You've just reminded me why I don't use a photograph of myself as a gravatar 😉
Good point. I suspect there are a few of us on here who wouldn’t want to be judged by our profile pics…
It all sounds like myself as a child when after standing up and saluting King George VI during the playing of the National Anthem at the end of the major film, then plaintively asking my mother when would it be my father’s turn to be King. Perhaps that’s the idea, just another 30,000 interviews for Steve Gibson and his next of kin to decide our new manager. Though by that time we’ll be back where we started in the Northern League.
A perfectly reasonable question to your Mother and one that I’d ask on behalf of my grandchildren.
@martin-bellamy - To be fair, many grandparents have asked that on behalf of their grandchildren in the past. And, if things run to plan, the grandparents of Camilla, the current Queen Consort, and Kate Middleton, the current Princess of Wales, would have been pleased to know their questions will be answered in the fullness of time... Plucked from obscurity to the Throne.
Obviously not all of our 67,000,000 (I think that is the current population of the UK, but it won't be far off) can have their day in the sun - their day as King or Queen - as to do that would take over 180,000 years if everyone had one day each. 90,000 years if couples unrelated save by marrying each other, shared the Crown. Of course, we'd have to reduce the pomp and ceremony for the Coronations if the period on the Throne were to be reduced to one day each. How many Ice Age advances will be seen in the next 180,000 years, or greenhouse events? Either way, it would be the death of football as we know it.
But to take a tangent here - since the Coronation of King Charles III has been fixed for 6th May 2023, the chances are that Boro's game against Coventry at home will be postponed. That is the day when I think all Championship last-match fixtures were to be played. Obviously all the Police forces in England & Wales will be expected to send officers to help out The Met. A massive security operation will be put in place not only in central London but also in various transport hubs linked to the capital, in light of the world's dignitaries who will no doubt be in attendance. The smart money suggests a postponement for a day or a few days.
Ken no doubt remembers the last Coronation very well (and whose TV set he watched it on), even though it was 69 years ago, on 2nd June 1953. I can certainly remember my parents talking about it when I was young - I wasn't alive in 1953. No doubt the Coronation of King Charles III (and Queen Camilla) will be a major event in the lives of many millions in the UK and abroad. And if you doubt that, you should see the comments on many YouTube channels where vloggers from the USA, from the Commonwealth and from other countries spent time following the events of the Late Queen's State Funeral at Westminster Abbey and the subsequent Committal at St George's Chapel, Windsor and other events like the various Oaths taken by King Charles in all the parts of the UK. It obviously caused a storm of people all over the world investigating their history books in order better to understand what was going on in front of their eyes and certainly many Americans were surprised to find out that Queen Elizabeth II was Queen not only of Great Britain & Northern Ireland but also Queen of her various Realms (like Australia, New Zealand and Canada) and Head of the Commonwealth which contains countries which following their independence have become republics and some countries which have voluntarily joined the Commonwealth even though they were never a part of the previous British Empire.
Thanks FD for clearing that up. I’ll tell my grandchildren to marry a member of the Royal family. Fortunately I’ve only got female grandchildren so that should make things easier. I wouldn’t want to disappoint a boy by telling him he could only be a prince.
Hang on, though, they still wouldn’t be head of state would they and neither will the two people you mentioned.
@jarkko you forgot to mention Bruce Rioch 😋
I was thinking to add Bruce but was not 100 % sure if it was his first job. I remeber he went to Arsenal afterwards but could not remember his previous career as a coach or manager.
And I am abroad on a business trip now. Practising yravelling before a week's holiday on Teesside later this week.
Up the Boro!
The point of firing the manager is always the same, and it never changes. When the team is playing like a drain, it is the managers fault. If you do not believe that then you are dumping the one fixed and certain fact in the whole history of the game. Yes, I know you are at this moment saying how silly that statement is. But I do not ask you to look at our team, I ask you to look at the greatest teams in the world. Their form wobbles, and it is goodbye, don't ring us, we'll ring you. This season Spurs players wandered back to the training complex, full of holiday yarns, all set for a pleasant morning, loosening up, having a coffee, sorting out their kit, etc. How wrong they were. The entire training complex was strewn with heavy duty training tackle, which was bad, but not half as bad as what followed. They were told in short order, get their kit on, were told that they were going to do runs, until they were fit to train. They then ran up and down the pitch until they fell in a heap. One of them was sick, very sick. His first initial was H. Hands up anyone who really thinks our players are fit.
Managerial career[edit]
Torquay United[edit]
In July 1982, Rioch became player-manager of Torquay United, but left in January 1984. In February 1985, after 13 months out of the game he was appointed manager of FC Seattle, of the US Western Soccer Alliance, but resigned in September 1985 to return to England.[5]
Middlesbrough[edit]
He was appointed as manager of Middlesbrough in February 1986 and his first success in management came in 1987 when he guided Middlesbrough to runners-up spot in the Third Division and promotion to the Second Division at the end of a season which had started with them locked out of Ayresome Park by the official receiver and on the verge of bankruptcy. A year later they won a second successive promotion, this time as winners of the Second Division promotion/First Division relegation playoffs. Middlesbrough showed great promise in the first half of 1988–89, but fell away badly and were relegated on the last day of the season (despite having not occupied a relegation place prior to that). He was sacked the following March as the Teessiders hovered just above the Second Division drop zone but on the brink of their first ever Wembley final in the Zenith Data Systems Cup.