AT first glance, it looks as though Middlesbrough reacted swiftly to get their new man in place during a weekend of considerable upheaval. Within 24 hours of Neil Warnock’s dismissal on the morning of Boro’s 1-1 draw with West Brom, Chris Wilder was confirmed as the club’s new manager.

However, rather than simply being a reaction to Warnock’s departure, the deal for Wilder to come in at the Riverside has been in place for some time. Warnock certainly suggested as much as he delivered his final address as Boro boss, and the speed of Wilder’s arrival suggests a high degree of forward planning. That is not something that has always been associated with the Teessiders.

Clearly, part of the negotiations to bring Wilder to the club would have involved a discussion over Boro’s plans for the January transfer window. Or, rather, who Wilder would like to bring to the club, and what processes will be put in place to ensure it happens. Getting that right might well be the key to whether or not Wilder’s spell in the Riverside hot-seat is a success.

Boro have been working on their January recruitment plans for a while. Initially, Warnock expected to be part of those plans in the coming weeks.

That will no longer be the case, and following his sacking, the 72-year-old bemoaned a lack of support behind the scenes at the club and claimed he wasn’t allowed to sign the players he wanted. Clearly, tensions have been apparent for a while.

In Boro’s defence, there was a balancing act that needed to be struck. Warnock was unlikely to stay beyond the current season and it is part of any recruitment staff’s remit to ensure longevity for their employers and bring in players that will be instrumental in years to come. The signing of Martin Payero, which Warnock was not exactly 100 per cent on board with, is a prime example of that thinking at work.

Eventually, though, the two parties were pulling in directions that were too different to reconcile. Warnock said at the Hawthorns: “When we’ve had opportunities to sign players for one reason or another, we’ve not been able to. So, it’s just doubly frustrating for me.

“It’s not really his (Steve Gibson) fault. Steve hasn’t really been hands-on in that respect, he leaves it to others. I don’t feel as though I’ve had the support behind the scenes that I should have done.”

During his interview with Sky Sports, he added that it was like “extracting teeth” trying to get the players he wanted to bring to the club, and revealed Boro had missed out on “four or five players” he would have wanted, which he believes could have been the difference between promotion and staying in the Championship.

From a recruitment perspective, it can be argued that the club have struggled to get it right ever since they were relegated from the Premier League. Whether that’s players on inflated wages or signings who just didn’t fit into the team. The harsh reality is that Boro have only managed to reach the play-offs once since dropping out of the top-flight.

Fans, pundits and journalists have pointed the finger at the recruitment staff in an attempt to explain that failing, as well as accepting that, too often, the wrong manager has been in place at the wrong time.

For example, Stewart Downing was a big part of Boro’s promotion push. In a recent podcast, Downing admitted that he probably wasn’t Aitor Karanka’s signing and that the club hierarchy had made the decision to bring him back. Garry Monk came into the club following Boro’s relegation from the Premier League, and decided to freeze out the veteran, telling him he was surplus to requirements. Following Monk’s sacking days before Christmas in 2017, Tony Pulis was appointed and Downing became a mainstay of the side that reached the Championship play-offs. That hardly smacks of joined-up thinking.

If your management and recruitment staff aren’t singing from the same hymn sheet, you are going to have a problem. That is the top and bottom of what has been happening at Boro.

More optimistically, Warnock made a remark after Saturday’s game stating that he anticipates his successor, Chris Wilder, will have more support than he enjoyed when it comes to new signings. Clearly, that was something he felt he had to get off his chest given the way he was let go.

If a manager cannot see the immediate benefits of bringing in a player that the recruitment staff have identified, surely he is then going to have a hard time bedding into the team? Similarly, if the recruitment team don't trust their manager's judgement, there will be issues,

Warnock’s comments have lifted the lid on issues that fans have been discussing for years. It now falls to Wilder, working with a recruitment team led by Kieran Scott, to strike the right balance.