IT will have been noted in the corridors of the Riverside Stadium that West Ham United, recently relegated to the Championship, are gambling on a swift return to the Premier League.

After persuading Sam Allardyce to return to management, the former Newcastle United manager did not have to try too hard to convince West Ham's owners to commit £55,000-a-week and a £4.5m transfer fee on signing Kevin Nolan.

Middlesbrough have been there before, of course. Times, however, have changed quite dramatically on Teesside following their failure to deliver promotion in either of the seasons since relegation.

Tony Mowbray might be the local hero the fans wanted to lead Middlesbrough, there have also been plenty of indications in his eight months in charge that he will succeed.

Where the frustration lies, however, is that he faces a more difficult job than all of his predecessors at the Riverside. Years of spending big in the Premier League have caught up with Boro in the Championship - now Mowbray must be frugal in his attempts to take them back there.

Steve Gibson, the chairman, has wanted the cloth cutting to bring Middlesbrough in line with the majority of the rest of the teams in the division. After years of bank-rolling the side by paying wages and transfer fees not reflective of a club Middlesbrough's size, Football League status has had to change all of that.

And it is Mowbray having to pick up the pieces. The West Ham-style gamble arrived last year, when Gordon Strachan wasted the opportunity to make the most of Gibson's last financial push to get back in the Premier League.

The chairman and everyone at the club remains as determined as ever to reclaim top-flight status, but the reality has hit home in the first few weeks of the summer that the cash has dried up.

Gary O'Neil, David Wheater, Mikael Tavares, Willo Flood, Maxi Haas and Matt Kilgallon have all left since Mowbray took over. There is also a chance that Andrew Taylor and Julio Arca will have played their last game too.

Yet despite the above possibly saving more than £5m-a-year in wages, recouping £4.5m in transfer fees along the way, Middlesbrough are still not in a strong enough financial position to bring in new players.

The parallels with the 12 months prior to Mowbray's appointment could not be more different. After offloading Brad Jones and Adam Johnson for a combined £10.3m, Strachan was given licence to change the face of the squad.

Stephen McManus, Kevin Thomson, Andy Halliday, Nicky Bailey, Kris Boyd, Lee Miller, Scott McDonald, Willo Flood, Chris Killen and Barry Robson all moved in. Whatever money was around, it quickly disappeared along with early hopes of promotion.

Now Mowbray must wait. Wait for movement in the hope he will finally get the opportunity to begin a summer of change. He might have had ideas of who he would have liked to move on, now he may be forced to consider alternatives.

For all that he will want to keep the Academy graduates who are catching the eye of bigger clubs, he will also know that a failure to offload the club's higher, less attractive earners could lead to unwanted departures.

Mowbray will be keen to lead a promotion charge next season, so to head in to pre-season with such uncertainty will not be the ideal place to start preparations for a first full season under him.

He might have come back refreshed from his holidays, but he will have soon realised nothing much has changed while he has been away. This time last year, on the other hand....