@paulinboro As someone who thinks a 7th placed finish isn’t too bad a result at the end of the season, I’d rather we stuck with MC, rather than twisting with another new managerial face. I am aware that my view of success is somewhat odd and that I’m swimming against the tide of “promotion at any cost” feelings but maybe I’ve been supporting the Boro for too long.
In a related, but not entirely similar, note, I found this Guardian article about “zero sum” games and Arsenal’s “failure” by finishing second in the PL, very interesting.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/mar/08/what-is-wrong-with-arsenal-finishing-second-maybe-the-answer-is-nothing?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
@werdermouth - I neither saw nor listened to yesterday's match. But whilst I concentrated on the rugby following a pint and a gentle stroll around Ullapool under the sun, on my return "home" I had my mobile phone tuned into the BBC Sport App. I have also read the comments left by other posters here.
I am underwhelmed by the manager's post-match comments but, then again, I am underwhelmed by MOST of the comments made by MOST managers after games are played. I get that managers/coaches/whatever are not employed primarily as communicators, much less PR men. Having said which, they DO have a PR role in maybe explaining why things didn't go quite as planned, or explaining injury problems and maybe looking to a brighter future, particularly at a time when a Club is hoping supporters will invest more of their money in season tickets for the next season.
It may be different if a club happened to be winning its games most weeks. Comments made by the manager after successful games can be as pointless as possible and nobody would care.
Most managers make completely bland comments after a match, so that there is virtually no point in listening to them. It has got to the position that I have predicted Michael Carrick's comments in the "tunnel interview" many times, much to my friend's amusement. To be fair most of us could probably predict them, including my friend.
I am tired of the "he'll likely be out for a few weeks" or "we'll have to look at what went wrong" and "there are lessons to learn to make sure we put things right for the future" as well as the "there were some bright spots out there" comments.
I am tempted to say that if a 15th or 16th century sea-captain explorer made the "a few weeks" comments to his crew about how long it might be before they made landfall, he'd be swimming with the sharks after the third repetition. And there's clearly no point undertaking "lessons" as the players/coaches or whatever have never shown any aptitude towards learning from them. About as much use as talking to a damaged dry stone wall after a storm, in the expectation the stones will lift themselves up and into alignment so as to restore the wall's integrity for decades to come.
I doubt the players are convinced by the comments made by the manager unless he speaks to them VERY differently to the way he speaks to The Press for consumption by those who want the club to succeed. I guess there may be players with their heads in their hands so that the coach can't see their eyes rolling in response to comments made in the changing room. Or maybe the players "tune out"?
If you were the CEO, Managing Director or whatever of old-fashioned ICI, and the Nylon Plant Manager couldn't explain why disasters kept on happening within the Plant and there was a general failure to meet expected production performance, do you think you'd be satisfied with repeated straight-bat non-committal responses to simple questions? Or if the same or similar occurrences kept on taking place in the months that followed?
No doubt several people contributing to this Blog have worked or still work in industry, and maybe similar positions to those mentioned in my analogy above. What do they think about the likely consequences if their business, their Plant or their operation had in charge of the workers someone who seemed not to be able to explain what was going wrong and what he was going to do about it?
I know football is a sport as well as a business and, therefore, there are competitors trying every week to undermine or defeat any good work put in by "our boys". But that must be the case in MANY fields of trade or business. For example, as a lawyer trying to advance his client's case in court in some contentious field, the odds are heavily stacked that the lawyer(s) of the opponent(s) will be doing their best to attack/weaken/undermine the arguments "our lawyer" has put forward. It's not always the case that the professionals on all sides in a trade or business are co-operating to ensure an agreed "favourable-to-all" outcome is achieved.
If one can't really identify WHAT the problem is and what causes it, how could one ever put the problem right? Maybe one wouldn't want to broadcast the nature of the problem to the world at large, but I'd be prepared to bet the Owner of the business will be desperate to be assured the person he has put in charge has a grip of the situation, can identify the problems and can come up with a viable solution. Maybe the manager simply doesn't know what to do? Maybe he's a decent bloke, who is good to work with and who is respectful of both the hierarchy and the staff and the players he has to work with? Maybe he is as concerned as we are? But he is the one with his feet on the pedals and hands on the steering wheel and the vehicle reacts to HIS driving so we will suffer the consequences if he carries on, unless he has a guardian angel.
