@jarkko Mowbray a very definite NO. Southgate, we now could not even afford his salary if he gave us a discount. Although he does live close I believe, in Harrogate?
Not Jonny, thank you. We all love him, but I don’t see him as manager material. At least, not yet. I think it’s time to bring in someone experienced. We’ve tried enough of the rookies for now.
Btw, while I’m sorry to see Jonathan Woodgate leave the club, I certainly think Boro need a new defensive coach. We all know how fragile the defence has been over the past two seasons. Sometimes, as other clubs pointed out, it was as if Benny Hill was coaching them.
It is being reported that Carrick may not be out of work for long as Bristol City are considering him.
Come on BORO.
I am very sorry to see Carrick go as at times he delivered some of the best football we have seen for some time. He had his weaknesses too but I reckon it was the shambles of the disastrous January transfer window this year that did for him by leaving him a much worse team than before. I wonder to what extent the decisions in the transfer window were made by Carrick or mainly by others in the club who should be carrying the can rather than apparently getting off Scott free.
@andy-r Well it was a great post then and is a great post now.
Carrick’s sacking is still a surprise to me, one because it has taken a month from the season end and two, because of the cost involved to get rid of him and his two assistants.
I guess time may tell us whether he was sacked, costly with two years wages to pay. Or whether an agreement came about, hence the delay, due to the review. Possibly he was given a schedule of change to his system that he could not agree on. Maybe as an employee he had a duty to conform to some change. If so then a compromise parting of the ways was agreed.
Martin, I would be surprised if an EPL team came calling during the summer. Possibly if one of the relegated teams sack their Coach due to a poor start. Pick two from three.
With regards to Carrick’s deficiencies against his pluses, the Coach up the road certainly got more out of his parts than our man did, and with a far younger squad. There is an argument there, besides them spending less money I believe. Although they did have a better January.
As for replacement Coaches, I really do not have a clue, certainly not Gary O’Neil. Cooper has the CV for promotions, but he will be more expensive than the one that has just left I would guess.
For a starter, how long of a contract. Most may want three years or two with a big bonus? Different players to suit his system, even if it marries close to Carrick’s.
If we go back far enough, to Karanka, all the post Coaches have been predominantly English or Stachan. All with probably less success than Carrick, apart from Pulis who made the play offs in my memory is correct.
So do we go back to a Foreign Coach with no Championship experience. Or someone with some proven experience like Cooper.
A tough call. Or he may go for another Carrick type, similar to Ryan Mason who has just joined WBA.
One thing we can now be certain of. The close season will probably be more interested than it may have been. Or not. 🤣🤣
If we’d beaten Coventry on the last day and finished in the top 6 and in the playoff places would he still have been sacked?
@martin-bellamy to be fair though, we did neither of those things and so that is why a difficult decision had to be made.
@martin-bellamy Probably not. But then I did not think he was going get the sack today.
I still think that losing the fans has had a lot to do with his departure.
A probable big drop in ST’s and the obvious loss of fan support could of been the catalyst.
A different link from the Gazette and NE, from the BBC and a view from Mark Drury, match day commentator of Boro matches.
Great post Andy.
I'm disgusted.
And I predict a relegation battle given the players we lose, the next job lots to arrive en masse by September, and the lack of quality and fight already demonstrated by those who remain.
Carrick was the club's most valuable asset after Steve Gibson.
Rogers, Van der Berg,Morris, Azaz, Doak, Ramsey, Archer, and Whittaker all attested to the fact that Carrick was the attraction in their coming here. Hackney claimed he had become his major influence. Akpom found in him the coach he had been looking for throughout his career
Carrick coached the team every time he opened his mouth, pointing out the small ways in which this player or that might improve his game. A proper coach who had done it all, always had the respect of his players, didn't rant and rave, but improved every player whom he managed.
He will have no trouble getting another job, since our reputation outside of the Boro bubble is that of being a well-coached side, let down by individual errors.
The Boro post is now a poisoned chalice since the root cause of our problems remains in place. Like Wilder before him, Carrick will go on to do better than the club who have just sacked him.
As with Wilder we must now await the leaks to the press about Carrick's failures, a one sided litany of what he did wrong and the things that can now be told of what happened behind the scenes. The smearing of the character and reputation of a thoroughly decent, likeable and talented man by the pygmies and no marks who remain in post.
I fear we will rue this day for as long a time as we did when we replaced Southgate, another thoroughly decent and talented man, with Strachan.
For my part I am a considerably less committed Boro fan than I was yesterday.
