It was the numbers that mattered. Answers could not be found in the scoreline from when Middlesbrough beat Derby County 2-0 and nor could the table offer much guidance. The club stood one point from the top of the Coca-Cola Championship when Steve Gibson called time on Gareth Southgate’s first managerial post and approached Gordon Strachan, but that, in itself, was irrelevant. So was the date.

Using those criteria, the decision to relieve Southgate of his duties has a perplexing feel. There will be those who look at Middlesbrough, with their ambitious, local benefactor, their brilliant academy, Southgate’s promise and their healthy league position and wonder how precisely it has come to this, but malaise on Teesside is deep-rooted and troubling.

And, to repeat, they were not the numbers that mattered. The numbers that mattered were the bodies who clattered through the turnstiles of the Riverside Stadium on Tuesday night. Or, more accurately, those who did not. Lowest league crowds have become a theme at Middlesbrough and another nadir, registered against Derby, coincided with the end for their manager.

But Middlesbrough have been undergoing spasms for years, not weeks. They have done so many things right - the early move away from Ayresome Park, their purpose-built training ground, the investment in youth - but changing dynamics in English football and the recession beyond has entailed sharp restructuring. It has felt unsustainable.

Southgate has been the focal point of cricism, to the point that he had become a divisive, polarising figure. It is he who has been held culpable for the club’s relegation from the Barclays Premier League, for the decline since their appearance in the Uefa Cup final, even though demotion had been a genuine concern in Steve McClaren’s last season as manager.

Southgate is a deeply able, intelligent figure, possessing passion, a belief in doing fair by his players and a commitment to working for the good of the town. He shies away from cliché, from the bull**** favoured by many of his peers and while that does him credit as a man, it probably conspired against him in management. Sometimes you longed for him to shout the odds, to stir some controversy.

Bull**** can serve a purpose, after all. It gets you into newspapers or on the television, it can galvanise your players and whip up a crowd. Southgate’s reluctance to play that game was part of who he is and a winning characteristic, but then as Roy Keane has said before, this is a professional populated by bluffers. And Keane, of course, knows a thing or two about generating headlines.

Behind the scenes, there were thorny issues, questions about whether Southgate’s coaching staff sufficiently compensated for his own mildness. When Malcolm Crosby left the club and was replaced in an advisory category by Alan Smith - both good men, steeped in football - members of Middlesbrough’s hierarchy asked who would answer back to their novice manager. It prompted disagreements.

Southgate’s acquisitions, particularly during the last transfer window, did not meet with universal approval. While there have always been rumours that Afonso Alves was not a signing initiated by him, the players brought in over the summer were his. After being obliged to reduce the wage-bill and lower the age of his squad, he stuck to a blueprint; young, ambitious, neat on the ball.

But where was the edge and who provided ferocity? While Lee Cattermole had personal reasons for leaving the area a year ago, his subsequent form for Wigan Athletic and Sunderland, mark him out as a future England international. Allowing Cattermole and George Boateng to move at the same time weakened Middlesbrough’s central midfield, for all that it briefly encouraged more expressive football.

During the close-season, Southgate passed up on the opportunity to sign Gavin McCann from Bolton Wanderers; with Emmanuel Pogatetz injured, Middlesbrough had nobody to grasp a game by the throat, to close out victories, to provide steel. He did not wish to undermine the work of the academy by populating his squad with the type of player he previously jettisoned, but that philosophy faltered.

Gibson’s decision was not hasty. Prior to Middlesbrough’s victory at Reading, he had been considering his options, pondering on how long to let the situation ride. Southgate was being jeered by fans and attendances were dwindling; this is now a club which must wring the most from its resources and crowds of 17,000 do not cover the costs of a promotion campaign.

Home performances against the likes of Sheffield United, West Bromwich Albion and Leicester City veered towards the moribund; Reading was merely a respite. Those things could not be ignored because, more than most, Middlesbrough are reliant on their supporters. They are a club with community facilities in the least privileged areas of the town and those links are vital.

It is not a lip-service thing and while Southgate took those responsibilities seriously, the risk was of bonds being stretched, links being strained and patience waning under successive seasons of struggle and mediocrity. Strachan will be asked to renew them, nurture them, protect them. By their very nature, Middlesbrough have to do things differently to thrive. This is just the latest example.