Regardless of what happens in the play-offs, the Boro hierarchy are once again in a great position to secure the club’s future. Simon Fallaha discusses how it might be achieved
A hugely successful manager can be the best and worst thing to happen to any football club.
Am I being controversial? Maybe. But in my view, it definitely rings true. How often, in this beautiful game of ours, have we, as fans, put the manager on a pedestal only to destroy him before he and we know it? Or how frequently have clubs, after enjoying years or maybe even decades of reaching rarely attainable or previously unattainable heights under a certain manager, been left not quite knowing where we’re going after he departs?
I wonder if the Arsenal fans who spent years clamouring for Arsene Wenger’s exit are contemplating what structure their club will have in place now. Manchester United, as we know, have tried three managers since Sir Alex Ferguson departed and are nowhere near finding themselves at the top in quite the same way again.
With Wenger and Ferguson, and Don Revie, you had managers creating an enduring identity, their own family within the family of the club.
As James Corbett has argued, Revie changed the face of English football by being a “confidant to the players, psychologist, social secretary, kit designer, commercial manager, PR flak, dietician and all-encompassing ‘boss’ of his team”.
Revie’s Leeds were revolutionary, even if Brian H. Clough may have thought of Revie’s “family” as having more in keeping with the mafia than Mothercare, but that’s for another time.
Perhaps more significantly, much of what Revie did was carried forward to Boro when Jack Charlton became our manager. The white band that Charlton initiated is still iconic and the heroes of the 1973-74 side are still fondly spoken of today.
With all silver linings come clouds though. And Charlton’s would appear to be his team being found out, failing to replace John Hickton, refusing to spend available funds and leaving a year too soon.
Although I emphasise “appear”, because the blessing in disguise is that we were not as embedded in Charlton’s ways as, say, United might have been in Ferguson’s when David Moyes took charge at United.
That helped ensure that the likes of Craig Johnston, shunned by Charlton, made a proper breakthrough and that Charlton’s successor John Neal was able to reshape Boro into a more free-flowing, exciting team, even breaking the bank for players where and when Charlton wouldn’t have.
Alas, Neal made good on his threat to quit as boss when chairman Charlie Amer started selling key players – and Boro were off on a downward spiral.
Charlton didn’t capitalise when he had the chance. Neal wasn’t allowed to. And it is arguable that Revie, Wenger and Ferguson had done a little too much capitalising on their managerial opportunities.
There is such a thing as putting too much of yourself into the club – and, as Amer’s actions, and more recently Mel Morris’s and Steve Gibson’s show, that goes for chairmen too. (Whoever was smart enough to suggest that the difference between Paul Clement and Aitor Karanka in early 2016 was probably just a few points and a chairman deserves a medal, albeit with hindsight.)
Any club who allows a manager to take total control on the way to creating a successful dynasty is pretty much destined to become a Damned United once the “beloved” manager leaves.
It is bad enough that their immediate successors are left with an impossible job. Look at Clough and Moyes. It is possibly worse to wonder, although usually in the aftermath of a managerial spell, that if only the club as a whole had had the intuition, courage and conviction to build on the right positives while that manager was in charge, who knows what might have happened?
An alternative argument among the more parochial of us back at Boro is that some of those positives, especially in the modern era, aren’t really all that positive after all. That once-futuristic stadia, foam hands, foreign players who probably didn’t know where Middlesbrough was until shortly before they signed, continental tactics that didn’t suit certain individuals and expensive loan signings are the very epitome of the commercial over the communal, football as product rather than competition.
I suppose that in repeatedly trying to adjust to the cycle of football, Boro have found out that a little knowledge and the right amount of money can be a dangerous thing. Yet it can simultaneously be a very good thing. Helping the club to overcome the fear of failure mindset – which Tony Pulis has played his part in doing – has put us in good stead ahead of the play-offs.
The question is: which way now?
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As with Pulis, Aitor Karanka’s initial contract at Boro was for a short-term period. A mere eighteen months. His success in footballing terms, that is to say, building solid foundations and instilling the right momentum and belief to take a commanding collective five points clear at the top of the Championship with a game in hand – ironically after an eighteen-month spell of consistently good results – indicated he might be able to contribute to a long-term plan after all.
But success induces irritability, hubris and condescension. Or worse, cowardice. Too often the most successful people at any club dodge the difficult questions because they believe that, as long as they’re producing the goods on paper, they don’t need to answer.
For every fan that argued that the top two was the very least Karanka should have achieved with his resources around the time of Charlton, there would be those – including the man himself! – who would point out where we were before he took charge.
But even if statistical history paints 2015-16 as a success, what is the manager doing but trying to have his cake and eat it too? This was someone who appeared exceptionally proud of transferring his Basque characteristics of “faith” and “hard work”, along with a backwards-and-sideways passing methodology that had worked wonders for his country’s national side, to Boro. Someone who frequently appeared delighted at the strides “little Boro” had made under him, believing that made him untouchable.
Yet when things went wrong he felt he could fall back on being an “inexperienced manager” at a “small club”. It’s the equivalent of relentlessly getting down on your knees and begging to be taken seriously, only to admit that once you have been scrutinised, you’ve not as much to offer as you once appeared to.
Such a cowardly, critic-proof approach is not inclined to win you friends. And that goes for Boro as well as Karanka, thought of as far back as Bryan Robson’s time as the little club that tried and failed to buy their way into the big time. The 2010s were, in a way, like the 1990s repeating themselves, albeit with a Spaniard rather than an Englishman. (Similarly the 1998 promotion was remarked upon as the very least Boro should have achieved that year.)
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We don’t know as yet if Tony Pulis is going to invert, even subvert, the above or if he is merely a short-term solution while a proper long-term solution is found. It’s still too early in his reign, and while it is common in football for a club’s fortunes to turn around almost immediately when a new manager takes charge, that is often less to do with the manager himself and more to do with the players trying much harder.
Whatever way you look at it, does the buck really stop with the manager?
Technically, it ought not to. The rise and fall of the club should be collective. Yet when something has to change, you can’t sack the players. Or hierarchy.
Which brings me to: continuity. And what Claudio Ranieri did while he was at Leicester.
It is common for a new manager to bring his own people in with him, so he can feel like he is in complete control. But Ranieri didn’t do this.
Instead, his long-term comrade Paolo Benetti joined Steve Walsh and Ranieri’s eventual successor Craig Shakespeare as joint assistant managers of the club, with Andrea Azzalin coming into Nigel Pearson’s already established sports science team.
As The Secret Footballer put it, the Leicester players could work in familiar and comfortable surroundings, and “didn’t arrive for pre-season to find a world of new faces and new methods to be negotiated”.
Many clubs have caught on to this continuity game, and not just because of Leicester’s success. I have read that an owner of a big club has always believed in giving a manager everything he wants – but for many a manager, “everything” is not quite enough. And such a belief is normally a trigger for a sacking.
Nowadays, it is far more common to count on continuity. A club puts together a top notch backroom staff and a manager is simply told to work with them as best as he can. Jobs for the boys and cults are anathema.
