Middlesbrough boss: 'Mistakes have been made - but it's not Steve Gibson's fault'

Boro brought in two players last month (Rajiv van La Parra and John Obi Mikel), but three senior figures left the Riverside (Danny Batth, Grant Leadbitter and Martin Braithwaite) and Pulis’ attempts to sign a number of attacking targets came to nothing in the final few days of the window.

Having repeatedly warned of the risk of failing to add to a squad that currently sits fifth in the Championship ahead of this afternoon’s trip to promotion rivals, West Brom, Pulis admits his side are in a weaker position now than when the transfer window opened at the start of January.

However, while he accepts Middlesbrough’s financial position is the cause of the club’s decision to sanction just three permanent signings in the last three transfer windows, he insists it would be unfair to pin the blame on Gibson.

“I came into this club because of Steve Gibson,” said Pulis, who took his coaching staff to a pub in Hurworth on Thursday afternoon when it became clear Boro were not going to make any deadline-day additions. “I knew Steve before I joined this football club and always had tremendous respect for him as an outsider looking in.

“Whenever I did meet him, outside of the game, I always thought he was a proper football man. He has an unbelievable passion for this football club and this area, not just the football club, but the people here too. The people who have lost jobs because of the industrial change that was brought about in the 70s and 80s, and how this place has turned around. It’s very similar to South Wales in that respect.

“There was that bond, and I’ve got tremendous respect for him in everything he’s done. The one thing I want to make sure everybody understands and recognises is that he shouldn’t be blamed. People shouldn’t be throwing stones at Steve.”

While Pulis insists Gibson should not be blamed for tightening the purse strings, the Boro boss clearly feels he has been unfortunate to take over on Teesside at a time when his employers are attempting to repair some of the financial damage that has been inflicted in the past.

In the wake of 2017’s relegation from the Premier League, Gibson sanctioned an outlay of around £50m, with Garry Monk recruiting the likes of Braithwaite, Britt Assombalonga, Darren Randolph, Jonny Howson and Ashley Fletcher on lucrative long-term deals.

Last season’s failure to win promotion at the first time of asking was damaging, and if the Teessiders fail to make it into the top-flight this term, they will have sustain their current wage bill in the Championship next season without receiving a penny in parachute payments.

Amid that backdrop, Gibson and Neil Bausor have concluded it would be unwise to make increases to the wage bill, hence the reluctance to make January signings and the current contractual impasse involving Stewart Downing.

It is not the first time the Boro hierarchy have had rein in their spending, and Pulis likens the club’s current situation to the position Tony Mowbray had to deal with as he was charged with the task of clearing up the mess bequeathed by his predecessor, Gordon Strachan.

“Steve Gibson spent an absolute fortune for one reason – to try to get this football club promoted,” said Pulis. “He gave everything for the people in charge to take this football club up. So you can’t blame him – there's no blame whatsoever on Steve. But you have to look at history and learn from it.

“It’s a little bit deja vu if you look at the club - Tony Mowbray got caught in a very similar position when he had to come in when the finances weren’t brilliant. He had two years having to clear everything out and cut back on stuff.

“Hopefully, it’s something the club will not do again. But it’s been done, and you can’t do anything about it.”

When he was discussing his squad in the summer, Pulis claimed the group that started the season were “not good enough” to win promotion without some attacking acquisitions. Those acquisitions did not arrive in the summer, and were not forthcoming in January either, but while a number of Boro’s promotion rivals were able to generate some positive momentum by signing players last month, Pulis insists it would be wrong to write Boro off.

The Teessiders have not been out of the top-six positions since the opening weekend of the season, and head to Hawthorns this afternoon seven points adrift of the automatic promotion places, with a game in hand.

“In terms of the window, the feeling is disappointment more than anything else,” said Pulis. “Disappointment in reflection of seeing what money was spent 18 months ago.

“Steve has spent more than £50m - and the wages that go along with that – it’s extraordinary and the club is paying for it at the moment.

“But since we got into the top six shortly after I arrived, the team has never been out of that top-six position. Maybe we lack the ingredients that we need to get to that next step, but if you play as a team and work as team, we’ve got as good a chance as anybody else, if everybody pulls together.”