clubs further north are willing sellers, but Gibson (the owner and chairman) stood firm. A player whose value (he has been involved with England a well) would have surpassed £30 million stayed put.

Steve Gibson, whose football team had been in the temporary charge of Steve Agnew once Aitor Karanka had left, also went and found himself a new manager. Leeds had done well last season, but there was a difference of opinion with a new owner, Andrea Radrizzani, about direction with Garry Monk, and when he left he met Gibson and impressed him. He signed a three-year deal.

“Having the season I had with Leeds and expecting them to go forward in that process, we couldn't quite find that (agreement),” he said. “I don't want to get into details out of respect for Leeds, but with a new ownership it's a new structure, I have to be honest, it wasn't right for me.

"There were things that didn't suit me and I couldn't see the clear process of how to go forward. At the point of leaving Leeds I went away on a family holiday and as soon as I spoke to Middlesbrough I knew that was the opportunity I wanted to take."


 The club rebuffed all interest in Gibson this summer 
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And then the spending started. Heads really did turn when Middlesbrough went out and spent more than £15 million on Britt Assombalonga. It did not stop. Jonny Howson came from Norwich. Ashley Fletcher signed for £6.5 million from West Ham and Lewis Baker is on a season-long loan from Chelsea. The spending has topped £50 million. It is serious ambition.

“We’ve done exceptionally well as a club this summer, and the people involved in that process deserve a lot of credit,” Monk said today. "Sitting with the owner and those involved at the club, we wanted to change the face of the squad, and move the club in a more dynamic direction. It’s been a lot of hard work and a successful summer.


 Boro spent big especially in forward areas 
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“I've signed for three years and I want to get (promotion) at the first attempt. It’s very difficult for the teams to get back but this club is equipped and our ambition is to bounce back at the first time of asking. I've worked under pressure since I started becoming a manager, that's how I work best. The ambition is to come back hard and after what's been a disappointing season for the club it's my job to give that confidence back to the players.”

It is now up to Monk, who is renowned for his attention to detail. At Swansea he brought in sleeping pods during a summer when his players were undergoing double training sessions. When he first took over from Michael Laudrup he would arrive for work at six o’clock in the morning and would not leave until 10 o’clock at night.


 Boro know the pressure is on after a big summer spend 
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“Say we play on a Saturday I will sit, on my own, on the Sunday and think about the coming week and go through all those things myself,” he said when he was in charge at Swansea. “I think ‘what do I want from this week?’ From the players and what I want them to focus on. It’s a lot of brain-power, it’s draining. We plan the training and what I want and then I think emotionally about what I want from the group and how, motivationally, I go about that to peak for the game.”

Under Gibson he must ‘Smash the Championship’. It might have been a rare bit of over exuberance from the usually cautious Middlesbrough owner, but there was a message about expectation. This is supposed to be a nine-month stay in England's second tier, not the seven-year break that followed their last relegation from the Premier League.

Of the last 18 teams relegated from the Premier League, only two have returned immediately in an automatic promotion place. It is a hard ask and it is an unforgiving campaign. Monk must deliver. He cannot say he does not have the tools.