Lest the continuity sound too perfect, there are instances where it can be misguidedly implemented. Eight managers have taken charge at Watford since Sean Dyche was dismissed shortly after Gino Pozzo arrived.
To CEO Scott Duxbury, this doesn’t seem a big deal: his argument appears to be that continuity in the infrastructure of the club is paramount, as the average life span of any coach, particularly at a midtable club, is a short one. Of around, say, two years. Either they will want to move on or you will want to move them on, but either way, things will remain in place, so the club is stable.
As logical as Duxbury’s argument sounds, writer Phil Costa has effectively challenged it: Watford yo-yo’ed for a few seasons before finding any kind of stability in the Premier League, and at one point during the last five years they spent £185 million.
Similarly, despite the advantages of a short-term contract – Watford’s current incumbent Javi Gracia, like Karanka before him, has an initial eighteen-month deal – every manager needs time to adapt.
As Costa said in January, “there’s a difference between changing the colour of your living room to freshen things up and frantically redecorating every six months.” And as Costa also implied, consistency is just as effective as spontaneity – something that Pulis’s line-ups and the form of Adama Traore are at least highlighting at Boro at the moment.
There are many positives for Boro to carry on from this season whatever happens at the Riverside, Villa Park, or Wembley. The key is to make sure that this time, we carry them on the right way.
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Oops sorry my finger slipped
That’s cool Bob. Looking forward to your words on the piece.
Congratulations to Huddersfield, all three promoted sides stay up, shows what can be achieved with heart, courage and strong team spirit.
Come on BORO.
I wonder if they bought ten or more new players last summer. And more Interestingly, did they play most of the new signings or did they mainly rely on the guys who got them up?
I have not the answer as I have not followed that closely the PL teams. I love Boro. Up the Boro!
The Terriers seem to have a large mix of Players from the Benelux and Germanic regions which is probably a reflection of their Managers background and talent knowledge. It could be argued that it wasn’t so dissimilar to AK and his Spanish Armada that foundered on the banks of the Riverside.
Perhaps the climatic and sociological challenges of the Premiership is better suited to those of a more northerly European disposition than Latin players. Now of course there are a huge list of Spanish and Italian players to challenge that theory who have been hugely successful in the Premiership but most of the truly outstanding contributors from those climes have played in the best teams and not the struggling scrapping sides.
The Premiership is a very tough attritional grind which is made worse if you are frustrated and disappointed more often than not. The psyche of the players in those circumstances can count for as much if not more so than their footballing skills and ability. I loved watching Juninho and even Gaston before he went over to the dark side and still enjoy Fabio’s non stop effort and undoubted passion but survival at the lower Premiership level needs guile and cunning rather than entertainment which sometimes carries the risk of self indulged petulance over determination.
Exmil
I echo your sentiments but also pose the question why not us?
I remain perplexed as to why the likes of Bournemouth, Burnley, Brighton, Huddersfield and Watford can gain and sustain promotion when MFC failed so miserably.
I think Simon has covered some of it in his article, it is not all about the manager but about the collective and clearly MFC have failed on that front of late.
Emil
And a good defence.
Exmill
And a very strong defence,( oh, and do not spit out the dummy as you approach xmass, it really is not a good idea, it was only five points, even with the lunatics in charge of the asylum)
It is generally accepted that Tony Pulis signed 18 month contract with Boro which would cover this season and next. Talk on Saturday with people who have their ears to the ground that was there was a release clause if Tony Pulis wanted to walk away at the end of this season. However Pulis states he’s reviewing all departments at the moment at the request of Steve Gibson
Other Talk was that Boro had a top class replacement lined up if Pulis did decide to walk so they would not be caught out
I kept this information quiet as I didn’t want to spread rumours but it looks like people are talking
My own view is if we are promoted then Pulis will stay
OFB
and if we are not promoted ofb….will Pulis stay ?
Depends if he gets an offer to manage a club nearer his southern base or even return to stoke where he is still held in high regard by the Fans
A short term appointment would explain a lot of things
A reluctance to sign players on a permanent basis
Hire coaches who have previously retired already at the club or at a club where the manager is probably going to be changed including the coaching staff
A general brief could have been to steady the ship so it didn’t nosedive
If you got to the playoffs all well and good as it brings in tv revenue and crowds
It also generates sales of season cards for next season as supporters have guaranteed place to a semi final or even a final !
There are no bad points regarding the appointment as the team had no shape no spine and was floundering
The plus points are there for all to see and we have stated this on the blog already
Upsurge in Performance of
Ayala Friend. Howson Downing Clayton Bamford and of course Adama Traore
This is what happens when you have an experienced manager who knows what he wants
I’ve said this before but Fleming and Woodgate are adamant they have never seen a manager concentrate on shape shape shape every day
So my hope is he’ll stay and I bet a few on this blog are grudgingly admiring what Pulis has achieved with the only signings 3 loan players one of whom (Besic) has transformed our midfield.
Did someone say they’d seen Sunderland’s ex manager down at Rockliffe. Hall?
OFB
Wenger was the last of the dinosaurs.
The three promoted clubs staying up ( with healthy points tally’s) merely highlights the abject failure of last season.
Managers need to deliver and deliver quickly. Success is the name of the game. Clubs changing their manager several times a season could become the norm.
As our own Bryan Robson once said “ Managers lose matches and Players win matches”
TP is just applying his experience to the playing staff he has available, ultimately it is them who will determine our Play-Off fate.
Pulis is staying ,why would he convince his assistant to come out of retirement if it was temparory,plus he as made the statement recently that “this was a real football club”.
Congrats to the three teams that were promoted last season ,an excellent achievement.
We have alot of work to do ,we are still missing some ingredients ,but hey we are there.
Whichever division we will be in next season , I see it as exciting, from the three teams coming down,the three coming up, and the likes of Forrest , Birmingham, Leeds and others hoping to make bigger strides ,a real tough contest.
Of course we could be at other venues .
COB
Great early morning read Simon – I have some hopes for this and next season but am content to go with whatever gets dished up and enjoy the odd crucial win when it happens. I like TP and the image he projects regardless of the results which show what a good manager he really is. I would love to see him through to Wembley.
Thanks for an interesting article Simon – I suppose planning for the long term all depends on what is actually regarded as the ‘long term’ in football. Of course, for relegated clubs like Boro with just a couple seasons of parachute payments ticking like a financial bomb, the aim is pure and simply to get back to the big time before the implications of re-cutting their cloth kick in and starting again becomes the new plan.
Perhaps only those teams established in the top-flight, which is maybe only 6-8 clubs have the luxury of planning – though for many of those the act of making the Champions League will further determine their immediate future and whether they can ‘attract’ the right players.
In fact football today seems to be set up in a way that is a barrier to long-term planning – with leagues within leagues and financial cliffs for those who drop out of them. The name of the game for any club with an ambition, whether success or survival, has purely become about the short-term goals. If a manager lasts a season he appears to be doing well and those who survive the length of their contract have joined an exclusive club.
