Are Middlesbrough the Premiership’s greatest enigma?

Mention Middlesbrough and you immediately think of Jekyll and Hyde for that is what they resemble; an unpredictable, sometimes brilliant but often dire team.

Yesterday was no exception, a commited and polished performance saw ‘Boro record a deserved draw against champions-elect Manchester United. This had been preceded by losing to Chelsea last week when Gareth Southgate’s men hit the woodwork three times.

And so Middlesbrough represent one of the Premiership’s greatest enigmas.

Ahoy there shipmate!

Shiver me timbers, first the treasure of English football comes under attack from UEFA President Michel Platini, and now our clubs are being labelled pirates.

Italian clubs Palermo and Reggina have broken out in support of Platini’s remark that English clubs are poaching the best European talent before they even pull on the shirt of the club that has nurtured them. This in turn is of detriment to the development of young English players who barely get the chance to shine in the Premiership.

Give us a link, Sam?

Listening to Radio 5 Live this morning, I was delighted to hear the words “Midtable” and “Mediocrity” together in a sentence.

Mark Benton (the Nationwide advert King) was talking to Sam Delaney about his beloved Middlesbrough team and Sam posed the question as to who was the better midtable team…well there was only likely to be one answer from the Teeside lad.

But fancy mentioning Midtable Mediocrity and not giving us a credit?! And to add insult to injury there was a glaring error – clearly Spurs are the best (yet mediocre) midtable team.

Listen to the podcast from the show here http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/fivelive/eamonn/rss.xml

And seen as we have mentioned him, a little clip of Mark in one of the few good commercials swamped in a bog of mediocre ones.