Kim Hellberg has spoken openly about the weight of leading Middlesbrough Football Club, saying he understood from his very first day on Teesside just how deeply the community is bound up with the club's fortunes.

The Swedish head coach, who arrived from Hammarby last November, made those remarks as Boro prepared to celebrate their 150th anniversary with a home fixture in front of a sell-out Riverside Stadium. Middlesbrough currently sit third in the Championship after eight games of the new season, a position that reflects a determined response to the controversy and play-off heartache that scarred the end of last campaign.

A club that belongs to its town

"You could feel from the first day that football was something special here," Hellberg told BBC Radio Tees. "It has just grown stronger every day I've been here. I can't go anywhere without people saying to me 'Up the Boro'!"

That kind of reception, he said, carries practical value as well as personal warmth. "It's important to remind yourself and that gives you even more energy every day to get up to do everything you can to make them happy."

Those words carry more than a hint of what this town expects. Middlesbrough is not a club built on recent wealth or corporate glamour. The Riverside sits in a post-industrial landscape that has seen economic pressures many other Championship clubs have not. When a head coach talks about what the club means to people, supporters here tend to take the measure of whether he actually means it. Hellberg, by his own account, does.

150 years and a full house to mark them

The anniversary fixture was chosen deliberately to frame the club's history for a new generation. It follows a legacy match that also sold out, with former players including Juninho and Fabrizio Ravanelli returning to Teesside from across the world to take part. That event, Hellberg suggested, reinforced the sense of collective purpose he has been trying to build since his appointment.

"From last season, everyone has raised their game, everyone together," he said. "It's lovely to be part of and makes you proud of the football club, the supporters, everyone who works with the club. That togetherness makes you very proud and also very privileged to be in a role of coaching a brilliant club like Middlesbrough."

The reference to last season is significant. Boro endured what became known as the Spygate affair before suffering play-off disappointment, a bruising sequence of events that might have fragmented another squad. The fact that they have started this Championship campaign in third place, with two sell-out crowds already in the season, suggests the damage, if there was any, has been contained.

Third place and a promotion target

Hellberg has been careful not to over-promise, but the ambition is clear enough. He has spoken of wanting to take Middlesbrough back to the top flight, which is where those legendary players he celebrated this week once performed. The club has not played Premier League football for more than two decades, and that gap is felt acutely on Teesside.

Third in the Championship after eight matches is a promising start, not a guarantee of anything. The second tier has a habit of compressing over a full 46-game season, and clubs around them will not remain static. But the sell-out crowds, the anniversary momentum, and a head coach who speaks without press-release gloss about what the club means, all suggest Middlesbrough are in a better place than they were twelve months ago.

"When you see the legacy game selling out, now this game selling out and how loud we've been this season," Hellberg said, "it's absolutely brilliant."

On Teesside, they will want it to stay that way well into May.

Frequently asked

Where are Middlesbrough in the Championship table this season?
Middlesbrough are third in the Championship after eight games of the current season, having made a strong start following last season's play-off disappointment.
Who is Middlesbrough's head coach?
Kim Hellberg, a Swedish coach who arrived from Hammarby in November, is Middlesbrough's head coach.
What is Middlesbrough's 150th anniversary?
2024-25 marks 150 years since Middlesbrough Football Club was founded. The club celebrated with a legacy match involving former players, including Juninho and Fabrizio Ravanelli, and a sell-out Championship fixture at the Riverside Stadium.