Boro’s Kim Hellberg speaks on Spygate, Southampton, pre-season and 2026/27 fixtures

Boro’s Kim Hellberg speaks on Spygate, Southampton, looking ahead to pre-season and the 2026/27 fixtures released earlier this week.

In May, Southampton beat Middlesbrough to book a place in the Championship playoff final, only to be thrown out of the playoffs to spying on Boro, Oxford and Ipswich.

Middlesbrough then had to prepare for the playoff final, only to then lose that to Hull. Now Boro prepare for life in the Championship, and will come up against Southampton again next season.

When asked about processing emotions after Spygate and defeat in the playoffs, he told Sky Sports News, as per Football League World:

“Of course it was. It was a special last weeks of the season, with ups and downs and absolutely everything.

“So it was important to come away on vacation and have some things and spend a lot of time with friends and family. Now energy is back to keep going — and do it better. I think everyone handles it in different ways. That’s what you have to do about it.

“But you also have to use it as fuel and as a strength going into this season. We know that we were close. We know that we are close to being good enough. We’ll use it as a fuel going into this pre-season to do things better, to try to achieve what we want to achieve, and to work harder for it.

“It was crazy. It was back and forth on emotions and all those things so much and just a weird situation from everything that happened around it.

“It’s like everything, you try to learn from it, you try to improve from it, you try to use it as an experience from what we’ve been through. And we try to be stronger from it going forward. It was an especially weird few weeks.”

On Tonda Eckert’s future at Southampton: “I haven’t thought about that. The season ended and we weren’t good enough to go through. That’s everything to say about it for me. I have to try and do better next year and that’s what I’m focusing on.

“I’m not focusing on other teams. I’m not focusing on another manager. He’s a good manager. He did very, very good for Southampton. Southampton is a big club and they will probably be successful this year.

“That’s everything from me. It’s been talked about so much. I’m just looking forward to next season, wishing all the teams and all the coaches the best, and we’ll see who has the best season when the season’s ended.”

Southampton owner explains why he WON’T be sacking Tonda Eckert over Spygate

HELLBERG’S INTERVIEW WITH MIDDLESBROUGH’S MEDIA:

Interviewer: Welcome back to Teesside. To kick things off, firstly, how was your break?

Kim: Thank you. The break was brilliant, was a long break, was the first time in a while I had a break up to five weeks, so that was special. It was very, nice with the family, being back in Sweden and also in Greece for one week, so it’s been good.

Interviewer: And during that break, did you manage to catch any of the World Cup?

Kim: Haven’t seen much of it to be fair. I’ve the Swedish game but not much more than that. I will watch a bit now when it starts to get to knockout stage but yeah I will see more now.

Interviewer: And what do you make of Sweden’s chances?

Kim: First game was good, second game we struggled so we see. We need to take a point against Japan I think in the last game to go through and I think that’s a good chance to do that.

Interviewer: And now you’re back in the building with pre-season right around the corner. How does it feel to be back?

Kim: Very good. It was very exciting to go into here to start work. So it just feels energised by the break of course and coming back to this where we love to be so I’m looking forward to it.

Interviewer: We’ve announced some exciting pre-season friendlies for fans to get their teeth sunk into, particularly Celtic I’m sure they’ll be excited for. But what are you looking to get out of those games?

Kim: I think I’m just looking forward to get a pre-season with the players to try to develop the way we want to play. Special time to come in, two days up to the first game and from there you moved on. I tried to make the things as I want in terms of how you train and when you train. It was also like a mixture of when you’re coming in to try to keep what has been and try to move some things forward. Now it’s a chance for me and the coaching staff to move things forward and put the standards we want from the beginning and that’s where the pre-season is a brilliant seven weeks to do that so that’s what I’m looking forward to to put the standards we want to work with the way we want to play and get time to do it so I’m looking forward to very very exciting to go into this pre-season and start working.

Interviewer: And this is your first pre-season at Middlesbrough, your first time in the off-season. Can you just sort of explain what a Kim Hellberg pre-season looks like?

Kim: We will be training a lot and be a lot on the ground, both in the theory room and outside on the pitch. That’s what we want to do. We’re also working with the things we want to work with. I think it’s more an opportunity to do things more accurate than you can do it just in the middle of the season. More with more power, more intense into it, building relationship in a different way because you’re not in the middle of something, you’re starting something. It gives me, and of course with the months I had there before, it gives me a better view of the players, of what we need, what we want, how we want to work forward. So build a base that gives me and the coaching staff a better chance to start a little bit further ahead. So I’m just looking forward to seven weeks to put the standards in, to build the culture I want to have from the beginning. That’s what I’m looking forward to. And meeting the players again. I love working with this group. They are fantastic group of players that I want to develop, I want to get better. And that’s what I’m looking forward to, to work with them in the pre-season. Because that gives a little bit different opportunities to us.