A sad day
We would probably have lost the players anyway, hackney, rvb, azaz sold to highest bidder. Wanted him to succeed but we have got worse season after season. Won one of last 6 matches lost 18 hardly inspiring. It's a game of opinions and unfortunately his race had been run.
Whilst I agree that the slow sale of Season Tickets and the way that the fans have voted with their feet was the catalyst that caused the split with Carrick and MFC I think that the decision was made some weeks ago to part ways.
MFC and MC Both had charity foundations and shared fund raising events and activities. Splitting the intertwined foundations and the negotiated settlement of contracts and pay off values for personal salaries takes time and I believe MC and MFC probably implemented the split in a professional and reached joint agreement when it would occur.
There have been no words of remorse or thanks to the supporters from MC but that may come. It may be that part of the settlement was a non disclosure or silence clause inserted by all parties that no mud slinging was to be aired.
I feel sad that it hasn’t worked out and I think that MC deserved to have more coaching support and management support than he experienced.
Having the club sell your best players mid season is not conducive to producing a winning team and can unsettle the rest of the squad.
It has been obvious for some time that a parting of the ways was inevitable and whilst upsetting the club is bigger than one man be it the owner or the manager.
Up the Boro
OFB
It has already started. Mark Drury's "Expert View" . No bile, just a one-sided account that could have been written by the club's PR team
There has been a particular emphasis recently on hanging the Iheanacho albatross around Carrick's neck.
I just don't buy it.
Carrick didn't scout him, didn't run the rule over him, did not see for himself what was self-evident as soon as he stepped on the pitch. That the lad was hopelessly unfit and out of form. If the recruiting team had been doing its job the player should never have been put forward to Carrick for consideration. They had months to prepare a list of strikers who could do a job for us given that Latte Lath's move was scarcely a surprise. If Iheanacho was on that list then shame on them. The idea that Carrick insisted on him out of the blue without any recent scouting input I find impossible to believe.
But that is the narrative that is being insisted upon, will soon become, via repetition, an established fact and the case I have put above just won't get a look-in. At least not by the likes of Mark Drury. Or Craig Johns, the Echo boys or anyone else who wants the inside info they need to do their jobs
What len said... all the same tomorrow we go again and we will get behind whoever is in charge of the team.
The mistake was the January transfer window. Was Carrick responsible for any of that? We can only speculate if he had any realistic or influential input. He was certainly left in what turned out to be an impossible situation. Perhaps he has accepted he can't do his best job given the way Boro handles recruitment and sales and so the parting of ways is mutually agreed.
Will Scott still be in place come next January? Will anyone interested in taking over from MC insist on their own degree of influence over transfers in and out? The next week or two will be interesting for us to follow and to comment on.
Good point powmill. Shouldn't Scott be given the chance to come up with a leavening of Championship-ready players who can put us in the top six by Xmas or face the chop?
A few things that stood against carrick
Poor home form
Poor defensive performances
Tactical inflexibility
Strange press conference utterances, "why is glass half full", " no issue with defence" when we had 1 fit CB
Lack of progress season on season.
As an aside I don't believe Ineffectchio was forced on him. He. wanted Giles who played. 3 games?
Let's face it lathe wanted out, and his agent wanted him out and we are only speculating when we say that we would have been further up table if he had stayed.
I think he may be more successful with a club with better budget and players.
Good points well made and I have to agree that why weren't the recruitment team better prepared for the hardly unexpected Latte Lath exit? Of course Carrick will have a say in which players the club sign but if Iheanacho was his preference then who were the other options that were rejected?
It didn't take a review to ultimately decide it was the January window that was the root cause of the drop in the team's performance as Boro averaged only a goal a game after that. The Doak injury was unfortunate but made worse by the loss of his replacement in Jones - Whittaker was supposed to be an upgrade but he never really found his rhythm and has a lot to prove next season.
I think we should accept that the club as a whole failed to make the top six and while it may be easier to blame Carrick (he has his share), there doesn't appear to be many voices in the local media prepared to be equally loud about others failings.
What we do know about Carrick is that if he has players with quality he'll get the best out of them and produce an exciting team. In many ways, he's probably better suited to the PL rather than the Championship as he is a good coach and man manager who the players respect, like and admire - I note Conway posted he was "gutted" and both Hackney and Rogers hailed him as instrumental in their rise.
Rumours are emerging that Spurs may fancy him as a replacement for the prickly Postecoglou - so it may well have been the right time for Carrick depart knowing that he will likely lose more of his best players again at Boro and will face a season of rebuilding a new team on a budget.
Carrick did want Giles.
