Middlesbrough and the Most Lucrative Game in the Universe

Next Monday afternoon the sporting world will stand still and witness the Championship Play-Off Final, a contest that has been referred to as the 'most lucrative game in world football' so many times that all you can see when watching it is a load of pound signs flailing about on the Wembley turf like displaced fish. We've dealt with Norwich City, so here's the low-down on their opponents Middlesbrough.

Boro looked to be in with a genuine shout of automatic promotion all season long but ultimately finished fourth, four points behind second-placed Watford. Relegated from the Premier League in 2009, they've spent the past six seasons in the Championship but hadn't made the Play-Offs until this term. Their season was aided no end by the talents of on-loan Chelsea youngster Patrick Bamford – the 21-year-old was their top scorer and named Championship Player of the Year – but they've been extremely safe at the back too, conceding fewer goals than any other club in the division. The likes of Lee Tomlin, Albert Adomah and George Friend have also been crucial.

There's the obvious fact that Juninho used to play for them. Do you really need anything else? You could add that current Boro boss Aitor Karanka used to be Jose Mourinho's number two at Real Madrid, but is now managing a second-tier club in the north east. That's worth something. Fans of a certain age will probably have a soft sport for Boro's tendency to import big-name players who've just passed their peak: Fabrizio Ravanelli, Alen Boksic, Gaizka Mendieta, the list goes on. They've also got a healthy mix in their current squad: Jonathan Woodgate used to play for Real Madrid, while vice-captain Friend started out in non-league football.

There's something a bit uninspiring about Boro. They've got a huge stadium that they struggle to fill and, despite the big names, their past Premier League record is a story of mediocrity and mid-table finishes. Their name is easy to misspell and they thought Gareth Southgate was a good appointment as manager, which suggests a certain level of ineptitude at the top. You could also level the 'Chelsea-lite' criticism at them: they've got a few players on loan from the Blues and have a tendency to close down games Mourinho-style.

14 seasons over three spells. They were involved for the inaugural season after winning promotion from the old Division 2 but went straight back down. They returned for a few gloriously mad years of Juninho, Ravanelli and Emerson in the mid-90s, then spent a season in the second tier. After returning immediately, they became a mid-table Premier League mainstay between 1998 and 2009, usually finishing in 12th before Southgate took them down. In total they've completed 60 seasons in the top flight without ever winning it.

"This has been a brilliantly enjoyable season. It's been a long time since we have looked like a competent team, never mind a good one, and it almost feels a bit unnerving watching how much quality football we've played. Boro have a great record this season of knowing how to approach big games. It's 5-0 on aggregate in the two we've played against Norwich, but the last was 1-0 and very tight. If they've worked us out on the third time of asking, we might struggle to think of what to do when we're under pressure and need to score. But, if we show the same qualities of grit and creativity we did against Brentford, I think we have what it takes to win and go up on Monday."

Joe (who unlike your typical Boro fans lives in London)

You'd imagine that Bamford could be retained for another year and, with a bit of spending, the club could conceivably return to their natural status as mid-table finishers. Then again it's Boro, so they could just as easily sign a load of past-it European names, fall to bits and be relegated again.

Karanka could go back to Spain if he's had enough of managing a second-tier club from a less-than-glamorous part of the world. If they lose the final and he stays they'll blatantly start next year badly and have to sack him before Christmas.

Remember when Ravanelli scored a hat-trick against Liverpool on his debut? It was the summer holidays, football was back and school seemed a million miles away. God I miss my youth.