Swedish former Premier League star has been watching Kim Hellberg's rise closely
12:00, 26 Mar 2026
Hayden Hackney of Middlesbrough celebrates at full time
Hayden Hackney of Middlesbrough celebrates at full time(Image: James Marsh/Shutterstock)
Former Arsenal and Everton midfielder Anders Limpar believes Middlesbrough would have the highest potential of any of the Championship promotion contenders.
With seven games remaining, Coventry City are nine points clear at the top of the table. Sitting in second, Boro only have a two-point cushion over Ipswich Town and Millwall, the latter of which are next up at the Riverside.
Certainly since fellow countryman Kim Hellberg arrived to take on the role at the Riverside, Limpar has been playing extra close attention to Boro and their Swedish head coach, with Limpar - who made 99 Premier League appearances in total - rating their chances of survival should they get over the line this season highly.
Limpar told FruityKing: "Kim Hellberg has done a tremendous job for Middlesbrough, and as a club Middlesbrough have the capacity with their stadium and supporters and everything to be a big hit in the Premier League.
"I rate Frank Lampard as a manager because he'd been struggling with the teams he had been coaching and now he's got that knowledge and everything has settled down. All these ideas you can see working for Coventry and they are good.
"Of the four teams at the top of the Championship now, ahead of Coventry, Ipswich and Millwall, I think Middlesbrough are the club with the highest potential to stay up next season in the Premier League."
Boro are currently occupying the final automatic promotion spot in the Championship league table. But with seven games remaining, their gap to third is only two points. They’ll be hoping to hold on to that second-placed spot in order to get a chance to prove Limpar correct next term.
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