SITTING in a two-thirds empty Riverside Stadium on Tuesday night, watching Middlesbrough labour to a narrow win over fellow Championship strugglers Derby County, it was tempting to assume that a nadir had been reached.

In reality, however, the opposite is true. No matter what happens in the remaining 11 matches of the season, things on Teesside are about to get a whole lot worse.

Let's start with some figures, and I'll warn you now that they're much more alarming than the six-point gap that separates Middlesbrough from 22nd-placed Scunthorpe United.

In their latest set of accounts, filed in September 2010, Boro's wage bill was £31.2m. Since the period covered within the accounts, which ended in December 2009, the club have sold Adam Johnson, David Wheater and Gary O'Neil and released the likes of Jeremie Aliadiere, Didier Digard and Chris Riggott, developments that have reduced the current annual wage expenditure to around the £20m mark.

To put that figure in context, it is still roughly the same as the wage bills at QPR and Swansea, the top two clubs in the Championship table, combined.

Now, let's look at incomings. Turnover in Boro's last set of accounts was £41.79m, but much of that figure relates to the second half of the club's final season in the Premier League.

Last season, their first in the Championship, they received a parachute payment of £12.3m. This season, because of a change in the rules, they have banked £16m.

Therefore, even with Championship television money, gate receipts and assorted sponsorship deals included, Boro's total turnover in the current campaign is unlikely to exceed much more than £25m. Not much good when, for much of the season, the wage bill has been hovering at the £30m mark.

Why have wages remained so high? Because in January and August last year, chairman Steve Gibson took a calculated gamble on Gordon Strachan's ability to win promotion.

Money was spent that, in hindsight, the club could not really afford. Strachan was allowed to spend £3.5m on striker Scott McDonald, who was given a three-and-a-half year deal when he moved from Celtic. Throw in wages of around £25,000-a-week, and that's near enough a £10m commitment over the course of one player's contract.

Kris Boyd? A free transfer, but understood to have been earning up to £40,000-a-week when bonuses and appearance fees were added. Nicky Bailey? £1.4m from Charlton. Stephen McManus? Another £1.5m.

In total, Strachan was allowed to spend more than £10m in transfer fees alone. Much of that expenditure was offset by the sale of Johnson, Wheater, O'Neil and Stewart Downing, but the wage bill still needs to be settled every month, and even now it is still believed to be the biggest in the Championship.

The gamble failed, but those Middlesbrough supporters pointing the finger of blame at Gibson are surely missing the point. It failed because Strachan invested his money poorly.

True, Gibson appointed Strachan, so there is a certain degree of culpability there. But those who simply accuse the Boro chairman of flogging the family silver and refusing to reinvest are distorting reality.

Without Gibson, there is no way Middlesbrough would have survived to this point. He has continued to fund the club's day-to-day running and underwritten the pre-existing debts that have been carried over from the Premier League era.

And unless there is a billionaire benefactor waiting in the wings - and the last time I looked, there wasn't - he will have to take some even bigger hits yet.

Next season, Boro's payment from the Premier League drops below £8m, and they will receive nothing in the 2012-13 campaign unless they have been promoted in the interim.

A wage bill of £20m; a turnover, unless crowds pick up dramatically, that is unlikely to exceed £12m. You do not have to be a mathematical genius to deduce that the sums do not add up.

Gibson and chief executive Keith Lamb are currently working on their projections for next season, and it is understood they would ideally like to trim the wage bill to around £6m.

A cut of more than half, even though only a handful of players are out of contract and therefore simple to lose.

Good luck. Tony Mowbray is facing a scenario where each and every member of his squad is effectively for sale this summer, but Gibson is facing a scenario where plenty of the highest earners are unlikely to leave.

There will inevitably be a shortfall, and even more inevitably, he will be the one charged with plugging the gap.

The outlook is bleak, and that's before the doomsday scenario of relegation to League One is even considered. Supporters should remember that before they start calling for the head of the one man capable of keeping Middlesbrough alive.

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While we're on the subject of finances, the joy felt by Tottenham supporters this week should be tempered by the fate of the last English club that broke into the Champions League cartel.

In 2001, Leeds United played Valencia in a Champions League semi-final. Six years later, they were taking on Cheltenham in League One.

The backdrop to the story is the same, with a massive investment in the playing squad bringing about major improvements on the pitch, but a failure to invest in infrastructure and ground redevelopment restricting the club's ability to markedly increase income off it.

Spurs have tried to relocate of course, only for LOCOG to reject their proposal for the Olympic Stadium, but it increasingly looks as though the future of the club will be intrinsically connected to the future of White Hart Lane.

For many Spurs fans, Wednesday's draw with AC Milan was a case of ‘Living the dream'. But where have we heard that before?