Whatever happens in the coming weeks, Boro will either hope to hang on to their better players or be faced with wholesale change again as the gap in quality required will be hard for many to bridge. Then there are those ‘better’ players who if they perform, will be coveted by others and the instability created come the January window will possibly have an adverse effect on the dressing room.
Perhaps only Sean Dyche or Eddie Howe are examples of managers who have made their clubs in their own image – but I’d agree that when they leave their clubs may struggle to find a suitable successor. It seems it’s more a case of fans grabbing success while it lasts and enjoying the ride against the natural gravity of football.
Great article Simon, thought provoking and enjoyable!
For me Arsenal fans may rue the day when they eventually forced Arsene from Arsenal. The Premiership is all about money and the title (Leicester aside) is invariably purchased rather than won. Any new Arsenal Manager will not have riches greater then City, Chelsea or United. Liverpool under Klopp have made progress and inroads and have spent a fair bit but also recouped a lot of that. Arsenal I suspect will have to hope to attract a similarly competent Coach to buy low and sell high whilst making an assault on the Premiership and Champions League. If it was easy we would all be doing it and Arsenal I believe will come to regret over time the departure of one of their greatest Managers.
That said everything in life has a shelf life, it either wears out, burns out, fashions change or we simply become bored of it and Football Managers are no exception to the rule. Revie and Fergie are brilliant examples of what happens when an all seeing all controlling Manager leaves. Picking up the pieces and trying to continue as a clone is virtually impossible. Trying to instill new procedures and disciplines in an organisation or club when everyone has been brainwashed into believing that you cannot improve on what has gone before is extremely difficult. Individuals and sub groups will block or break any attempt to move them from their routines and comfort areas albeit subconsciously in many cases.
Change Management inevitably results in things getting worse during the transitional phases before they get better but in Football the time allowed for that transition is usually less than 6 months before the pitchforks come out. Its why Cough following Revie was always doomed to fail as was Moyes following Fergie. Its also the reason why Liverpool’s famous Boot Room worked for a succession of Managers up until the advent of Wenger and Fergie and latterly big spenders. The Anfield club’s knee jerk reaction to it has seen them a peripheral fringe player for decades as a direct consequence. Telling Football fans that they never had it so good falls on stony ground when they see competitors lift silverware. In fact the fans of some “big” clubs history in our local geographic area can testify to this all too readily albeit probably not admittedly.
Failing to plan is planning to fail and with MFC there wasn’t a plan longer than 12 to 18 months at best in the late nineties and noughties which consisted of buying players that cost a fortune for the here and now and to hell with tomorrow. Likewise the same logic was applied to the Team Coach/Manager and when it worked it was fine but when it wobbled there was no foundation and therefore no stability. TP is a foundations engineer as was AK to a degree. The difference between the two is experience, one knows and has previously proved what works within a similar budget whilst the other knew what worked when playing with one of the best resourced budgets but with little experience and when push came to shove stubbornly stuck when he should have twisted.
The Watford model is an interesting one as it accepts and indeed expects that a Manager will have a short bounce but will be gone within 18 months to two years so the structure is fixed regardless. The Hornets have a Vampire mentality to its incoming Coaches, suck the blood out of them and merely discard the carcass.
Spending billions isn’t an option for us unless SG does a Leeds or sells to a foreign investor (just ask Sunderland fans where that can lead). I hope TP stays regardless of which division we are in next season because he is a good fit for the type of club that we are. Like him or not, he is also a good fit for the Chairman and I strongly suspect its reciprocal. I don’t particularly like the Watford model and the Southampton model worked until they copied Amer’s Boro and sold their jewels. Had Stoke and I believe WBA stuck with Pulis they wouldn’t be heading for the Championship.
An interesting article from Simon. I accept that Jack Charlton made Boro a difficult side to beat and initially the Boro might have been deemed boring certainly by the London press. That was unfair, because once promotion was obtained, Boro became more free flowing. However I sometimes think that John Neal didn’t get the credit he deserved in making Boro a more attractive team. It was just a pity that Boro eventually became a selling club.
Simon made reference to the fact that sometimes managers of clubs were given a free rein in forming a team in their own image. That obviously happened at Leeds United in Don Revie’s tenure, but the downfall of that club started with the expensive purchases under Peter Ridsdale chairmanship and David O’Leary’s management to try to compete with Europe’s top clubs not to mention Liverpool.
Mentioning O’Leary and staying on the Irish theme, it was sad to hear of the demise of Arthur Fitzsimons. I guess Simon with his Irish background would have heard of this wonderful player even though never having seen him play. Fitzsimons (often wrongly pronounced as Fitzsimmons instead of Fitzsymons) was a wonderful inside forward in the early 1950s although I didn’t realise he could also play on the wing.
Boro in those days often used to do an Irish tour at the end of the season and recruited many fine Irish players. Peter Desmond, a contemporary of Arthur, played many times for Eire (as the Republic was then known) and I believe was in the Irish team that became the first ‘foreign’ team to end England’s unbeaten home record, 2-0 at Goodson Park if my memory is correct. I know Hungary have been given that distinction, but technically Eire was a foreign country. Other Irish signings in those days included winger Jimmy Hartnett, who once scored a hat trick in a relegation end of season match against Sheffield United, wing half Frank Mulholland, and much later Alan Moore, Curtis Fleming and Graham Kavanagh. It’s a shame though that we missed out on signing George Best.
Regarding my previous post on Boro’s Irish Internationals and particularly Arthur Fitzsimons I failed to add that for many years he and Wilf Mannion shared the honour of Boro international appearances for their respective countries of 26 matches each, and this was not surpassed until Mark Schwarzer made his 27th appearance for Australia.
I expect Boro will be wearing black armbands on Saturday, but also hope that they arrange for a minutes applause to show respect for him even though many supporters will perhaps never have heard of him, never mind seen him play.
R.I.P Arthur.
An interesting and thought provoking article, Simon. I have to remind myself, when I start to feel sorry for Managers who are sacked, that they know it’s coming eventually and their contracts and remuneration reflect that fact.
Whilst, I’d love the excitement of winning the Play Off Final and getting back to the PL, I’m not sure I’d enjoy another season of games lost and no reasonable expectation of success.
This article by John Nicholson sums it up I guess: http://www.football365.com/news/stop-fretting-about-relegation-instead-embrace-it
Thanks Martin for making us aware of John Nicholson’s article. I have to agree with his sentiments but would also suggest that football entertainment even extends beyond the EFL. I loved the fact that supporters of Hartlepool despite now playing non league football still carried on the tradition of all dressing up for their final away match of the season, this year as clowns.
Football is supposed to be fun to watch and enjoy, but one sided matches which frequently occur in the Premier League are not my cup of tea. When I used to attend Boro games I loved to see competitive matches which kept me on the edge of my seat. I found more excitement in a 4-3 win against Leicester in 1955 than I did when we beat the same team 6-0 in 1990. That may sound strange to most people, but I loved the adrenaline that uncertainty brought. I don’t enjoy one-sided matches in any sport either in Rugby Union World Cup matches or in the recent defeats of West Wales RLFC in losing consecutive matches 144-0 and 124-0. To my mind that brings ‘sport’ into disrepute.
