Woodgate planning ahead for another season in Championship with relegation-threatened Boro

The Boro head coach has admitted that the threat of “relegation” is real and has never gone away after a poor start to the season left them facing an uphill struggle in his first season in charge.

But, speaking ahead of this afternoon’s trip to bottom-placed Barnsley, Woodgate has admitted that work is still ongoing behind-the-scenes aimed at improving fortunes ahead of another campaign in the second tier.

Middlesbrough sit only six points clear of the relegation zone and are winless in seven league games going into the trip to Oakwell, and Woodgate knows anything other than a victory will heighten concerns ahead of visits from Leeds United and Nottingham Forest to the Riverside.

The situation is hardly ideal at a time when Middlesbrough have launched season card renewals and hope for supporters to commit to the 25th season at the Riverside before the deadline on Thursday, April 9.

Woodgate accepts that performances on the pitch will play a part in whether fans commit to another campaign, particularly at a time when the club is going through tighter financial times.

“We have to try to play well, we need to try to win games,” he said. “If you look at the three games we drew on the bounce at home, I thought we deserved to win at least two of those in terms of chances created. We never.

“We have to win games, score a lot of goals, try to get the fans back in. That has been difficult of late to score at home, especially twos and threes. Away from home we have been decent though.”

Even if Middlesbrough can increase the gap to the relegation zone by winning at Barnsley today, Woodgate will keep demanding improvements from his team in the hope of laying foundations for next season.

Woodgate is already working with the recruitment team on potential targets for next season, and he outlined how he would love to bring in a creative spark early for next season in the mould of a Patrick Roberts, whose loan from Manchester City has been rocked by a hamstring problem.

“We just need to win games. I will not be one of those managers who will not be driving the team on when we are safe, I will want us to keep winning games, moving forward,” said Woodgate.

“I still plan for the summer. You have to keep planning. Everything is planned for. You have to look at the bigger picture, you can’t just look at the short term. I will not be planning for anything else other than the Championship.”

And it is not just on the incoming front that Woodgate is looking at. He knows Middlesbrough face some big decisions in the weeks ahead over players’ contracts.

He has already been behind handing new deals to Djed Spence, Marcus Tavernier, Hayden Coulson and Marcus Tavernier. Discussions are ongoing with another youngster, Aysnley Pears too.

He expects Jonny Howson to sign a new contract soon and skipper George Friend is someone he wants to get tied down to new terms as well. But the likes of Ryan Shotton, Adam Clayton, Daniel Ayala, Rudy Gestede and Marvin Johnson are all due to become free agents as things stand.

“There’s nothing yet (to report on contracts),” said Woodgate. “I would say some will get sorted soon, Jonny Howson will be sorted soon. It’s taking time with a couple of them but I will probably know more at the end of the season.”

Howson and Friend are likely to be in the thick of things at Oakwell again, when Middlesbrough could stick with three at the back. Woodgate does not have too many memories of playing at the home of the Tykes.

He said: “I played there in my first Boro game in my second spell. I think I played the first game of the season when we lost. I watched them a few times last year. It’s one of those tight grounds but we’ll have 3,000 fans so they’ll probably make more noise than them.

“The support away from home has been absolutely fantastic, even at Leeds when we got beat they were clapping all the players off at the end of the game. No doubt they will do that again.”