As one former Sheffield United boss in Neil Warnock departs, Boro prepare to officially announce the appointment of former Sheffield United Boss, Chris Wilder. Rumours in the press on Saturday morning that Warnock would be sacked if he lost at West Brom turned out to have some truth. The 73-year old's team didn't lose but as the final whistle blew, the players hugged their manager as they all went over to the travelling supporters for a prolonged acknowledgement that gave a very good impression of a final bow.
Then at 5:10pm the club posted on their website that they'd parted company with Neil Warnock by 'mutual consent'. Though as the outgoing manager spoke to the press after the game it sounded anything but mutual as Warnock confirmed he'd only heard the news at 10am on Saturday from Steve Gibson after reading the press reports of his imminent demise.
The only mutual aspect it seems was the appreciation society of Steve Gibson and Neil Warnock - though as the outgoing manager spoke he complained that he'd had no support from anyone else within the club. He bemoaned the lack of action on recruitment in the summer after the club failed to act on his targets and that somehow implied that Steve Gibson was just a background figure.
Warnock did acknowledge that perhaps the time was right for a change as it was difficult for the club to move forward knowing he was leaving at the end of the season. He was essentially a lame duck where those at the club looking to sign players didn't want to sign Neil Warnock players for the next man in charge.
Indeed, it had been obvious to many Boro followers that most of the summer signings didn't look like Neil Warnock signings and he had often seemed reluctant to start some of them. It does beg the question of why a new manager wasn't installed in the summer as it now looks as if Warnock was being treated as an interim manager.
The new manager is all but certainly Chris Wilder and given he was available in the summer one wonders why that decision wasn't taken earlier. Neil Warnock said he had known the identity of the new manager for 2-3 weeks, which also means he knew he was leaving well before Saturday. Although, he also said he was disappointed not to be continuing in his job on Teesside so it all adds up to a somewhat confused picture at the club.
Anyway, Chris Wilder has been handed the task of reviving Boro's promotion bid and Warnock believes his team are probably just three players short of that objective - in fact he added if he's been allowed to bring in his targets then Boro would have been already in the top three. Still, if you're going to change manager then the November international break is probably the optimum time as it gives the new man a chance to assess his squad before the January window opens.
As to whether Wilder is the right choice will depend on results and performances - though he doesn't fit the profile of the new breed of technical managers that will install a new culture at the club. That's not to say he doesn't have the ability to make Boro into a better side and his track record in recent times has been on the whole impressive. He will inherit a mixture of players that have not as yet showed their full potential - though the team is still short in a number of areas.
Chris Wilder's first task will to try and give his team an identity and make them more consistent - hopefully he'll hit the ground running but results and performances will likely determine how long his honeymoon lasts. So welcome to Teesside and good luck - he'll certainly need it knowing what Boro have been through in recent times!
Note: I've moved earlier posts about this topic from both the West Brom and He's Gone threads to make it easier to follow the discussion on Warnock's departure and Chris Wilder's imminent appointment.
Well that's the end of Neil, wonder who is lined up!
Interesting scenes after the game with all the players hugging Neil Warnock and then all of them went to the away fans and seemed to spend quite a long time waving and clapping - almost looked like a farewell from the manager - maybe it was just relief!
Or maybe they were showing the Daily Mail (and others) that they are all together.
Come on BORO.
MFC have confirmed Warnock has gone.
Come on BORO.
Yes, I thought it looked like a farewell - here's the story on MFC...
Interesting scenes after the game with all the players hugging Neil Warnock and then all of them went to the away fans and seemed to spend quite a long time waving and clapping - almost looked like a farewell from the manager - maybe it was just relief!
Or maybe they were showing the Daily Mail (and others) that they are all together.
Come on BORO.
MFC have confirmed Warnock has gone.
Come on BORO.
makes you think that he knew before the game!
who will replace him?
Yes, I thought it looked like a farewell - here's the story on MFC...
Decision made after his record breaking number of games then is my guess!
“Please Mr Gibson can I have one more game?”
”Go on then, seeing as it’s you - we will announce it after the game on Saturday”
Yes, I thought it looked like a farewell - here's the story on MFC...
Wow! Does that mean that Steve Gibson has a successor lined up?
Since his whole back room staff have gone too, I don’t think we will have long to find out.
Come on BORO.
Any thoughts on three possible successors suggested by Football League World?
I have a lot of time for Chris Hughton, but given his recent failure at Forest, I'm not sure he would be a good choice.
Warnock has just told tees sport he was told name of man replacing him and the club is going in different direction, he also said the only one who supported him was gibson
Warnock has just said he was told name of man replacing him
Yes he said he knows the new manager and sounds like it's not a well known name as he said some will know of him better than other - I guess we'll get the announcement soon.
I don’t want one of the old guys currently unemployed and who probably don’t need the money but just looking for another job such as Houghton.
Much prefer a younger manager who has a good record in the last 2-3 seasons and currently in employment. Howe would be good ( unemployed but not old) but he’s Newcastle bound.Wouldn’t be averse to a foreign manager although it carries a risk - but, then again, all new managers carry a risk.
Interesting week or so until the new manager is unveiled.
philip of Huddersfield
Warnock has just told tees sport he was told name of man replacing him and the club is going in different direction, he also said the only one who supported him was gibson
If one wants be be sarcastic, then going forward would be a different direction for us!