I also share your fear that promotion for Boro might result in more of the same that happened last season. Defeat after defeat in the Premier League is not what spectators have a right to expect, but I fear it might be what they’ll have to endure.
A good read Simon and thought provoking.
Many clubs have a set up that allows a change in manager so managerial dynasties will become even rarer.
Thanks to all of you for your responses. You’ve given me plenty to think about.
For now, I’d like to talk about who Ken talked about – Arthur Fitzsimons and his passing. I think it is best if I pass you over to Eddie O’Mahony, who wrote these poignant words four years ago.
“With the fame and wealth that modern Irish Internationals achieve its easy to forget about the great Irish players that went before that many of us never got to see even on old grainy TV footage.
“I had been aware that Arthur Fitzsimons, who played for Ireland with distinction from 1949 to 1959, lived around the corner from me, and I’d often seen him walking and meant to stop and have a chat with him but didn’t want to disturb him. The other night he was in our local shop in front of me, and as he went out, I said I’d say hello.
“We got talking and he seemed surprised that someone my age had even heard of him, knew who he was, or worse could tell him he scored 7 goals in 20 odd games in a ten year Irish career.
“He started talking about the great players he played with and the efforts that Irish players made to even get home to play for their country during that era. The lack of facilities, medical backup, kit, and the poor wages on offer – but that nothing would stop him getting home to play for his country.
“30 minutes had passed and I didn’t want to delay him so I just asked him, “What was it like to pull on the green jersey and play for your country”?
“His eyes started to mist over, his voice trembled, and he started to tell me about:
“‘The unforgettable noise that you could hear inside the dressing room in Dalymount as we got ready. The hairs standing up on the back of my neck as I put on my jersey knowing that I was going out to play in front of (the fans), and for my country, and how when i stood for the National Anthem, I felt 10ft tall, and as strong as 10 men. We feared no-one. I never played for money or fame, but for my country and I’d do it all again in a heartbeat’.”
Need I say that Fitzsimons wasn’t alone in being misty-eyed after that.
#RIP
No better epitaph than that for a genuine footballer.
Lovely tale about a lovely man.
Now for some useless information. Looking at the Championship table on the BBC website all the top five have the same record over five matches, W3 D1 L1.
Other useless facts are available.
Another good piece Simon.
Agree with RR’s observations. Keeping continuity and/or change management are a conundrum for any organisation.
Expecting Cloughie to follow seamlessly on from Revie is an impossibility but, also, expecting him to radically change things without resistance is equally flawed. Another thing, Clough and Taylor only succeeded in partnership. They struggled individually. (Monk and Clotet?).
Whilst I was not a TP fan when he was appointed, I’d like to see what he can achieve into next season, regardless of our status.
A few things narrowly missed the cut for my final piece.
The issue of “control”, because I’d previously discussed it to a degree in my pieces on Managerial Cults and Eurocrats. My latest Charlton theory is that it was partly the result of a three way power struggle between a manager, chairman and experienced characters in the dressing room all wanting to win promotion their own way. And when our old Basque buddy doesn’t get things his way, well… you know.
It makes sense. Managerial Control vs Individual Expression vs Parochial Pride. Really, you need compromise, a combination of the three.
Another catch was, I think, is that the 2015-16 dressing room, most of who either had top-level experience or a near-miss of a promotion campaign under their belts, had stronger characters than the class of 2014-15. They were no longer so susceptible to control. They realised some sort of change in direction was required.
From 2014 to January 2016, with the exception of a few, we thrived on collective strength triumphing over individual ability. As Leicester did when they won the league.
Following January, and the arrival of Ramirez, Rhodes, and later Negredo and Adama, we were almost totally dependent on individual ability to get us out of trouble.
Doesn’t read too well with a manager who wants to feel in command, does it?
Si
Your best discussion piece yet and very thought provoking
You and I have chatted about the two camps that were forged during the Premiership campaign
The Spanish camp and the rest
Two sets of players who quite often trained separately as groups
They always sat down as two groups with the Spanish contingent spurning the meals on offer and insisting that Howard the Boro chef at Rockliffe cooked Spanish food at all times
Valdez was particularly disliked for his sueriot attitude and it rubbed off onto other players who felt they were too good to be at Boro
This of course caused resentment with the other players and not helped by Karanka having his favourites who were cosseted.
So a disaster of a season all round not helped by a manager who was out of his depth and had created a monster he couldn’t control
Tony Pulis understands and embraces the team ethos so it is a tighter group of players that we have now
Nice to see Fabio has another years contract but of course that could be to prevent a free transfer?
Funnily enough I have seen him a few times after games and Mrs OFB remarked how he was really cheery and happy now at the Boro.
It just shows that the ladies are more perceptive than the menfolk…..
Thanks again Si I enjoyed the read.
OFB
The more I hear from you, Bob, the more I’m beginning to think that the biggest mystery isn’t that the Karanka Collective fell apart after January 2nd, 2016. The biggest mystery is: how did such a divisive and misguided manager ever manage to create one of the most unified and consistent Boro squads of recent years? At least on the pitch?
Simon
The manager should always be in total control.
I do not believe for one moment that Fergie would pay any attention to players when steering the ship( I also think that such an event would have had a disastrous conclusion for the players concerned)
As for ” the Charlton affair”
That, I’m afraid, is down to the players, they were in charge, had an open goal, and blew it, big time.
Had they won say, 5-0 he would have been gone, unfortunately the poor darlings became the only victims of surely the worst team to perform in the Champ for many seasons.
Also – the Burnley model.
A Burnley fan has taken great pride in the way the Clarets have done things the last few years. Last year, in other words, long before they secured a European place, he said…
“Life in the Premier League is hard. The demands on and off the pitch, at every level of the club, from playing, to training, to the backroom staff, to the ticket office, and media people, are very, very difficult.
“The newly promoted clubs aren’t ready for this. This is why Sunderland and Villa clung on for so long. Burnley came up in 2014 knowing that it was likely to be one season and no more, and focused on getting everything in place for this season (2016-17).
“They came up in 2014 with a three year plan, not a one year plan. When the papers had the knives out for Sean Dyche, the club or fans didn’t blink. Everyone who knew anything about the club knew what the plan for 2014-15 was.”
The argument being that it wasn’t necessarily about money, or having a PL infrastructure that you don’t have, but *experience*, and that the answer is coming up with a long-term plan rather than firing the manager, firing the next guy and having a consistently rotating playing staff. (See: Watford.)
I like the “three-year-plan” argument… but is it entirely valid? Stay tuned for another fan’s response, which makes even more interesting reading.
Interesting that the Club have triggered a one year extension on Fabio’s contract.
