"Not down to the owner" - Claim made on Middlesbrough chief Steve Gibson | OneFootball

FLW's Middlesbrough fan pundit has been speaking on whether owner Steve Gibson has the club's best interests at heart.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Steve Gibson has seen it all in his almost four decades of involvement with Middlesbrough Football Club.

The local 67-year-old entrepreneur is a boyhood Boro fan, and he played a vital role in saving the club from liquidation when first joining the club's board in 1986.

At the time, he became Middlesbrough's youngest ever director at just 26, and he's been performing his role as chairman since 1994.

Gibson has overseen some of Boro's greatest days and golden eras, including a 2004 League Cup win, two UEFA Cup campaigns, a 2015/16 Championship promotion-winning season and many years as a Premier League club.

"Not down to the owner" - Claim made on Middlesbrough chief Steve Gibson

We asked our Middlesbrough fan pundit, Jasper Hudson: 'Are you confident Steve Gibson has the club's best interests at heart or not?'

Hudson said: "Steve Gibson definitely looks after the club well.

"Not everything he does is perfect, but you're never going to have an owner that is perfect, and he takes a huge financial hit every year supporting the club.

"He invests in the club. Over the last couple of years the club's really stepped forward. We were in a bad place and struggling, and we've managed to make the right decisions and we've progressed.

"Unfortunately, we've not progressed enough. But, we've been close a few times to being a Premier League club, and it's that consistency of being in and around the play-offs, with how difficult the league is and parachute payments and quality of teams going up and down; there's not too much more you can ask for.

"I think he's given Michael Carrick the squad, the finances and the facilities to go up, or at least make the play-offs. We're either going to just miss out or get in, but that's not down to the owner.

"I think this season and last season, he's done the best he can to put us in that position."

Steve Gibson deeply cares about Middlesbrough FC, but he's currently under most fan scrutiny in some time

If there's one thing that can never be said about Gibson, it's that he doesn't care for the success, health and future of Middlesbrough Football Club.

As per Boro's most recent financial accounts for the 2023/24 season, it was revealed that in large part thanks to him, Middlesbrough's gross debt was slashed from £154m to just £24m.

The previous year's figures also revealed that £148m was owed to Gibson as of June 2023, but the Boro owner had converted £107m into shares in the football club, effectively writing off what was owed to him.

Therefore, it's entirely plausible and reasonable to state that without his loyal and relentless backing of the football club, Middlesbrough would be in a considerably more perilous financial state than the one they're currently in.

However, despite all of that, it does feel as though Gibson is currently taking as much flak as he's ever done from supporters.

Ever since being relegated from the Premier League in 2016/17, Boro have endured mixed success with their managerial appointments, with the likes of Garry Monk, Jonathan Woodgate and Chris Wilder failing to succeed on Teesside.

In Carrick, Boro supporters are also growing frustrated with his playing style, personnel decisions and in-game management, with the club hoping to avoid missing out on the play-offs for the second straight season.

Then there's ticket prices at the Riverside Stadium, with Middlesbrough's cheapest adult season ticket for the current 2024/25 season being £574 - the most expensive in the Championship (per BirminghamWorld).

So, as Hudson said, Gibson isn't perfect. No owner is. But if it's a question of whether he has the club's best interests at heart, the answer is an emphatic, yes.