Thanks for doing this AndyR

I have no real thoughts of who, but I do have some thoughts of who not, including:

Steven Gerrard (somehow Steven Gerrard's Middlesbrough doesn't sound right....);

Robbie Keane;

Tony Mowbray (on account of his ill-health, but otherwise I would be in favour);

Carlos Corboran also would not be on my list - he is in a post already and that would fly in the face of what we all nderstand to be SG's moral compass - in anycase he is not really showing signs of success in Spain;

Russell Martin - why? If you can't achieve even a modicum of success at Rangers what hope in the EFL Championship.

Gary O'Neil - I just can't see SG trusting him to have Boro at his heart. I am not that convinced by his track record either....

I could be quite open to:

Brendan Rodgers - at least we know we would be getting someone that is utterly self-focussed and would he be happy to work alongside Adi? He is someone that I suspect will want to re-prove himself and I thk he could turn us into an unstoppable force for the rest of the season.

Ole Gunnar Solksjaer - I like this idea. I suspect he will be happy to work alongside Adi and given the backing that he will be given by SG and the club generally, I think he could make us successful.

Bar - who is this? Someone that has clearly passed under my radar

According to the Teesside Live, Steve Gibson has never hired an in-work manager in his time as Boro chairman.

You have to go back as far as 1927 to the last time Boro hired an in-work manager in the middle of a campaign. On that occasion, Boro hired Peter McWilliam from Tottenham and he twice guided the club to promotion from the second tier to the first during a seven-year stay on Teesside.

Also, I think Edwards took over at Luton midterm - and got them promoted the same season. What I mean that a change of the manager is not changing the players. So we can still finish in top two in the Champioship. As a change of manager (Wolves) does not mean escape from relagation.

We have all seen manager come and go, but the results do not change accordingly. Let's hope we keep in collecting six points from the next two matching (including Coventry at home).

Up the Boro!

@jarkko - If correct, that is a remarkable statistic. Almost a century!

@jarkko Not whilst he was chairman perhaps, but he was part of the consortium that appointed Lennie Lawrence, then Charlton manager, I think in 1991.

@chris-from-barlby Perhaps it was off-season? I cannot remember.

Before the start of the 1991–92 season, Lawrence moved on to manage Middlesbrough. And as you said he was not the Chairman to make the desision.

My info was from the Teesside Live.

Up the Boro!

@jarkko I think it was the off-season, so less disruptive.

Gary O’Neil is emerging as Middlesbrough’s number one target to replace Rob Edwards. (Football Insider)

OFB

Posted by: @original-fat-bob

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Gary O’Neil is emerging as Middlesbrough’s number one target to replace Rob Edwards. (Football Insider)

OFB

Come on BORO.

Returning with some insights on recent events. Have been reading, and talking to friends, about what's been going on at the Boro lately.

It's conceivable that RE genuinely meant what he was saying and doing when he gave the impression that he loved Boro. Because at that stage, the opportunities to be nearer to his family and to manage a club he already had strong connections with in the Premier League hadn't yet presented themselves. One gets why he'd be attracted by Wolves, and not just by the money.

Does that, however, dampen the sense of betrayal? Alas, it doesn't. If anyone makes the point that my first football hero Big Jack didn't leave Ireland for England when (a) England was his home and (b) the salary would certainly have been higher, this leaves out the context that (a) he once applied for the England job and didn't even receive a reply, and (b) Ireland really suited him and his style of play, partly because the team had never reached a European Championship or World Cup before he'd arrived, whereas all the pressure attached to the England job would have likely seen a very different outcome.

It's also apparent that Gibbo has developed a reputation for forming a sort of bond with his managers or head coaches. If you leave El Tel and Strachan out of the equation, we had a mere five permanent managers or head coaches in twenty-three years, from 1994-2017 (Robbo, McClaren, Southgate, Mogga, Aitor). Between 2017-2022, we had the exact same amount (Monk, Pulis, Woodgate, Warnock, Wilder).