And didn't Scott let the world know via Craig Johns that if the move did not work out then it would be the coach who would carry all of the responsibility. The actions of a man whose chief priority has always been to cover his own back if things start going wrong
Good post
@lenmasterman Beautifully summed up Len and there's nothing that really needs to be added. Like OFB I think it has been coming and this is the cunningly selected moment, in their minds anyway, to release the information to the baying mob.
Who next? Goodness knows? I suspect that the candidate has been selected and agreements are in place. Mr Carrick was a footballer and I think he needed a sounding board but there was no chance of the all powerful hierarchy allowing that in case it worked and that would not have helped their cause. Shades of Strachan again?
I for one wish him well and I hope we find another manager with the same level coaching skills.
Like Len I too have a slightly more jaundiced view. Let's see how the circus develops, it'll be good to be surprised but I won't hold my breath.
UTB,
John
PS I still cannot believe that the PR machine is blaming Mr Carrick for the recruitment of Innefectio. Still, if you say it for long enough people begin to believe.
Heard on the grapevine that the final straw for Carrick was that Boro are planning to sell HH and are touting him around for highest bids.
MC wanted him to stay but the doe decision had been made so he’d had enough
OFB
I couldn't agree more with your posts on this matter, and also Werdermouth's.
I'm worried about my club at the moment and the shift to apathy I felt post-January is now turning to active disinterest. It won't last because I'm a lifelong fan like everyone else but right now I don't feel good about the club.
On top of the general feeling of perniciousness emanating from the hierarchy (via the press), I'm also concerned about their football judgement - a very basic and key ingredient of their roles.
It seems to me that a major reason for Carrick's departure is the midtable finish last season, with a general view circulating that we've regressed year on year under Carrick. The club seems to genuinely believe that the squad they assembled last summer was worthy of automatic promotion and has judged Carrick against that wholly unrealistic aim. To me and many others - the majority I would say - the squad was a top six one at best at the start of the season, before the loss of ELL and Doak sent it significantly backwards at the halfway point.
It is true that the club has gone backwards year on year whilst Carrick has been in charge, but hasn't that been entirely in line with the quality within the squad he's been given? The journey from Cameron Archer through Latte Lath to Tommy Conway, for instance, or perhaps from Aaron Ramsey through a fit Riley McGree to Delano Burgzorg, tells a story in my opinion. We may have had good numbers in the squad this season but the quality is nothing like the 2022/23 season, or the last Boro squad to be promoted a decade ago.
The comments from the club around responsibility for recruitment - which seem to neatly follow whether that player is deemed as a success or not with success equalling the Recruitment team and failure the manager – irk and frustrate but arguably the more concerning factor is that the club may have a woefully inaccurate view of what a promotion squad looks like.
If that's the case then it doesn't really matter who is in charge and we will continue to tread water until the next falling out between coach and club.
I’ve heard today that the final straw for Carrick was when he heard that HH was to be sold and he wanted to keep him !
OFB
Heard on the grapevine that the final straw for Carrick was that Boro are planning to sell HH and are touting him around for highest bids.
MC wanted him to stay but the doe decision had been made so he’d had enough
OFB
Like I alluded above, that perhaps this wasn't a sacking but a genuine parting of the ways. MC did offer to leave earlier in the season, but SG persuaded him to stay.
The more that comes out, the more you have to consider Len's long standing opinion on this is and always has been accurate.
All the more important that whomever takes the job will have negotiated a position of strength with regard to maintaining the composition of a squad that he/she wants.
I could imagine Carrick getting frustrated if Hackney is to be sold against his wishes as he's probably the player that is the most important for his system - plus he will be hard to replace as obviously Boro couldn't afford a player with the same ability either.
Now that McGree can't stay fit, I think that Hackney is our best and most important player by a million miles. If OFB's rumour is true than clearly he will be sold.
I wonder what the plan is, in that case. Will we be expecting promotion again next year, despite surely weakening a squad that has just finished 10th? Are we writing off next season already?
Yes, as we changed the manager after giving him a new 3 year contarct a year ago!
Are we writing off next season already?
Here is an interesting writing by Scott Wilson: Inside Middlesbrough's review and why it led to Michael Carrick's exit
And yes, very good posts from Werder, Andy and Sir Len. Up the Boro!
So all the reports on every media outlet are incorrect, Carrick walked rather than being sacked, at least it will save on compensation.Heard on the grapevine that the final straw for Carrick was that Boro are planning to sell HH and are touting him around for highest bids.
MC wanted him to stay but the doe decision had been made so he’d had enough
OFB
Come on BORO.
An interesting report in the Northern Echo on the internal review, maybe OFB can update us on what he has heard about the review 🤔.
Come on BORO.