Former Leeds United boss Garry Monk has set his sights on taking Middlesbrough back to the Premier League in the first coming.
The Riverside outfit could not manage to salvage their top-flight status in the second half of last season as they could not muster wins in key games against their relegation rivals. Boro managed to attain respectable draws against Arsenal and Manchester City both away from home, but it was their lack of attacking threat which ended their hopes of another Premier League season.
Monk took over the reigns as the new head coach earlier on Monday, and he is eager to achieve Premier League promotion although it won’t be an easy task considering the level of competition between the teams in the second tier, he said: “This club is equipped, it is ready and the ambition from all of us is to get back at the first time of asking. Promotion has to be the ambition. It’s a competitive and difficult league but this club is equipped and we’re all determined to do it. That is the ambition, the objective. There is no getting away from that. That is the challenge, I would like to make it at the first attempt, but in this league it is very difficult for the teams that come down to make it back.”
Middlesbrough were the lowest scorers across all divisions in the English Football League, and it did not come as a surprise that they faced relegation after a long-wait for top-flight football. Teams like Newcastle United have twice achieved promotion from the Championship in the first attempt, and Boro will be hoping to keep hold of their current crop of players in order to achieve a similar feat under Garry Monk. Middlesbrough will be hoping to return to the Premier league in the first time of asking.
