What Kim Hellberg said back in March will excite Middlesbrough fans | OneFootball

Kim Hellberg gave a reminder towards the end of last season that his teams are always better in his second year

The prospect of another season in the Championship can be hard to swallow for Middlesbrough fans, given how close to the finish line they were with a couple of months remaining in the campaign.

With 10 games remaining, Boro had their place in the top two in their own hands, sitting four points clear of Millwall in third place.

From then on, though, Kim Hellberg's side would win just two more times, both coming in the final three games of the season, and then became the first side to lose in both the play-off semi-finals and the final.

Overall, Middlesbrough won just four times in their final 18 games in both the regular season and the play-offs, and in reality, if they'd have just won two more times before the season's end, they'd be a Premier League club.

It was a massive case of burnout, both from a squad arguably not built to withstand the physical demands of 'Hell-ball' and from Hellberg himself, who transitioned immediately from the end of the Swedish top-flight campaign with his old club Hammarby to his new role at the Riverside, effectively managing for 15 months straight with no break.

Kim Hellberg's second season admission will give Middlesbrough fans something to look forward to

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With Kim Hellberg able to enjoy an offseason break for the first time in what must feel like forever for the Swedish boss, plus being able to put in plans for recruitment ahead of the summer transfer window, there's plenty to look forward to at Middlesbrough ahead of next season.

Especially if, by Hellberg's own admission, his football teams often improve from his debut to his sophomore year in the dugout.

Speaking to BBC Tees back in March, per Teeside Live, the Boro head coach said, "Every team I've had has always been better in the second year to the first year.

"I think that comes from how I work, and how I want to develop all of the time. I could never be in a team where we just park the bus all the time and play for set plays.

"I wouldn't be a good coach in that type of team. I couldn't do that, because that would be eating me up. For me, how I work and how we play is the number one because I also know that is the thing that gives me results over time."

At times last season, Middlesbrough under Hellberg were the best team in the division, both in terms of the sheer dominance in results and, aesthetically, the way that they played was a joy to watch.

Ultimately, they ran out of steam at the crucial end of the campaign, but if the Swedish head coach can oversee improvement and a little more consistency over 46 games next term, Boro could be a dangerous prospect in 2026/27.

How Kim Hellberg's former sides have performed in their second season — Middlesbrough can afford some excitement

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Kim Hellberg's admission isn't based on false stats. All of his previous clubs have seen improvement from the first year to the next.

His first job at IF Sylvia saw him guide the fourth-tier Swedish side to the third division in his second campaign in the dugout in 2018.

At Varnamo, in his second role as head coach a couple of years later, he took over a newly promoted Swedish top-flight side and finished 10th in his first season. In the second, he placed fifth.

And at Hammarby, the club he was at before the switch to Middlesbrough last November, he may have failed to win the Allsvenskan, finishing second both times, but he led the club to a better record in his second season, earning eight more points, winning three more games and scoring 12 more goals.

While Hellberg's comments back in March were made before the collapse and would have excited Boro fans about what he could do in the Premier League, they will still evoke some positivity about what the club can do next season in the Championship.

At its best, Hellberg's style was compared to Marcelo Bielsa's at Leeds United. El Loco failed in the play-offs in his first season before winning the second tier in his second. The Boro head coach will be aiming to follow in his footsteps next year.