Key dates and events to look out for in Boro’s calendar this summer
SUPPORTERS CAN SOON PLAN FOR CAMPAIGN
MIDDLESBROUGH will learn their schedule for the new season on June 26, with the EFL confirming the date for Fixture Release Day.
An exciting day for many Boro fans as they start to plan for the campaign and pick out key dates to plot what everyone hopes will be Boro’s route back to the Premier League.
A first for the Championship, Fixture Release Day will also see Boro learn when they will be shown on TV over the course of August and September, as part of the new EFL broadcast deal with Sky Sports.
Worth £935m collectively to the EFL, Championship clubs are said to be almost 50% better off by the new deal which will see Michael Carrick’s side guaranteed to be shown live on TV at least 24 times in the new season.
After learning their TV games for the first two months of the season on the day fixtures are out, Boro will then learn their TV picks and potential schedule changes up to the FA Cup third round in early January before the season kicks off.
It’s part of Sky Sports’ vow to offer more clarity to supporters as part of the new broadcast deal.
Boro are set to return for pre-season training shortly after fixture release day, with the late start to the season and lack of play-offs this term, allowing Carrick to give his players an extended break before they reconvene at Rockliffe.
Players will have individual training programmes to follow in the meantime, however.
WHILE Fixture Release Day is always a big day in terms of preparations for the new campaign starting, perhaps an even bigger date will be the start of the transfer window – with Boro and other Championship clubs looking to use it to strengthen their squads to aid ambitions for success next term.
The summer transfer window officially opens on June 14 and will close on September 2 at 11pm.
It offers clubs plenty of time to finetune their squads for the campaign, though business is likely to be slow at least for the first few weeks.
With players unlikely to be returning from holidays until the end of June/start of July – transfer activity tends to start slow most summers.
As for players like Paddy Mcnair and Luke Ayling, who will be available for free this summer following the conclusion of their contracts, they officially won’t be able to join new clubs until July 1, with existing contracts ending on June 30.
IT WILL then be all eyes on the first game of the season, with the Championship campaign starting a week later than normal this year.
As part of the new broadcast deal, every EFL game will be broadcast live on the opening weekend, which starts on Friday, August 9.
In the Championship, there will be two 8pm kick-offs on the Friday evening and there are expected to be two games played on the Sunday too, at a time to be confirmed.
The rest of the games will take place on the Saturday, and could still be at 3pm even though they will be broadcast live and the 3pm blackout will remain in place.
With no Premier League games taking place that weekend, the 3pm blackout is not applicable.
Boro will also be broadcast live in between the first and second league games of the season, as that first midweek is the first round of the Carabao
Cup. All games in that competition will also be broadcast live as part of Sky Sports’ new Sky Sports+ offering, which effectively replaces the red button of previous years.
Having reached the semi-final of last season’s competition, Boro will hope for another run in that competition.
WHILE those are key dates to look forward to, there are also some key things for as yet unconfirmed dates that we can expect over the course of the summer too.
When Boro start their pre-season, they are expected to once again head to Portugal for a training camp. At this stage, it’s not expected they will play a game while there.
There will be friendlies throughout July, however, as Carrick looks for his players to build their sharpness ahead of the new campaign.
Many will be local friendlies as in previous years, with the club expected to announce their summer-friendly schedule in due course.
Though the first team might not be playing a game abroad this summer, the under-21s will be, as part of a
friendly competition in Oberhausen, Germany.
Boro fans are being urged by fan group The Red Faction to head to Germany on Friday, July 12, for the twoday tournament.
We can also look forward to the release of the new Boro kits, with Errea set to reveal their third-season offerings since re-partnering with the club for the start of the 2021-22 season.
And those new kits will feature a new Boro badge too! As part of the club’s 125-year anniversary celebrations, a new badge will be unveiled at some point over the summer – with fans involved in the design process.
Boro are yet to release their retained list, but that should be the next major communication from the club in the next week or so.
We already know that Paddy Mcnair will be leaving the club, but await a final decision on veteran goalkeeper Jamie Jones as well as Liam Roberts, who has spent the season on loan at Barnsley.
Though still under contract for next season, Boro will no doubt hope to extend some contracts over the course of the summer too – names Riley Mcgree, who has just 12 months remaining on his deal, and Carrick himself, who is also only contracted until the end of next season.