Simon Stone
BBC Sport's chief football news reporter
When Michael Carrick was appointed Middlesbrough manager in October 2022, he resurrected a club flirting with relegation from the Championship and did so by delivering exciting, winning, possession-based football.
After losing his first game against Preston, Boro won 16 out of their next 22 league matches.
When they beat Preston in the return game at the Riverside on 18 March, they were three points off automatic promotion and a return to the Premier League after a six-year absence was on the cards.
But Boro's form deserted them at the wrong moment. They won two out of their last eight games, missed out on automatic promotion by 16 points and were beaten by Coventry in the play-off semi-finals.
It never got better than that for Carrick at Boro, even though he lasted two more seasons.
The first of those never recovered from a rotten start, when they collected two points from their opening seven games. The second lacked consistency and five straight defeats from January into February ensured there was no late run to the play-offs.
He was eventually sacked as manager on 4 June, 2025, after a 10th-placed finish.
On the plus side, there was a run to the EFL Cup semi-final in 23-24, where Boro were eventually beaten by Chelsea.
Michael Carrick at MiddlesbroughGetty Images