Although their form of late has been far from ideal, Middlesbrough can still have themselves an exciting end to the 2021/22 season. 

At present, the club are sitting 9th in the Championship table following their defeat at home to Huddersfield Town last time out.

That Huddersfield result meant that Boro are now four matches without a victory, with three of those last four ending in defeat.

Despite this though, there are reasons to be positive for Boro, who despite their poor form, are only three points behind Sheffield United in sixth.

Chris Wilder's side also have a game in hand over the Blades, and the other sides above them, which if they won, could see them move into a play-off place.

With that being said, recently, football finance author Kieran Maguire put out an image online of how much each squad in the Championship cost to assemble, based off of their most recent accounts.

 

Although it isn't a perfect formula, we thought we'd take a look at it nonetheless, and see how Boro's squad costs compares to that of their fellow Championship rivals.

Boro's squad cost

According to the graph, the total cost of Middlesbrough's squad, factoring in their most recent filed accounts, totals £58.3 million pounds.

That is the seventh highest in the division, with only Fulham (£233 million), AFC Bournemouth (£198.6 million), Stoke City (£145.4 million), Sheffield United (£113.7 million), West Brom (£85 million) and Derby (£62.5 million).

The Derby figure is unlikely to be wholly accurate though given they have not filed any accounts in the last three years and therefore their value does not reflect their current squad.

Play-off rivals

Another interesting thing to look at is how Boro's squad cost compares to the teams they're trying to knock out of the top six.

Only Sheffield United (£113.7 million) in the current Championship top six have a higher squad cost than themselves.

The next highest squad cost from their own in the current top six is Nottingham Forest (£30.8 million), meanwhile, 3rd placed Huddersfield have a squad cost of (£17.2 million).

Remarkably, Luton Town, who sit fourth in the Championship, have a squad cost on the chart above of just £3.4 million.

Boro will certainly hope that the extra spend on their squad will help them over the line in achieving a play-off place in the coming weeks.