Obviously I can see what is on display in front of me when I watch games at The Riverside but I don't know the "secrets" behind the dressing room door. Or whether, in my analogy, the fuel is of the wrong grade or the steering wheel is loose.
Am I being harsh?
@forever-dormo. Not in the least. I liked some of your analogies, particularly the dry stone wall.
Unfortunately for MC he is the one who will carry the can for failure despite him not being the sole cause with deficiencies across the organisation playing their part. 😎
pro rata for a season that’s about 50 points - just enough to keep a team from being relegated.
philip of Huddersfield ☹️☹️
@forever-dormo Fortunately, my experience of my industry didn't extend to having to explain to customers and competitors in a public forum what we’d got wrong.
I’d like to think I was a supportive employer of our 30 strong workforce and helped them to learn when they made mistakes and praised them when they did a good job. I’ve had to dismiss a few for performance issues and a few more for breach of our company ethos and rules, but I was fortunate that everything took place in-house and not in the glare of the media.
As you suggest, there’s only so many ways MC (or any club manager) can say the same thing week after week. If it’s true that he offered his resignation to SG a few weeks ago, then he must be aware that he has problems. As we all know, if a manager or coach loses the players support, he’s doomed - it’s easier for the Chairman to change the manager than a full squad of players. I do wonder what the comment by ELL meant, if in fact there’s any substance to what he’s purported to have said.
Like the career of politicians, the role of manager rarely ends any other way than being dismissed - in that regard it’s very different from most industries, where people can keep going until retirement age if they’re lucky.
Promotion isn't the be and end all ( dont think Ipswich, Southampton and Leicester fans are enjoying it much ), but I would like to see my team to show a little spirit, fight and organisation there was none of that on display yesterday and in a worryingly large number of games this season. There are a few skillful players in the team but they appear to have given up or are hiding. A good manager would change tactics if the players struggle to do what they want but Carrick is not for changing even though the team can't do what he wants.
As I have said if it was in my gift Carrick would be gone today and can't see him been here next season ( but what do I know). Carrick has been in charge the best part of 3 seasons and we have got worse each season.
Some of it is not Carricks fault but he will carry the can.
Still grumpy and fed up with the situation
@paulinboro I feel your pain - the least any supporter should be able to expect is that the players are busting a gut to win, especially when there’s still a chance, however slim, of making the playoffs.
I still think it must be weird being an average Championship player, knowing that if you help the team get to the EPL, you’ll probably be let go from the team.
Dormo, a very good summary of the state of play at MFC at the moment. All I would say is that managing a business is also about making sure that your people have the tools to do their job and deliver the expected results. Yes Carrick makes mistakes and some of his decisions on selection, substitutions and tactics are questionable. He will most probably carry the can for the recent poor performances but he might argue that his toolkit was materially changed in the January transfer window and the set of tools he was left with are just not good enough to do the job. The contents of the toolkit are the responsibility of other members of the club’s management team and they should be looking at themselves to assess why they have screwed up and to make sure they do much better next time around.
As for LL’s comment about things happening at the club I suspect there might have been a massive internal row about the dealings during and the outcome from the January transfer window and rows of that kind often have a marked negative effect on the mindset of the players.
Some interesting analogies about commerce industry compared to football. The thing is that the difference between Nylon Works and MFC Is that the management in control understood the problem and knew what team building was. The chief executive of MFC has run the club for a number of years but does not have a football background. Our manager of course has a football background and also runs his foundation and a consultancy company so has varied skills. Our DOF must be regarded highly by MFC because his transfer dealings have promulgated ££££ revenue for the club.
i would suggest that there is a rift now in the club after the recent sale of LL and replacement by inferior players.
It can’t go on much longer "…….
OFB
I can't understand Steve Gibson, he's the one who signs off on transfers amongst other financial decisions
The history of this club since moving to the Riverside as far as the league engagement is.
When we spend most of the budget on the forward line we fail, we remember the Hollywood team, greatest cup team but relegated over a full season , couldn't cope.
