FANS and pundits alike have had their say on Middlesbrough's decision to sack manager Aitor Karanka after three-and-a-half years at the club.

Boro are winless in their last ten Premier League games and currently sit in the relegation zone, three points from safety with 11 games remaining.

Mark Thorpe, 48, from Ingleby Barwick, near Stockton, said: “It has been expected. It should have happened long before now.

“Everybody respects the job he has done, particularly last year in getting the club promoted.

“However this season he has proved to be tactically inept. He has been quite stubborn with no plan B.

“I don’t think criticising the fans after the West Ham game helped either. The alternative was carrying on doing what they were doing and going down without a fight.”

Mr Thorpe said the club now had 11 cup finals to save their season. He said he would be “very happy” with former Boro captain Nigel Pearson as a potential Karanka replacement.

Rob Nichols, of Boro fanzine Fly Me To The Moon, said: “To be brutally honest I was very relieved [about Karanka’s sacking].

“He has delivered some fantastic times and got us promoted after seven years. But in the last few weeks, everything has unravelled.

"Our Premier League status was ebbing away without a fight. The last few games have been really hard to watch and there didn’t seem to be any chance we would change the way we were playing.

“The only chance left to stay up – and it is a slim chance – is to change the man in charge. We have got to try everything we can to survive.”

Mr Nichols said Premiership winning manager Claudio Ranieri, who was recently sacked by Leicester, could be someone who could lift the mood of the club and his would be a popular appointment.

Matthew Mohan, a season ticket holder for the past eight years, said: “Karanka did well for the club, but he couldn’t cut it in the Premier League.

“Let’s get an attacking manager, Karanka was too negative, it was all side to side and backwards.

“I have heard Roy Hodgson [as a replacement], but I don’t think that will happen.”

The Northern Echo:

Neil Maddison says Boro need to score more goals to survive in the Premiership

Former Boro player and BBC Radio Tees summariser Neil Maddison said a lack of goals in Karanka’s team had let him down and said fans would back chairman Steve Gibson’s decision.

“We have still got a chance of staying in this division. We have got to turn things around and possibly change shape and score more goals,” he said.

“There are managers out there who would jump at the job and are capable of bringing things back to life again. It is time to regroup and really fight. Everyone has to stick together over the next ten or 11 games and shout these lads on.”

Ex-Boro midfielder Peter Beagrie, a regular pundit on Sky Sports, said: “Karanka’s hasn’t always seen eye to eye with the fans, but he delivered Premier League football for them.

“He could be very dogmatic and stuck in his ways, but it has proved successful for him.

“But the fact they are stuck in the lower echelons of the division without any signs of making improvements has brought the pressure on him. The club have obviously felt this is the right decision going forward.”