What stopped Middlesbrough becoming a Premier League club at the end of the 2018-19 season? Derby, apparently.
Not the six straight games they lost between March 9 and April 6. Not taking one point from a possible 21 at a crucial stage in the season. Not losing home and away to Nottingham Forest who finished ninth. Not losing at home to Bristol City (eighth), Sheffield Wednesday (12th) or Preston (14th).
No, it was all down to Derby, whose cheating of the EFL’s financial fair play rules — the ambition tax, as it should be known — meant that they claimed sixth place by one point from Middlesbrough, who came seventh, therefore missing out on the play-offs, which they no doubt would have won.