For my part I’m glad that when referring above to the fella earlier this morning I wrote “and still enjoy Fabio’s non stop effort and undoubted passion.”
I’m wondering is it just a paper exercise to get a fee for the player if/when he departs or is it a case of TP having had more time to assess his squad. Consequently deciding that a passionate player of his calibre can cover at RB and LB from the bench and despite being under six foot witnessed his ridiculous jumping ability?
I also think he can play a role further forward (he started in midfield I think) on either flank plus could maybe play the Besic role if tasked? Either way I hope its all for positive footballing reasons and not purely commercial. Me personally, I always look forward to watching him when he comes on.
Once again, we’re in agreement. I’ve always liked Fabio for his commitment, skill and extraordinary ability to outjump much bigger players, although he did get caught out defensively but, then again our incumbents in the back four are also guilty of that at times. Like you, I hope TP has recognised his worth. Time will tell.
The challenge to the Burnley fan’s “three-year-plan” theory… (paraphrased a little)
“As much as it seems to make sense, I think a lot of what you’re saying regarding Burnley is a case of retrospectively trying to crowbar events into a plan where there was none.
“To me, it seems like one of those Coen Brothers or Guy Ritchie movies where the protagonists blunder along, have things pan out ideally, then look back on everything that happened and pretend like they meant it to turn out that way.
“No club realistically factors in relegation the season after getting promoted with the idea that they’ll immediately return stronger for it the second time round. You simply can’t.
“The strength of Burnley’s performances have been built on a platform of not panicking and sensible spending, sure, that much is undeniable.
“But to say that they meant it to be frugal first time round, just so they knew that, two seasons later, they’d be going up again and could make a decent fist of it then, as some sort of grand plan, would be insensible at best and totally irresponsible at worst.
“Players leave. Rivals get stronger. Even Dyche could well have shown a clean pair of heels and left, thinking he’d taken them as far as he could.
“Yes, we know *now* that he doesn’t really have that in him, but we didn’t then.
“It’s a cliche but the Championship is not an easy league to get out of. There’s no guarantee Burnley would’ve come back up at the first time of asking. Maybe they did factor relegation into consideration, but I’m sure that everyone’s ideal outcome would’ve been to stay up. And if they had done, then your entire narrative goes out the window.”
We can also note that many clubs who got promoted first time in the recent PL era managed to survive for years. Like, say, Stoke and Swansea. And Portsmouth under Redknapp. And Wigan – eight straight PL seasons and an FA Cup win. Howe’s Bournemouth, and, for all their excessive rotation, Pozzo’s Watford look set to get a good run of PL seasons going.
WBA? They’ve yo-yo’d for years. (Although, in fairness, they kept swapping manager.) Norwich came up in 2004, went down and the PL didn’t see them again for a decade. Burley’s Ipswich had that miraculous season in 2000-01, then went down the following year and… that was that.
The Burnley fan countered the response above by suggesting that 2014’s promotion was a surprise. And by saying that everyone at Burnley “knew”, supposedly, that the squad wasn’t good enough, and that the TV money was spent on infrastructure, paying off debt and succession planning. Even though he admits that Dyche and the players gave it a go.
He is correct, though, in implying that every move that has led to the Clarets’ success today can indeed be traced back to everything that happened between 2014 and 2016, namely the sale of Trippier and Ings, and the identification and purchase of their replacements (eg. Lowton, Gray and Michael Keane). Although saying that the club “openly budgeted for a last placed finish and no cup runs” doesn’t entirely ring true with me.
What kind of hurts is his point that although the signing of Defour was something of a misstep, he was still absorbed into the team in a manner Negredo wasn’t at Boro.
So… yeah. On the surface, Burnley’s “three-year-plan” is very easy to admire – and the fan previously noted that by giving Dyche time and security to build with money the club had earned, Burnley had shown up both Derby and Boro – but the hint that it was in place all along doesn’t fully hold.
And here’s the big question – now that their big plan has taken them into Europe, how will Burnley and Dyche cope with newly raised expectations? If they can’t, and it all falls apart, then what of “the plan”?
Traore transformed into arguably the Championship’s best player once Tony Pulis took charge at the Riverside and with a WhoScored.com rating of 7.89, he is our best-rated player of the season. He won more WhoScored.com man-of-the-match awards (14) than any other player and completed considerably more dribbles (243) than anyone else. An additional five goals and 10 assists contributed to what has been a superb campaign for the Spanish winger.
The above is from Sky Sports championship team of the season, well done Adama, now show them what you can really do in the playoffs.
Come on BORO.
Burnley are an example of a club who were prepared to embrace relegation in to their plans, something which the fans bought into. This resulted in the manager never being under pressure. An example of a club and fans realising they could never attain Premiership longevity overnight.
A solid group of players with little change to the first team week in week out.
With regard to Clough at Leeds, it was the players who forced Clough out, they were used to a father figure who atoned all their sins and BC wasn’t prepared to do it.
As for Man U and Fergie, I honestly believe he chose to leave when he did realising he was leaving behind a very poor squad that won the title due to a distinct lack of competition. He saw the writing on the wall and got out when the going was good. This making his replacements look decidedly poor and enhancing his own reputation.
At the time a similar accusation was levelled at Matt Busby when he retired leaving behind an ageing squad of talented but well over the hill players.
Yes, GHW. No arguments with all that.
I’m certainly more prepared to buy that Burnley – manager, hierarchy and fans – had a strong back-up plan if staying up didn’t happen. Rather that than Boro circa 2008-09 and “we didn’t see it coming”.
Cloughie, well… Leeds were ahead of their time in a sense that they were a bit like the modern breed of player Graeme Souness talks about, those who need pussyfooting around and don’t like hearing anything negative said about themselves. There you have it, I guess: player power, as far back as the seventies. And as we arguably found with David Moyes at United, that’s not a sign of a strong dressing room, but a weak one: a group of players that use the manager as an excuse for not doing their best.
Fergie? I was told that becoming convinced that he would never win the European Cup again after Nani’s sending off turned the home game against Real Madrid on its head played its part in him retiring. He did, indeed, see the writing on the wall regardless of the 2012-13 march to the title, and so, in taking the option of retirement, came out smelling like roses.
Grove
It seems a bit unfair to poor old Fergie.
His story was that he decided to retire( the usual, unfair on the fellow waiting for your job, etc)
When his family got the news, they swiftly sat him down and read him the riot act.
They told him he was sixty, in a sport the he was very successful at, earning enormous money, famous, did he really want to sit at home whilst other people enjoyed what he had built.
He agreed, and for the next ten years won the lot.
As for winning the title in his last season, so what, he won a couple by buying Henry from Arsenal, he got two seasons out of him.
The giant clubs can justify paying big money for has been, to get one last season out of them.
I would think that United would have preferred to win one last title, after all you never know when the next one is coming along.
