The 2018–19 season was

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...

's second consecutive season in the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

in their 143rd year in existence; the club also competed in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

and the

EFL Cup The English Football League Cup, often referred to as the League Cup and currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout competition in men's domestic football in England. Orga ...

Season overview

The 2018–19 transfer window is club manager

Tony Pulis Anthony Richard Pulis (; born 16 January 1958) is a Welsh former professional football manager and former footballer who last managed Sheffield Wednesday. Pulis obtained his FA coaching badge at age 19, followed by his UEFA 'A' licence aged 2 ...

' first official summer transfer window as Middlesbrough manager. Pulis' first signing of the window was a defensive Paddy McNair, arriving from rivals

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

for £5 million.

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England. The team compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded in 1894, the club competed in the Southern League and Western L ...

star defender

Aden Flint Aden Flint (born 11 July 1989) is an English professional footballer who plays as a defender Club career Early career Flint began his career in the Central Midlands Football League with Pinxton before stepping up to the Conference North in th ...

subsequently joined the club for a fee of £7 million.

Sam Stubbs Samuel Alan Stubbs (born 20 November 1998) is an English professional footballer who most recently played as a centre-back for side Cheltenham Town, on loan from club Bradford City. Club career Wigan Athletic Stubbs joined Wigan Athletic in ...

and Djed Spence then joined the reserves, both on free transfers, arriving from

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club is a professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, they have p ...

and

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

respectively. As August emerged,

Andy Lonergan Andrew Michael Lonergan (born 19 October 1983) is an English professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper. Lonergan is a former England U21 international and is also eligible to play for the Republic of Ireland. After starting his career a ...

joined the club on a free transfer from rivals

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Leeds United have won the League Championship th ...

. On 8 August 2018, Middlesbrough completed the signing of

Jordan Hugill Jordan Thomas Hugill (born 4 June 1992) is an English professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Rotherham United. A relative latecomer to the professional game, he had spells with non-League sides Seaham Red Star, Consett, W ...

from

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

on a season-long loan deal.

Tomás Mejías Tomás Mejías Osorio (born 30 January 1989) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper. Club career Real Madrid Mejías was born in Madrid. In 2001, aged 12, he joined local Real Madrid's youth academy from neighbouring ama ...

Martin Cranie Martin James Cranie (born 26 September 1986) is an English former professional footballer. He last played as a centre back and right back for Championship club Luton Town. He is a former England U21 international. He began his career with the ...

, Tom Brewitt, Liam Cooke, Liam Hegarty, Jakub Sinior, Keiran Storey, Robbie Tinkler, Jay Wilson and Matthew Elsdon were all released at the end of the 2017–18 season. Antonio Barragán then left the club to join

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Seville, Andalusia, Spain. It plays in La Liga, the Spanish football league system, top flight of Spanish football. It plays home ...

permanently, having spent the previous season on loan there, while Mikael Soisalo and

Fábio Fabio is a given name descended from Latin ''Fabius'' and very popular in Italy and Latin America (due to Italian migration). The name is written without an accent in Italian and Spanish, but is usually accented in Portuguese as ''Fábio'' (with t ...

left to join Zulte Waregem and

Nantes Nantes (, ; ; or ; ) is a city in the Loire-Atlantique department of France on the Loire, from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. The city is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, sixth largest in France, with a pop ...

respectively. Players who were loaned out included Joe Fryer to

Carlisle United Carlisle United Football Club ( , ) is a professional association football club based in Carlisle, Cumbria, England. The team currently compete in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. They have played their ...

, Hayden Coulson to St Mirren, Luke Armstrong to

Gateshead Gateshead () is a town in the Gateshead Metropolitan Borough of Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank. The town's attractions include the twenty metre tall Angel of the North sculpture on the town's southern outskirts, ...

, George Miller to

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The club competes in , the third tier of English football, and is managed by Graham Alexander. The club was founded in 1903 and ...

. The club then said their goodbyes to their team superstars: striker

Patrick Bamford Patrick James Bamford (born 5 September 1993) is an English professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Leeds United. He made one appearance for the England national team in 2021. Bamford began his career at Nottingham Forest, maki ...

to Leeds, centre-back

Ben Gibson Benjamin James Gibson (born 15 January 1993) is an English professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for and captains club Stoke City. Having graduated from Middlesbrough's Academy, Gibson had loan spells with Plymouth Argyle, Yo ...

and winger Adama Traoré.

Squad

First team squad

* L = Player on Loan

Competitions

Pre-season friendlies

As part of their pre-season preparations, Middlesbrough faced

Sturm Graz Sportklub Sturm Graz is an Austrian professional association football club, based in Graz, playing in the Austrian Football Bundesliga. The club was founded in 1909. Its colours are black and white. In its history, Sturm Graz has won the Austr ...

