HEARTBROKEN Ben Gibson has delivered his damning assessment of Middlesbrough’s disastrous “wasted” season back in the Premier League by admitting there now “has to be change.”

While Gibson feels relegation is still raw and hurting everyone inside the dressing room, he thinks the experience will make Boro stronger when they return to action in August looking to bounce straight back.

For now, as his uncle, chairman Steve Gibson, plots a way to sort out the mess and ensure they are ready for the Championship, the defender admits it will take time to recover from the “worst feeling of his life”.

Gibson, the player, doesn’t think it is the right time to point the finger in any particular direction and was honest enough to suggest that collectively Middlesbrough’s performances have not been up to the standard required to stay up.

“You get relegated on a season of us not being good enough,” said the 24-year-old. “That’s every man connected with the football club, all of us, me included. Not good enough.

“That’s why we find ourselves in this position. We’ve wasted an effort that we made last season. We’ve wasted an opportunity to play in the best league in the world.

“Now is the time to reflect on it. We have to go away and put our finger on what we have done wrong as a football club, as an individual. It’s hard. It’s a hard moment.”

Gibson didn’t want to talk about his own future, with bigger clubs weighing up a summer move. Everton and Liverpool are two of the main contenders for his signature, while Chelsea have been keen although they look set to seal the signature of Southampton’s Virgil van Dijk.

What bothers the former England Under-21 international, though, is what happens at his hometown club now. He feels things need to be done, while stopping short of suggesting what.

Gibson said: “No doubt there will be changes. When you get relegated from the Premier League and you don’t achieve your ambition, there has to be some form of change. Whether that is players, whatever that is, there has to be change.

“There has to be a change of mentality because what we’ve done has not been good enough. This football club deserves better, the fans deserve better. They were absolutely phenomenal at Chelsea. They have been all season.

“Monday typifies what they are about – 1,400 of them singing, even when we are down at 3-0, and we are relegated, and there’s only one team that looks like scoring. They deserve Premier League football, they deserve more and we haven’t given it to them.”

Middlesbrough have only won five games out of their 36 in the Premier League ahead of the final two matches against Southampton and Liverpool. There have been mistakes made in terms of recruitment and tactics, while there is still uncertainty over the head coach position which Steve Agnew has occupied for the last nine matches.

Gibson still, though, believes this year can help Middlesbrough come back stronger.

He said: “Getting results has been more difficult than we expected, without a doubt. Halfway through the season, everything was looking rosy with where we are. But even then, in the first half of the season we missed vital opportunities to win games.

“Now is not the time to reflect. The emotion is too raw. It is a bit of a nightmare and we’ve got to try and process it.

“As a local lad you do feel it more, your friends and family, everyone lives and dies for Middlesbrough Football Club – and we’ve let them down badly.

“You have to now set the stall out for next season. We have to make sure this football club is back in the Premier League and doesn’t take seven years to come back.

“We are in a better position moving forward next season. I will have no doubt that we will be in a better position to get promoted than what we were last season.

“I urge the fans to stick with the football club. They are absolutely phenomenal. As I say, we’ve let them down and as a football club, we won’t let that happen again.”