Middlesbrough FC head coach Kim Hellberg pays tribute to chairman Steve Gibson
IT remains to be seen what transpires on the pitch for Middlesbrough on Saturday afternoon.
What can be taken as read, regardless of the result, is that the respect across football - and not just on Teesside - for Boro chairman Steve Gibson has been fortified by events of the last fortnight.
Away from Southampton and quite possibly Derby at any rate.
Several years ago, Gibson's club launched a compensation claim against the Rams, claiming that the club's financial breaches cost them a Championship play-off place in 2018-19.
For most, the reputation of Gibson, who helped rescue his hometown club back in those dark days in the summer of 1986, has been further enhanced by his principled stance in pushing for Saints to be heavily punished with a sporting sanction in the wake of ‘Southampton Spygate’.
An independent disciplinary commission expelled Saints from the final on Tuesday. It prompted an appeal, but a league arbitration panel upheld the decision.
On his own relationship with the 'boss' since arriving in November, head coach Kim Hellberg said: "He's been absolutely brilliant since the first day I arrived here. He's been very, very supportive in tougher times and in good times.
"You can feel it from the first meeting about the type of man he is, and it's been a good time."