FOR the second successive Saturday morning, we find ourselves fretting over Middlesbrough FC.

Just as last weekend, we wish Bryan Robson, and whoever remains fit at the club, all the good fortune in the footballing world. And, just as last weekend, we suspect they'll need it.

Terry Venables' decision to chose punditry over Boro is understandable. If you were going to be paid millions of pounds to watch football would you a) prefer to sit in a luxurious studio once a week and bask in the warm glow of massive media attention, or b) stand in the pouring rain day in day out and feel the cold blast of vicious criticism from irate fans?

However, Mr Venables has done the club absolutely no favours by allowing the speculation to drag on all week.

Mr Robson now finds himself in an almost untenable situation. By conceding that he needs to step aside for the good of the club, he has admitted that he alone cannot do the job. But now he finds himself single-handedly having to raise the confidence of a team of players who, like himself, must doubt his ability, and whose own morale has been shaken by seven defeats and one last gasp draw against the bottom club.

These are indeed worrying times for the Boro, especially as there are no obvious candidates who, unlike Mr Venables, would be happy to have Mr Robson as their second in command.

It will be no use reminding those diehard fans who travel to West Ham today that it is only a game, but perhaps it is worth noting that the last thing a club so palpably short of self-confidence and self-esteem needs is to have its own supporters turn upon it.