By Eric Paylor
Middlesbrough have failed to react positively in their handling of the Albert Adomah affair, says Eric Paylor.
The winger's written transfer request is the result of a spat which should have been quickly and quietly smoothed over behind the scenes.
Just two weeks before his transfer request bombshell, Adomah revealed how happy he was at the club.
He was made captain for the Capital One Cup tie at Oldham, stressed how much pride the armband had given him, and was highly praised for his professionalism by manager Aitor Karanka.
Suddenly it all fell apart when Adomah was left out of the starting line-up against his former club Bristol City eight days ago.
There were media reports of a bust-up between player and manager after the game, and then Adomah was omitted from the Boro squad which travelled to Burton for the second round of the Capital One Cup.
So, a little crack has widened into a gulf.
It leaves Boro with one very unhappy player, who now sees his future away from Teesside.
Of course it might not have happened without Karanka's policy of tinkering with his team.
On the other hand, the manager has argued that his rotation system works and that, in general, the players accept it.
Maybe. But nobody likes to be left out of the side when they are playing well.
There are certain situations when players need an arm around their shoulder and a few sweet words in their ears, rather than being allowed to sit and stew.
When a player of Adomah's quality makes it clear that he is unhappy, it must be dealt with wearing kid gloves.
Now Boro could end up paying a price. One of the players who was deemed crucial to this season's promotion push wants to leave the club.
Perhaps the worst scenario is that this kind of setback leaves lasting scars in the dressing room, despite what the players may say publicly in the media.
Boro have not made the start they wanted this season and the home defeat at the hands of Bristol City was a bad one.
This creates the belief within the squad that perhaps they are not as good as they thought they were, leaving Karanka to start rebuilding confi-dence all over again.
It's impossible to be over critical of Karanka's rotation system because he has turned a mid-table club into promotion contenders. The system also potentially keeps down the number of injuries within the squad.
Yet, despite Karanka claiming that the rotation system has worked over the past 20 months, Boro are still in the Championship.
We'll never know if Boro could have gone up last season with less rotation.
Certainly the Bristol City game was the wrong moment to "rest" players, Adomah included.
In recent years Boro have consistently failed to respect Bristol City at the Riverside, and the Robins haven't lost on Teesside for 20 years.
It would have been far better if Karanka has fielded his strongest team at the start and then made the changes later, if Boro had created a winning platform.
But it would have been even better if Adomah had not been allowed to get so upset.