I see Wayne Rooney has been to see Fergie
Apparently his speech is better and he can string sentences together
Ferguson said I was impressed how his talking has improved
OFB
I think the longevity of Coventry City as a top tier club for 34 years is the most amazing. Although a big city, Coventry had never played in the old First Division until 1967, thus to not only survive there for such a long time, but to also win the FA Cup and the FA Youth Cup in the same year during that period is quite staggering. It’s such a pity for their fans how far they have sunk since with problems over their tenancy of the Ricoh Arena destabilising their recovery. Hopefully for their fans they might start that recovery in the playoffs.
I seem to recall a “delayed” relegation decider one Tuesday evening when they had Floodlight problems which afforded them the luxury of their opponents games already over and consequently knowing the results and exactly what they then needed to do. Perhaps my memory is playing tricks?
Redcar Red
I can’t find any reference to which season it was when the final league matches had to be played on the same day and at the same time. However on the morning of Saturday 5th May the 2nd Division relegation positions showed Blackburn and Carlisle each with 46 points, Boro on 45 and Fulham already relegated. Boro lost at Shrewsbury that afternoon but the Blackburn v Grimsby and Oldham v Carlisle matches were postponed because of torrential rain in Lancashire. Both matches were then played on the following Monday, Blackburn winning 3-1 but Carlisle losing 2-1 so relegation wasn’t decided until two days after the season should have ended. Maybe this is the season you’re referring to, or perhaps there was another occasion also.
Ken
I doggedly refused to let my failing memory get the better of me 🙂
I discovered this on the Internet after some digging:
“On 19 May 1977, Sunderland were controversially relegated out of the English top flight after losing 2-0 away to Everton on the last day of the season.
At the start of the day, Sunderland was battling Coventry City and Bristol City for the final relegation spot. Sunderland were in the third-bottom position with 34 points, one point behind the other two clubs, who were playing against each other. Coventry chairman Jimmy Hill delayed the start of their match for 15 minutes, claiming “crowd congestion” as the reason for the late start. As soon as he learned of the Sunderland result, Hill had the score announced in the stadium, where the match was tied 2-2. Sunderland’s loss meant that both teams each needed only a draw to stay ahead of the Black Cats and avoid the drop. Both Coventry and Bristol switched to very conservative game plans and the match ended 2-2.
Hill was subsequently reprimanded by the Football Association for delaying the kick-off, but the results of that day were allowed to stand.”
Sparing a thought for Wimbledon. 14 years in the top division, one FA Cup, and nine of those years were played at Selhurst Park.
It’s not that long ago that Carvahal was being lauded as Swansea’s saviour. Today he bit the dust.
Swansea once had a good succession plan. Starting with Martinez and a League One promotion, then continuing through Sousa to Rodgers, and PL promotion, then consolidation. Michael Laudrup followed on that with a League Cup win.
After (heavens) Garry Monk, it’s all gone to pot.
Have look at Huddersfield’s run in. Couple that with the fact that the three newly promoted clubs face Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea in their final game of the season.
Look at our run in for last season. If I was a conspiracy theorist I’d be forgiven for thinking the fixture computer is a bit “ dodgy”
In fact look at the three promoted clubs last three fixtures.
Not so much dodgy just deliberately “engineered” for TV’s “Super Sunday” when coincidentally Man U play City and Liverpool Everton or Spurs and Arsenal etc. all on the same day.
That leaves scheduling dates where the dross outside of the top 6 have to be accommodated so they are just simply shoehorned in at the start or end of the season. Its nothing new, Christians provided the entertainment value in Rome thousands of years ago for similar purposes. Likelihood is that armchair fans will see a blood fest with Arsenal stuffing Burnley 5-0 or lowly Huddersfield boring everyone to death by refusing to lie down and fight until the bitter end.
I know which I would prefer to watch in my twisted perverted dislike of SKY, BT, FA. FIFA, UEFA etc. but greed is good and thats all that matters. Interesting that the chickens have seemingly come home to roost for BT after splurging ridiculous, unnecessary and obscene amounts of cash at Football with the announcements that their performance hasn’t gone as hoped by the Shareholders and with it 13,000 jobs! Of course thats not the reason cited with the blame seemingly being put on an accounting scandal in its Italian operations.
Whether its the Septic Bladder or TV Companies everything has a price and everything is geared around pandering to those with the fattest wallets despite “transparency”. Pssst “anyone want to host the next World Cup”?
For those that don’t remember or perhaps were too young this is a link providing the backdrop to what was the most incredible finish to a (Pre) Premiership Season ever. Just a shame that due to the fixture “massaging” it will never be repeated.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liverpool_F.C._0–2_Arsenal_F.C._(26_May_1989)
Grove
It is now public that the big clubs have an agreement that they will not play a big club at the beginning and end of the season.
I hope it does not come as a shock to you.
A shame that. I recall Liverpool losing 0-2 at home to Arsenal in the last game of the season in 1989 and being pipped for the title by them when a 0-1 result would have given Liverpool it.
Ken
I seem to recall a daisy cutter from the edge of the 18 yard box in the dying minutes for that second Arsenal goal to seal Liverpool’s fate. It was a mid week night match from memory I think because of a Liverpool fixture congestion that season.
Started to read an article in the Sunderland Echo about Boro allegedly interested on Jakupovic from Leicester it wouldn’t load due to my ad blocker. Curious I switched the ad blocker off to be able to read the story and was then assaulted by a barrage of non stop never ending ads.
There were so many ads that I actually lost the story on the page and when I eventually found it, ad after ad after ad kept loading, followed by even more, interspersing the story so much that I constantly lost track of whereabouts the next paragraph commenced or indeed if it even existed. Frustrated and exhausted I simply gave up, closed the page down and couldn’t tell you a single company whose ads had just affronted my eyeballs. It wasn’t the end of the world for me I just continued browsing elsewhere but newspapers or news sites as they will undoubtedly become in the future are now signing their own death warrant.
Loading a page with a few ads for conservatories, PPI and second hand motors or the latest “Eco Friendly” Hybrid down the sides or even interspersed is one thing so long as they do not delay loading or hog all your laptop or smart device memory. Its understandable and a reasonable trade off in fairness, however the Echo site is just one huge advertising platform requiring a game of hunt the news article should the page ever finally stop loading. The readers will simply stop visiting with advertisers eventually realising their revenue is totally wasted and the “publication” ceases to exist. Whatever happened to quality over quantity?
In the address window you will see ( top left) a series of horizontal bars. If you click on them it will give you a “ reader view” and eliminate the ads.
Had a look GHW but couldn’t see any bars (very unusual for me). It may be because I use Opera as my browser.
The problem is that you should be using opera glasses
OFB
You need to try and access the article first
Plato, with respect to your “total control” point…
Who is the everyday supporter more likely to side with in a crisis?
The conductor on the touchline?
Or the instrumentalist who can make magic happen when he plays the right notes?
It’s a sad state of affairs, but as long as a player delivers on the pitch, on the big day, few seem to care.
Romario being the prime example. Openly spoke about his dislike of training (the first word he learned in Dutch when at PSV? “Tired”!) and poor workrate. In the footballing limelight, however, and on his day, he was probably up there with Pele.
