On Sunday we were finally put out of our misery by a West Ham mercy killing and now we will be left to languish in the Championship by the men who put us there in the first place. In this instance, I'm referring to the players.
Even before our downfall was confirmed, Southgate was making references to players 'getting their lifeboats ready'.
Stewart Downing spent most of the season saying that he would do enough do leave Boro with his head held high. I've got news for you Downing, not a single Boro player has done enough to hold their head up, in fact I would argue that most of them should be crawling on the floor at the fans' feet begging for forgiveness.
But no, young upstarts Matthew Bates and Ross Turnbull have refused new contracts.
Coming from Bates, the young man who berated team mate Rhys Williams for his lack of loyalty to club or country when I interviewed the pair earlier in the season, this is extremely disappointing.
Bates has been injured for almost three years and got his chance at Boro first team football because Tony McMahon's girlfriend had a baby. Bates was not suddenly the best defender/midfielder the Boro coaches had ever seen, he was simply there, finally fit and able. He did a half decent job in midfielder, though was surprisingly poor in defence and now he wants to abandon the club who gave him his shot.
Similarly Ross Turnbull has reportedly refused three new deals to stay at the club and is looking at 'other options'. This is the same Ross Turnbull who signed for Cardiff City on loan and was labelled 'hapless' by the Bluebirds fans as he slipped to third choice keeper. It is also the same Ross Turnbull who collapsed against Chelsea, losing his jersey to Brad Jones.
Then there are the star names...
Robert Huth and Jeremie Aliadiere have already attracted attention from various clubs in Europe and the former has somehow got himself an invitation back to the German national squad.
Neither has ever managed to stay fit for a full season and while both have showed flashes of brilliance - some of Huth's defending has been world class and Aliadiere's goal against Arsenal was beautiful - neither has covered themselves in glory this season.
Huth needed two attempts at his medical before being allowed to join the Boro and needed at least two seasons before he began to resemble a footballer again. Unlike his team mates, Huth has got better as the season progressed but then he had an incentive with a recall to the German elite beckoning, co-incidence? Unlikely.
It is also unlikely that Boro will get back the £6 million we paid for him and fingers crossed his ankle holds up long enough for him to make the move.
Far too many missed chances, sloppy play and finally simply giving up has seen Aliadiere go from a promising player with technical ability and no confidence to a player who looks like he barely remembers what to do with a football. In person right now, he looks like a broken man but no doubt he'll pull himself together long enough to ditch Teesside and head for the sun.
Say what you like about players like Mark Viduka, at least he plays for a move, our current 'stars' couldn't even be bothered to do that.
I know that half the readers will be yelling 'Tuncay!' at me now but only those who have conveniently forgotten, or forgiven, his 'no show' appearances last winter.
I did not want to be writing this about any of our players - although once I got going it was a kind of cathartic release. I have met, interviewed and liked most of them and I do see the big picture, they are just young men who kick a football around for a living.
But they have not done their jobs.
DJ Downing has done the equivalent of leaving a disk playing while he went shopping (for a new club) until it snapped in half and picked up his pay check anyway. He has played every match but hasn't shown any of the tricks and technique which used to mark him out, in short he has not been half as good as his billing suggested.
A few of the 'kids' have pledged their future to MFC. Tony McMahon and Josh Walker either have enough sense of loyalty to stick with Boro through hard times or enough common sense to realise that they are not 'bigger than the club'. With these particular players I would suggest its a combination of the two.
Gary O'Neil will most likely go back to Portsmouth, Digard will attract interest as will David Wheater.
Wheater has declared that he is happy to stay at the club and launch a promotion campaign. But what if it is not his choice? If we can't sell Downing or Alves through recent injury or Huth, Ali, Digard etc through their tendency to get injured we will have to take what we can get for whoever we can shift. Tuncay was a free transfer so should make a tidy profit but I sincerely hope we hold out for real money for him. Just because he was free is no reason to let him go cheap.
Until the transfer window opens we will not know exactly what will remain of the current Boro squad, although you can bet some of them are already packed...
The players have all let us, and themselves, down and if they had any guts they would stick around to make amends to the fans and bring the club back up. Then again if they had any guts we would not have had the season we have just had to witness.
First published on www.ComeOnBoro.com on 28/5/2009
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