The arrival of Carrick, along with his immediate impact - I couldn't believe how excited I was feeling about the Boro again in early '23, although Wilder had played his part - seemed to point Boro back in that direction of "building something special" with a good working bond between the hierarchy and the manager or head coach. Of course it couldn't be what it used to be, and MCBoro did regress, but the sense was there nonetheless, and Carrick still had roughly as long as Southgate and Mogga did.

So with Edwards, my hope was that this kind of "building" would continue. But it seemed to be doing more than that. It wasn't escalated to cultish levels, no, and the team never really appeared the "finished article", but to me RE really looked like he was representing a symbol of progress, a step back to what Boro used to be while simultaneously evolving. All while publicly engaging and connecting with the fans and presenting the picture of a leader people want to believe in. Refreshing, Retro, Revolutionary. REdwards. Or so we thought.

We've had these sudden feelings of having our hopes built up and then being let down in the past, but in my mind, I don't recall them arising so fast and dissolving so soon with the manager or head coach. That, I think, is what sticks.

Likelihood is that the new man may be backed with a relatively pricey loan signing or an immediate, or near immediate, upswing in form, akin to Paul Jewell's four league wins in six at Ipswich in 2010-11, or Aitor's five wins from six in 2013-14. Jewell had been able to bring in Jimmy Bullard, Aitor, Shay Given. Again, it goes back to what Roy Keane once wrote - there's trust in the new manager. For a while.

@simonfallaha You missed the 12 month Scottish Experiment with Gordon Strachan, but I do know what you mean. 

We often hear it repeated that Steve Gibson has to be one of the very best football owners to work for, precisely because he is fair and gives his picks a fair crack of the whip. That alone is something that makes this job (i.e. Boro manager/head coach/or whatever) an attractive proposition. Given our current league standing and a squad with potential and a January transfer window to come (with extra Wolvish compensation in the kitty), this has to be possibly the best opportunity for anyone looking for that line of work.

I have no idea who will get the Boro job.  However the field must be releatively small, given the stat quoted by Jarkko (but apparently from Teesside Live) that Boro last signed a manager mid-season who was already in contract to another club before any of us on here were alive! 1927 to be precise and it was Peter McWilliams from Tottenham.

Thanks, Jarkko, for passing on that information. Ninety-eight years suggests Boro must have been showing "principles" for a LONG time. It's not just Steve Gibson, then. It must be something in the water.

@simonfallaha 

Good post, Si

Thanks Andy - good idea to start a new thread as we move onto who is next - though the Birmingham thread and Edwards departure were pretty much entangled given the timing and uncertainty - btw I moved a few relevant posts speculating on the new manager from late in the Birmingham thread over.

Betting seems to include the usual suspects and we could probably rule most of them out and if  we take Jarkko's point, then anyone currently in job is also ruled out.

So Carlos Corberan,  Brian Barry-Murphy and Robbie Keane are currently employed and may not be considered but Ole Gunnar Solksjaer was sacked by Besiktas in August - Russell Martin was also sacked by Rangers and is apparently a Buddhist so he could be reborn as a better manager or even a worse one...

- Gary O'Neil appears to be a divisive figure, which is probably not what Gibson would want right now

- Tony Mowbray - It was reported that he is due to have an operation and local media also stated that it's understood he's not under consideration

- Steven Gerrard said he turned down a return to Rangers as it wasn't perfect but would he be perfect for Boro? Not for me plus there's those family ties with the Kinsella mob that would be quite troubling and potentially undesirable from a security point of view.

So maybe out of that list maybe only Brendan Rogers or perhaps Solksjaer are serious candidates.

@werdermouth both of whom would be a good appointment for me

I wouldn’t want Gerrard anywhere near our club, I’m afraid. He carries all sorts of baggage and the pressure on him to succeed would be immense, given the publicity he’d generate. As someone earlier said, we’d become Steven Gerrard’s Boro. 