Simon
Anytime your team is in the hands of the players, watch out, no good will come of it.
It appears that thousands of newly available seats have appeared on the Riverside seating plan for Saturdays game. I don’t know how the club manage it but they just seem to keep coming up with things that make them look more and more ridiculous. If it is deliberate then the individual behind it all must be borderline genius.
Can’t wait for the new Hummel kit and the accompanying excuses that will be trotted out for:
a) lack of a band
or
b) no stock in the shop
or
c) how its what the fans wanted (or at least the tea lady and some old bird and her arthritic sidekick sat in an office stinking of mothballs)
or
d) they gave us a choice of three designs (but one of them was sat in damp and dusty boxes in a waterfront warehouse for 15 years)
“It is what it is” as Mogga would say. Just hope TP’s remit extends to sorting out more than just the backroom staff.
This has been going back years, RR. Long before I was born.
Whipping out Big Jack’s official bio out of my bag to tell you another story.
Remember when he gave Ayresome Park a makeover?
He moved the TV gantry to give more presentable views of action from the ground to the viewers. He spruced up the dressing room and the stands.
He went to the ICI plant in Billingham. Along with British Steel, they were the biggest employers on Teesside at the time, with a hardcore Boro following. They agreed to supply the paint so that the seats at Ayresome could be red and white.
Lo and behold, Mr. Amer interfered.
Jack had made the mistake, in a rare board meeting appearance, of mentioning his little coup to the directors. Amer said he’d give his friend at the plant a call. Jack pleaded with him: leave it. But Amer insisted, ensuring he got a bill for the paint for his troubles.
Even though the money was ours, not Jack’s, that didn’t make the boss any less displeased.
“I learned my first lesson in management. If you want things done, do them yourself and tell nobody”.
(Source: Colin Young.)
I was involved with that crane gantry !
I was working as a consultant to a local Teesside. Offshore Construction Yard and Jack became friendly with the construction director and they would go shooting and fishing together
The Director asked me if we had any spare free issue steel (client supplied) lying around the yard
I showed him the delivery advice notes calculated how many tonnes there were.
The next week the design office had draughted the drawings using the steel and the new TV stand was born!
On the plus side the remainder of the steel was used to fabricate crush barriers throughout the stadium. My bonus was I ensured that in the south stand that the crush barrier was big enough for my two lads to sit on for every game.
So a little bit of history of Boro under big Jack
OFB
“Only the free iss
TV not crane !
Another great Jack anecdote, this time from the Sheffield Wednesday years.
Once, in the early weeks of Jack’s time as Owls boss, chairman Bert McGee went to the dressing room to berate assistant manager Maurice Setters and trainer Tony Toms. When Jack got wind of this, he acted immediately, bolting from his office while Setters was still telling him the story and into a board meeting, where he asked McGee to step outside.
“You’ve been down to abuse my staff about results. Don’t do it again. If you have any comments to make about the team, talk to me. And furthermore, it has come to my attention that certain directors are shooting their mouths off in pubs and golf clubs about players and the staff. That stops right now.”
Shaken though McGee was, and as sorry as a self-admittedly abrasive Jack felt afterwards for upsetting him, he believed his chairman had to get the message then or never. It tied in with a word of wisdom Jack had received from former pit manager Jim Bullock: you are never stronger in a managerial job than in the first few months of taking it. Assert your authority in that period, or you’re living with a time bomb.
Simon
Forget a few months. Nowadays, the Manager will probably be in a strong position for a few weeks, if he’s lucky.
Long term projects can be scuppered by Players and Fans alike.
It is what it is, as they say.
The beautiful game.
Check this RR…..
https://addons.opera.com/en/extensions/details/reader-view/
Thanks GHW
Just downloaded the extension and it seems to work, not on all sites (greyed out) but on many of them. Good tip!
I read that Villa have a huge, massive, nay humongous dossier on Boro that tells them everything they need to know. Compiled by their analytical experts over many months analysing individual Boro players, their meal preferences, shoe sizes, mothers maiden names, internet browsing history, favourite TV show, set plays, tactics and formations in minute detail. Collectively it will all provide Steve Bruce with a huge advantage going into the Play Offs.
In response to this Tony Pulis has announced his team 24 hours earlier telling the world that he is playing the same side that started against Ipswich. It might be just me but I like the mans style in bursting balloons and bubbles simultaneously whilst displaying a blatant confident air of being disinterested or remotely bothered about what Villa may or may not have prepared.
I’ve been looking on a few Villa fan forums and they’re really worried about playing a ‘typical’ Pulis side, I guess they’ve been burned by TP sides in the past and I think they know Bruce’s sides have too, so a double whammy in our favour. They seem torn between deciding whether to stop our “hoof-ball” tactics with their more physical team selection, but this would then negate a more creative edge that they percieve to have over us. For example, they want to stop Adama but know that Albert isn’t the man to do it, nor Hutton on his own either and they want to play a creative midfield but know this would struggle against our more combative players . . seems ilke they’re in a quandary . . . good for them 😉
I would not describe myself as a fan of Karanka. Indeed while Simon was busy defending his negative approach to football against all reason, I was arguing that without creativity you are doomed to failure but describing his attempts self justification as “cowardly”. Really? Is this appropriate?
I would accuse our former manager of several character defects, arrogance, blinkeredness, control freakery maybe egotism. But to describe him as cowardly is incredibly disrespectful and frankly plain wrong. And this from a man who described my view that our better results said more about the opposition than about us as “nasty”.
Touch of the Vichy French about this article in my opinion.
Okay.
The way I see it, showing aspects of cowardice in dodging the difficult questions is different from being cowardly per se. It was not so much making a point about Karanka as making a point that it is the manager’s, and indeed the chairman’s, job to answer difficult questions, and that running away from them is likely to lead to everything blowing up in his face drastically at a later date when everything goes wrong.
As for my excessive defence of Karanka in the past, well, there are times when I do wonder what I was thinking. And yet I can’t help but remember that when we were in a good position for promotion in 2015 and 2016 – better than we’d been for years – the message boards seemed to be accentuating the negative.
At that point, I think of these great words from KookaBoro, circa April 2015.
“Mixed in amongst the reasonableness has been some fairly brutal and cutting remarks about individual players and the manager.
“If you were a 22 year old lad called Adam Reach, you wouldn’t have found much enjoyment from reading this forum over recent weeks.
“If you’re a 41 year old manager, and note that 41 is still young in management terms, called Aitor Karanka, you wouldn’t have enjoyed it either. And that’s shown with his comments about fan negativity this week.
“I know that players and managers are schooled in brushing off supporters comments, but for heaven’s sake, they are still only human beings.
“As a manager myself in a completely different field, I know the frustration of never seeming to satisfy some people despite the most obvious and clearest of evidence that you are making progress. As you mature in your role you become more relaxed about it and realise that the people who will never be satisfied are actually not important. Aitor will get there on that. Sadly, I suspect that it will be somewhere else as some of our supporters seem intent on not building a positive relationship with him.”