, Spennymoor Town,

SV Sandhausen Sportverein Sandhausen 1916 e.V., commonly known as simply SV Sandhausen or Sandhausen, is a Football in Germany, German association football club that plays in Sandhausen, immediately to the south of Heidelberg in Baden-Württemberg. It is Ger ...

Accrington Stanley Accrington Stanley Football Club is a professional association football club based in Accrington, Lancashire, England, that compete in the , the fourth level of the English football league system. They have spent their entire history playing a ...

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England, and the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. In the United Kingdom 2021 Census, 2021 Census, the town had a population of 111,261, compared to 223,773 for the wid ...

and

Hartlepool United Hartlepool United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Hartlepool, County Durham, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. They were founded in 190 ...

. Their match against

was abandoned at half-time because of storm conditions.

Championship

League table

Results by matchday

Result summary

Matches

On 21 June 2018, the

fixtures for the forthcoming season were announced.

FA Cup

The third round draw was made live on

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Ruud Gullit Ruud Gullit (; born Rudi Dil; 1 September 1962) is a former Dutch Association football, footballer and subsequent manager. Regarded among the greatest footballers of all time, he was also noted for his Utility player#Association football, abili ...

and

Paul Ince Paul Emerson Carlyle Ince (; born 21 October 1967) is an English professional football manager and former player who was most recently manager of Reading. A midfielder, Ince played professionally from 1986 to 2007, starting his career with West ...

from

Stamford Bridge Stamford Bridge may refer to: * Stamford Bridge, East Riding of Yorkshire, a village in England ** Battle of Stamford Bridge, 25 September 1066 * Stamford Bridge (bridge), a bridge in the village of Stamford Bridge * Stamford Bridge (stadium), in ...

on 3 December 2018. The fourth round draw was made live on

Robbie Keane Robert David Keane (born 8 July 1980) is an Irish professional football coach and former player who played as a striker and is currently the head coach of Ferencváros. Keane served as captain of the Republic of Ireland from March 2006 until h ...

and

Carl Ikeme Carl Onora Ikeme (born 8 June 1986) is a former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He spent his entire career at Wolverhampton Wanderers, making 207 appearances across all competitions. He was part of their teams that won the C ...

from

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands of England. Located around 12 miles (20 km) north of Birmingham, it forms the northwestern part of the West Midlands conurbation, with the towns of ...

on 7 January 2019.

EFL Cup

On 15 June 2018, the draw for the first round was made in

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

. The second round draw was made from the

Stadium of Light The Stadium of Light is an all-seater football stadium in Sunderland, England, and the eighth and current home to Sunderland. With space for 49,000 spectators, the Stadium of Light is the ninth largest football stadium in England. The ...

on 16 August. The third round draw was made on 30 August 2018 by

David Seaman David Andrew Seaman (born 19 September 1963) is an English former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. In a career lasting from 1981 to 2004, he is best known for his time playing for Arsenal. He won 75 caps for England, and is the country ...

and

Joleon Lescott Joleon Patrick Lescott (born 16 August 1982) is an English former professional association football, footballer, coach and sports pundit. He currently works as an interim coach with the England national football team, England senior team and pla ...

. The fourth round draw was made live on

Quest A quest is a journey toward a specific mission or a goal. It serves as a plot device in mythology and fiction: a difficult journey towards a goal, often symbolic or allegorical. Tales of quests figure prominently in the folklore of every nat ...

Rachel Yankey Rachel Aba Yankey (born 1 November 1979) is a former English footballer who played as a winger or forward. Yankey is best known for her long association with Arsenal Ladies, for whom she played 15 seasons over two separate spells, and is rank ...

and

Rachel Riley Rachel Annabelle Riley (born 11 January 1986) is an English television presenter. She co-presents the Channel 4 daytime puzzle show '' Countdown'' and its comedy spin-off ''8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown''. She is a mathematics graduate. He ...

on 29 September. The draw for the quarter-final was made live on

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

Jamie Redknapp Jamie Frank Redknapp (born 25 June 1973) is an English former professional footballer who was active from 1989 until 2005. He is a pundit at Sky Sports and an editorial sports columnist at the ''Daily Mail''. A technically skillful and creativ ...

and

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink Jerrel Floyd "Jimmy" Hasselbaink ( ; born 27 March 1972) is a Dutch professional football manager and former player. Born in Suriname, he and his family would later move to the Dutch city of Zaandam where he first played football, initially a ...

Season overview

Squad

First team squad

Competitions

Pre-season friendlies

Championship

League table

Results by matchday

Result summary

Matches

FA Cup

EFL Cup

Transfers

Transfers in

Transfers out

Loans in

Loans out

References