I’ll rehash some of what I wrote on the Birmingham thread. I’m pragmatically ruling out the names of those who are still in employment currently, since evidence suggests Steve Gibson may not go down that route, even though now might be a good time to do so. 

Let’s look at my definite non-starters: 

1) Gary O’Neil. Boro baggage which makes fans (and probably Gibson) loathe him  and a dreadful second term at Wolves (ironically), where they didn’t win in any of their first 10 games (ironically 2!) and his team’s discipline fell completely to pieces, leading to some very negative messaging on TV from O’Neil. 

2) Mogga. His health, principally, and a rather chequered recent managerial record. 

3) Russell Martin, Wayne Rooney. Please. Don’t be silly. 

So, unless I’m missing somebody obvious, that leaves me with:

1) Steve Cooper. Did a brilliant job at Forest.

2) Lee Carsley. Ditto, with the England under-21s. How effective would he be at club management?

3) Gareth Southgate. What a fine, honourable manager. He was unlucky to be sacked by Boro last time. 

I’d have any of those three, on gut feeling. 

4) Brendan Rodgers. A good track record, obviously. Respected. Has just had a huge fallout with the Celtic owner, with questions over him apparently blaming everyone but himself. 

5) Steven Gerrard. A hugely respected player, but I’m not sure about him as Boro manager, though I can’t put my finger on exactly why? Good at Rangers, poor at Villa. Don’t know why, again. Are there dark connections in his Liverpool background? 

6) Pardon my ignorance, but I know absolutely nothing about Brian Barry-Murphy. Can you enlighten me? 

And lastly, am I missing anybody obvious? 

Posted by: @clive-hurren

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6) Pardon my ignorance, but I know absolutely nothing about Brian Barry-Murphy. Can you enlighten me? 

I had exactly the same thought!

@clive-hurren Will Still?

@chris-from-barlby 

Will Still? Forgot about him. Not for me. A relative rookie in this country, and not a success at Southampton, despite their Premiership-strength squad, but perhaps he wasn’t given long enough? 

@clive-hurren 

“5) Steven Gerrard. A hugely respected player, but I’m not sure about him as Boro manager, though I can’t put my finger on exactly why? Good at Rangers, poor at Villa. Don’t know why, again. Are there dark connections in his Liverpool background?”

Yes!

@clive-hurren Maybe Clive.

Sunderland were keen on him it was said, but he didn't sign and they ended up with Regis Lebris.

Perhaps they were lucky, but in any event they seemed to think there was something worth looking at with Still. He may think he has a point to prove after Saints.

Here are two names for you all to consider:

1) Emma Hayes

2) Serena Weigman

I suspect some Boro fans’ heads would explode at either of those two appointments! 

@martin-bellamy Serena for me. Emma's links to Chelsea should rule her out.

Serena is already in a job, so sadly that would appear to rule her out.

Posted by: @powmillnaemore

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Serena is already in a job, so sadly that would appear to rule her out.

Maybe SG would take the view that it would be tit-for-tat for McLaren 😉.

Posted by: @martin-bellamy

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Posted by: @powmillnaemore

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Serena is already in a job, so sadly that would appear to rule her out.

Maybe SG would take the view that it would be tit-for-tat for McLaren 😉.

 

How about a rookie manager a la McClaren, Karanka or Carrick? I wouldn't bet against something out of the box. Gibson often surprices us.

My favourite choice (if Mogga's health is ont OK) would be Southgate, though. Our beloved captain.

Or how about Woodgate, Viveash and Leadbitter trio? I don't have a clue who we go for. Either Southgate or a new emerging talent like Brian Robson all those years ago. Up the Boro!

I just have a gut feeling about Solskjaer. I think he is a Gibson type of appointment. No compensation to pay, may be prepared to work with Adi (which I think is a vital aspect of our current good form) and may have the attacking nous to sharpen our blunt strike force. Not saying he is the best candidate out there but may be a better fit than other candidates such as Rogers et al. UTB