I think he has left at the right time. He saved us, he steadied us but he couldn't quite move us forward. As Meatloaf said, two out three ain't bad. If the next manager does get us going forward then Warnock will look like Karanka's Mowbray.
Here's hoping for the start of something good.
Chris Wilder is being touted. I’d settle for him unless a bigger name was a real possibility
philip of Huddersfield
Never mind the quality take the point. A much better result than I feared against a team in third spot albeit not as good a team as I thought they might be; WBA’s display confirmed that the overall quality of the league, barring a few teams, is poor.
A battling display if lacking in skill and quality on both sides.
Surprised by NW’s departure now but he had to go sometime. I just hope that SG has made the right choice as far as the new appointment is concerned. 😎
So the new manager is Chris Wilder
@werdermouth reminds me of when Robson was made manager, there was a football programme on at the time and the presenter, actor who played Damian in brookside, said he had been told who it was by gibson. Didnt Lawrence help recruit robson?
Chris Wilder is the rumour going around Teesside at the moment as the replacement
OFB
So the new manager is Chris Wilder
Smacks of a very Gibson appointment.
A very far cry from all the hope, expectation and excitement when Scott was appointed. Seems to be very short termism to me rather than a long term plan to develop a new outwardly thinking Boro.
@redcarred What is wrong with Wilder as a manager? I do not know, hence the question ...
I would have expected a young first timer like Karanka and McClaren were. But now we seem to get a just over 54 year old with already over 900 games as a manager. And many promotions under his belt.
But I do not know much about the Tyke. What kind of football he might play, for example?
Up the Boro!
Yes, looks like another go around the cycle that has just ended in the departure of Warnock. Wilder is over 50 with a less than stellar record as a manager and a reputation for agricultural football. OK he took Sheffield United to the Premier League but they weren’t there long and their brand of football was hardly top of the entertainment league. Warnock did much the same with Cardiff City so there are similarities there. How does that move the Club forward?
You can see it now, a short term improvement in performances and results and, who knows, maybe a promotion in a couple of years quickly followed by a relegation. Surely as RR says now is the time for a new manager who can change the dynamic for the better and build a team that can really compete at the top level.
If it is to be Wilder then it tells me that the Club has learned nothing over recent years and has no real ambition for the future. I find it totally underwhelming and infinitely depressing.
The appointment of Scott gave us reasons for hope and expectation of an exciting new MFC with a long term plan and foundations. The appointment (if it comes off) of Wilder just seems to have Steve Gibson's knee jerk "Garry Monkesque" fingerprints all over it.
Personally I'd rather have suffered the drab, predictable mid table scenario of a Warnockthon than Wilder coming in mid season.
yes Lennie Lawrence helped to recruit Bryan Robson and gave Steve Gibson his phone number.
The appointment was leaked on air by Bob Mortimer in a documentary he was filming on Middlesbrough. He has to plead with the producer to cut the scene but all they did was mute his voice when he excitedly named Robson. All lip readers can quite clearly see him mouthe Bryannnn Robsonnn !
Haooy times and this appointment doesn’t really excite me at all.
OFB
Daniel Farke's been sacked by Norwich...
I think Chris Wilder is another manager who has put the emphasis on not conceding goals, which in the season that he won promotion to the Premier League with Sheff Utd his team had the joint-best defensive record in the Championship. He shared that record with Tony Pulis, whose Boro side finished in 7th with just 41 goals conceded - However, Chris Wilder's Blades scored 29 goals more than Boro under Pulis.
You may remember that Wilder's Sheff Utd finished 9th in their first season in the PL scoring 39 and conceding 39. In contrast, Norwich, who had stormed to the Championship title scoring over 90 goals in finishing ahead of the Blades, finished bottom of the PL and scored just 26 goals and conceded a whopping 75.
I also recall that Wilder's method of play was to rotate the position of players so that defenders could also attack and other teammates would fill in - it was quite effective in their first season as it made it difficult for the opposition to pick up players. Unfortunately, in their second season in the PL, Wilder's team had problems scoring goals and when he was dismissed had only managed 15 goals in 27 games. Indeed, they had failed to win any of their first 17 games and had lost 15 of those. In defence of Wilder, the owners had failed to back him in the transfer market and he had quite a lot of injuries too.
Whether he has been chosen because he is viewed as being a more tactical version of Warnock and can get more out of the players is the gamble. It could just be that he has that recent track record of both winning promotion and staying in the PL on a tight budget. With nearly 30 games to go and a transfer windows soon approaching a change looked like it was needed if the season wasn't going to drift along in mid-table.
He's perhaps not that technical coach that some would have hoped for and there's still the question of whether his tactics either ultimately got found out or he was the victim of bad luck. If he gets results then he'll be around for at least a couple of years - with next season becoming a crunched fixture program due to the winter World Cup in Qatar, Boro needed someone up and running this season to allow for them to coach the players in their style.
I don't know what to expect but it will be interesting to see if Chris Wilder can add 10% to this team as that's probably the difference between mid-table and the play-offs in this tight league. At least he should know how to win games in the Championship and that's at least better than another rookie manager or a coach coming from a different country.
A saying comes to mind:
”Be careful what you wish for”
As Boro manager he will get my support.
Come on BORO.