Interviewer: Today is fixture release day. It’s a day that fans get really excited for to see who we’re playing but what does fixture release day mean to you?

Kim: No, I do the same. The tricky part is it’s difficult to know what a good fixture is in terms of that but as everyone else I’m looking forward to the date, quickly as possible looking at what features we have and trying to figure out if it’s good or bad but it’s difficult to know I think.

Interviewer: There’s always a lot of talk about who people are looking forward to play at different parts of the season. Is there anyone that you’ve got your eye on or do you sort of keep your eye on different periods throughout the season?

Kim: To be fair, no special game in terms of that. More looking into who we start against, who we finish against, and then maybe some time around the Christmas, where I know the period is very intense and a lot of short amount of time in between. That’s what I’m looking forward to. Then of course, it’s some big games. It’s always interesting to see when you play the teams coming down from the Premier League and like that. In general, it’s just exciting to look. No special game like that.

Interviewer: Speaking of who we start and finish the season with, we start with Lincoln and we finish the season with Swansea. What do you make of those two games?

Kim: It’s difficult to know. Lincoln is a new promoted team that did it brilliantly. They lost their manager to Bristol City, which means there will be a new manager into that group and into that team which means that it’s always difficult when you’re going to play against a new manager what will change and how we’ll do it but a new team that did absolutely brilliant in this season and fairly deserved to go up to the Championship so that will be a tough game and as we know it’s a team that invested a lot in and it’s a very good football team with a lot of good footballers, so there’s two good sides and like I learned something last year that in the Championship there are no easy games, are tough games everywhere and they give you different challenges. So I’m just looking forward to play the teams, to start competing again, to see the fans, to train. And like you said, we have some unbelievable features in the training games, in the friendlies that will be good to kick off with.

Interviewer: It’s a fresh start, like you said. Will lots of positives to take from last season as won’t there?

Kim: Absolutely. I think in general we were a good football side that we can build from. Like we said, because of the start coming in the middle of the season, we get a little bit of a head start into the pre-season that we can, even if it was impossible during the middle of the season to change everything, I could change some things and start to work towards how I wanted my team to play. With the transfer window, it gives even more opportunity to get those types of players in together with everyone that works with that. That is a brilliant thing. I think the bond with the supporters, how we work together, how we fight through good times and tougher times was brilliant and to build from that and also to build from those tough periods and tough moments that we have. think that gets people stronger together and that’s what we need and that’s what we’re trying to do and take energy from and when we’re going into this season we want to get better than last season and of course we were close last season so, that’s the same, that’s always the same, to get better, work hard, to achieve together with the support and create memories. Football is also about that, football is about emotions, create memories, be together, fight together and go through tough and good periods together.

Interviewer: And there’s some new teams coming up and obviously the relegated teams from the Premier League last season. How excited are you to face off against some new opposition?

Kim: Very excited and like I said, it’s two big clubs in terms of also, except Lincoln, also Bolton coming up, that is a Premier League club for a long time, and Cardiff that also was in Premier League for not that long ago. Two big massive clubs. And then of course West Ham and Burnley coming down. So it’s a lot of good teams, it’s a lot of good features and it’s a lot of, this is a fantastic league to be playing in. There’s a lot of games, there’s a lot of good stadiums, good atmospheres and it’s a brilliant league to be in and I’m looking forward to play every game and try to achieve something great and try to continue building on everything we started last season.

Interviewer: And finally, the fans will be itching to get back into the Riverside and get the season going. It’ll be another exciting season, I’m sure, but how excited are you to see them and get back in amongst it with them?

Kim: I’ve missed them, it’s been five weeks and I’ve tried to during this time be off the phone and all those things as much as possible because it was, like we said before, was a long season for me, it was a Swedish season and then two days and then into the middle of the English season so I think I was playing competition games for 16 months in a row so for me it was important to try to be off as much as possible. But now I’m just feeling that I’m looking forward to everything, to keep building and keep fighting together with them again. Because that’s what we’re doing. We are trying to do things together and how that grows through the season. think that was absolutely brilliant. I have some of my best memories from the last season. I have in my 15-year coaching career that I will take with me forever. And I’m looking forward to building new ones.