Middlesbrough's 1997/98 transfer rebuild and one of Bryan Robson's best decisions

Bryan Robson was a man on a mission in the summer of 1997. The Boro boss was absolutely determined to take the club straight back into the Premier League at the first attempt after they had been relegated as a result of the infamous three-points deduction.

Relegation was a stinging rebuke to everything that Robson was trying to achieve on Teesside. Now, another failure was not an option as far as Robbo was concerned. He believed it was his duty to take the Boro straight back up again.

The drop into Division One meant that massive ambitious plans for both the club and the team had to be shelved. It was not the outcome which had been anticipated but everybody had to face reality and focus on a different type of target.

For Robson, it meant putting together a new-look side because he had lost some of the stars who had been important fixtures in the plans to build a top Premier League outfit at the Riverside.

From the point of view of chairman Steve Gibson and his financial team, it was all about lowering their sights for a while and revising the wage bill to a sustainable level in the First Division. Unfortunately Boro had to cash in on their Brazilian whizz kid Juninho, around whom everything had previously revolved.

Juninho was a special talent and for many fans what the modern Boro was all about. But he had to go, and Juninho probably knew it too, when completing a £12m move to Atletico Madrid.

Out of the door, too, went the free scoring Fabrizio Ravanelli. There were reports that he was the highest paid player in the Premier League, so Boro needed him off the wage bill. The Italian striker had scored 31 goals in all competitions the previous season. With a striker like that it’s difficult to imagine these days how Boro