In short. How would you feel if you were repeatedly given the impression you can do no right despite concrete evidence to the contrary?
I know exactly how that feels. And my comments about what you said at the time, out of order though they were, were channelled by frustration.
Additional thought?
For a long time I felt Karanka’s reign was defined by the finest of margins. That we were often one chance taken, one fewer defensive error, one incorrect refereeing decision or one less mess-up behind the scenes (Hignett, Adomah, Charlton etc) from “getting it right”.
Rotherham A alone hung on two chances Nugent would have been expected to bury, the woodwork and failure to intercept a crucial cross. The woodwork and one fewer defensive muddle may have made all the difference in the play-off final.
It took time and a lot of reading to make me realise that to defend a managerial reign solely on that reasoning is folly. Two posts from Smoggy In The Heed and Richard Evans, in particular, helped me see sense.
What was it Richard implied? That AKBoro were *always* one mistake away from getting it right, and that could only be an excuse for so long.
He was spot on.
Vichy French?
I thought Karanka was a Spanish Basque?
OFB
This article is meant to promulgate discussion and in that sense it has been successful
All managers have a shelf life even Fergie and Wenger
OFB
Si is right in that AK was cowardly!
He attacked his coaches including people who had supported him. He attacked the medical staff and the fans knowing they couldn’t fight back
That is the sign of cowardice
OFB
We have to be fair to Wiggy’s Mate Bob. I think he is also making the point that what I’ve said now completely contradicts my relentless defending of AK before January 2017.
Can’t agree Bob. I am very aware of his conduct behind the scenes as I have hinted on here before, and as I said earlier, he has several negative character traits that he will have to overcome if he is to ever fulfil his undoubted potential as a manager. My opinion is that he is unlikely to ever do so. Change at his age is generally externally driven and requires a capacity and desire for self-analysis. Unfortunately his personality precludes that. My point was and remains, that cowardly is a very strong word to bandy about.
If in doubt before using it, I would ask myself whether I or anyone else, would care to say it to the man’s face. I doubt that the queue would be very long.
The examples you give, in my opinion smack more of his arrogance believing that nothing was his fault and monomania regarding his defensive approach. And, come to think of it, setting yourself on a collision course with 25,000 fans can hardly be described as cowardice – we do have a way of fighting back when displeased!
I was critical of him when he was manager but always I felt in a way that was fair and measured. I have applied the same principle since he left in that I will always recognise the many good things that he brought to the club.
Remember what Robert Frost said about young radicals becoming old reactionaries. As Ian says, balance.
Having an opinion doesn’t make you right.
I liked Karanka I thought he was one of the best managers we had
When he attacked the fans he lost me then
OFB
Redcar Red
And Villa are the only team with access to Opta Stats, watch other teams play, have football analysts to dissect the opposition.
The rest of the teams in the top divisions just stroll up and play.
I remember an interview when Strachan was Coventry manager, we had just beaten them 3-0 and he was asked where we were better than them on the day. His reply was on the green stuff out there.
Ian
Must have been one of his more lucid moments.
The two players I think could have a significant part to play, and could make the difference are Grealish for Villa, a hand full if you back off.
And Randolph for us, either he’s on top of his game commanding his area ,or dancing around like Fred Astaire .
AS long as Fred hasn’t got Ginger to put him off
A very interesting read Simon thank you for the time and effort it must have taken to put together.
And a very belated thank you to RR for yet another top notch match report.
Fingers crossed I’ll be able to get to watch tomorrow evening depending what’s on the compound tv sports channels. Always got BBC Tees as back up.
Thank you, FAA.
Now, in relation to the actually very fair point Wiggy’s Mate made above.
Is it fair to say that a manager or chairman shows “cowardice” in refusing to answer the big questions? As I implied in the piece?
Understand, I am not calling them cowards per se, but implying that the longer you dodge the most serious issues, the more likely they are to come and bite you in the proverbial when everything goes wrong.
Steely
What we tend to do is apply black and white to managers depending on our stance, not everything they do is right or wrong,
I always mention the charge sheet they all build up.
When Strachan took over the Gazette boys fawned over him. In the August Vic invented the forge where Strachan was having players manufactured, not long afterwards he was deriding the failed Jockification.
I adopt a more level approach
The reality is closer to this. If a successful but limited manager’s predecessor has left the club or country in a bit of a mess, with a lack of direction, attendance or morale, that successful manager is likely to be overpraised for simply making the club or country any kind of force again – even if what he has done is not enough in the greater scheme of things.
We can all be accused of making too much of any manager at any point, hungry as we are for any kind of relative success. So we end up projecting the kind of hopes and dreams onto a manager that said manager isn’t likely to achieve.
I still agree with the guy who said that there are no messiahs in football, just the unrealistic expectations of beleaguered fans. And that in the case of managers we can be fans first and analysts second. As I have been.
It’s a bit like politicians. They dodge the serious questions because an honest answer shows them in a bad light.
Managers need to give the impression that they are in control, but sometimes their answers show them to be quite the opposite. AK suffered from not having any track record to back his methods up, and the resultant failures took away any credibility he thought he may have had.
To be honest the blame lies with Steve Gibson. It was obvious that if AK couldn’t handle the pressure of a Championship seaeson, he would be hopeless in preparing and managing a Premiership season.
I totally agree with you
He should have done a Watford and said thanks for getting us up but you’re fired 🔥
OFB
Let’s just say that on the basis of the forward momentum, relentlessly positive statistics and even (yes) exciting elements like Bamford, Tomlin and Vossen’s goals, it is all too easy to get sucked in and think you’ve found the answer.
Which makes it all the more devastating when you haven’t.
Heck, I didn’t really want Mogga to go.
When it comes to defending a manager and his style of play, all I can do is point you to this quote from the early 2010s.
“Everybody’s a genius when you’re successful. The players are all wizards. The coaching staff are prophets. The kit-man is a seer… All things must pass, and at some point soon, this Barcelona and Spain love-in will seem faintly absurd.”
And that football fan was right?
All he needed to add was, “the manager is a god”. Because he certainly *feels* like one at the time.
So just over 24 hours to go before Boro’s superheroes engage in the battle against the Villains for play-off domination. Have Tony Pulis’s mean regained all their special powers in time for this crucial encounter? Here’s my preview for the semi-final encounter…
https://diasboro.club/2018/05/11/play-off-boro-vs-aston-villa/
Ifs and buts.
If we hadn’t conceded a late equaliser at Leicester, a late goal through a Valdes blunder at Burnley, two late goals at ManU, Gaston showing his true colours after Christmas then it could have been different.
But those events happened and we unravelled.
The charge sheet filled up and the evidence was there for all to see.
I have to say I’m with Wiggy’s Mate. Werder gives us licence to say what we think on this forum and trusts us to keep it fair. Cowardice is indeed a strong word and should be used with care. I accept we’re not in the trenches but still care should be taken when choosing words.
To justify its use as, it promulgates discussion is disingenuous.
Acknowledged.