Our most competitive team under McLaren, we had, Ugo,Southgate Riggot, Frank, Boetang, solid fighters, yes we had forwards , but we relied on the defense.
Southgate was kind of unlucky , like Mowbray, Gibson made cuts.
Jumping to Monk, no forget that.
Today ,we've done it again, payed out for forwards in fees and wages to loanies, and what's happened disaster, we can't defend,
Karanka had it right people moaned these 1-0 results are awful, today no Clayton, running for 90 minutes working hard for the cause.
I think Carrick would be an ideal premiership coach, but at this level ,you can't have posers ,and that's what we have, it's a division if you don't out work your opponent, your going nowhere ,and that's what we have,the premiership players are the best of the best because they are for the most part dedicated to their craft,
On another note ,a few seasons back, Steve Gibson decided ,the club would look to sign predominantly British players, OK, but having seen many podcasts of ex players talking about the shenanigans that went on, is that culture still going on, when you see what Grealish behavior this week,
Sunderland ( hate to say it) seem to be doing OK with foreign signings.
Whilst the January Transfer Window, certainly on this blog, has been designated a colossal disaster, in many ways it is a “read herring”
We have had the same underling issues now for all of the last two seasons, and even to some extent during the better first season of hope.
As much as we all like Carrick as a person (to the best of our knowledge) in footballing terms he has failed in too many areas. We all make mistakes, however the better people embrace and learn from them.
He was a young relatively young inexperienced when he came here. Has achieved some good things with some nice on the eye football at times.
But, and it is a big but, he has NOT advanced sufficiently in his learning curve over these last two seasons. Yes he may have been let down by Recruitment and Senior Management, especially when he joined MFC and was given Woodgate as his assistant. But he has failed in what he set out to do, especially this season.
We had more investment, which he must have been part of, but has not delivered. Ultimately there is only one ending for failure.
@pedro I’m still not sure what failure actually is, in this context. Maybe SG thinks developing players to sell on at a massive profit is in many ways a success.
If promotion is the only KPI to judge him by, then MC is a failure. Who knows, maybe he could get us up next year.
@stircrazy my apologies
For what? I know I haven't visited the blog much since the shambles in Swansea on Saturday, but have I missed something? *puzzled*
Maybe losing Aaron tanks was the keystone falling out of the arch and that's what has destabilised the whole operation? I don't think he was replaced but we did get the manager's brother in, in some capacity. Boro were compensated for Mr Danks leaving but how much?
I'm at a loss to explain the situation satisfactorily but I'm with Martin in the opinion that we are a mid-table club and there's no sign of that changing. One bonus of the present situation is that we haven't got clubs trying to poach the manager but perhaps that would be good thing if someone did.
How long before the Gazette mention the play-offs if Boro beat QPR? If they beat them that is.
UTB,
John
For those who had not read it yet, but could probably guess the contents, because they have been discussed on here until we are sick of them.
Scott Wilson’s truthful hard hitting, no holds barred article certainly leaves egg on face of MFC.
So I'm thinking. How many players already know they are moving out, and if so are they up for the fight knowing that, this could be one of the reasons for the seasons collapse.
Names I see going, obviously every loanie , that's five isn't it
Burlaser, Forse, Hackney, Dykesteel, Coburn, Azzaz ?, Smith,,Lenehan, RVB?, Ailing ? , Howson , Glover, Dieng ?,
It doesn't paint a healthy picture, if it was up to me I'd cut my losses on Whittiker now , I think Burnley wanted him,
In conclusion, were do we go, a totally new Coaching staff, implementing a different style with their squad, or hope the current lot, make better decisions regarding recruitment.
I personally wanted Carrick to succeed ,and for a time our hopes were positive, but something went wrong, which makes me think is he capable of making the right decisions on selection's, substitutions, diversifying tactics depending on the opposition, I'm not sure, problem is, who is out there that as these qualities, maybe someone from another Country , who as worked at a big club.
Just some thoughts.
COB
@pedro. Thanks Pedro, I hadn’t seen the article but have now and it succinctly highlights all the points that we have been raising throughout the season; not all down to MC but a collective responsibility across the organisation.
The big question is where do we go from here? 😎