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SIR GARETH - THE MAN FOR THE MOMENT AND BEYOND
Peter Holmes
As the 2006 World Cup is still vivid in the memory and that head-butt spawns yet another round of e-mails, the point of personal focus at last turns neon red and white.
After a lengthier close season than normal because of some German shindig, we the Boro faithful can finally turn our attention to what matters more than anything to all of us.
Middlesbrough Football Club 1986.
The players have jetted in from sojourns in various peaceful corners of sunny Europe and are back in the maelstrom of pro-football. The intense hard-slog of pre-season training, stretching every sinew and sweating on the lush green lawns of gentrified Rockcliffe, while being put through their paces by a fresh new young regime.
Evolution has taken hold at our club after the departure of McClaren and we now have the future onboard at the helm of the good ship Riverside in the form of our new leader, Gareth Southgate, ably supported by Colin Cooper who will be taking a prominent role too.
The feel good factor is high, and I think this pair will prove in the long term to be as good a managerial partnership as you will see anywhere. If we can draw from Gareth a parallel off-field performance mirroring his on field career, well I think we'll prosper and the same can be said of Coops, a man who has never shirked responsibility or failed to stand up and be counted.
Both men have given our team and our club superb service from the first moment they pulled the red and white shirt emblazoned with the red lion of Erimus over their heads and their performances were epitomised by spirited consistency and engendered the respect of their peers. How I hope they bring those same maxims to the managerial stage for my Beloved Boro.
King Smog, the revered Steve Gibson, obviously holds both veteran players in extremely high regard sensing a potential and level of professionalism within both which will serve them well in the minefield of the Premier League. Gibbo's decision was made with expert judgement using his inside knowledge and no little faith, which will be good enough for most Teessiders.
The fact is, if certain people had gotten their way Gareth would only be sitting a coaching course right now and not managing the Boro. Gibbo went out on a limb and into bat for Gareth as his man, his manager of his club and this action speaks volumes to me.
This happened even though the supposed 'powers that be' stated that Southgate didn't have the required level of expertise and correct level of coaching certificate. No lesser luminary than that aficionado of the donkey welly down the middle, Turnip Taylor, got in on the act, backing the League Managers Boot Lacers and Ball Inflators Association in their adamant stance of, "He isn't qualified to do the job, we will not recognise or allow his appointment".
Thankfully, Gibbo, as we all know well, is made of sterner stuff and treated the detractors with the utter disdain they truly deserved, but it was an amazing situation when the game is crying out for the blooding of English managers at the highest level. It never fails to surprise me how many bureaucrats this game manages to support, those tweed jacketed plonkers who anonymously exist in musty offices in the boondocks of power.
They grandiosely appear out of the woodwork every now and again, looking like refugees from Antiques Road show visits the garden shed with their jobsworth attitudes. They noisily pontificate and expound their bullshit, only to disappear without a trace after they've justified their meaningless existence.
Gibbo 10 - 0 Turnips.
Gareth Southgate may well be an unknown quantity in the Managerial stakes, that's accepted, but he's a newly retired player who knows the game inside out at all levels. He is extremely intelligent with a proven ability to lead and to gee up his peers in the dressing room, something I am sure he will transfer to the inner sanctum as a coach and as a manager of the Boro. He is a bloke who is very honest, hardworking and sets high standards for himself and the people around him.
I sincerely hope he becomes the new broom, the most promising 'young gun' manager in the English game. I expect him to be a success. Eventually!
Already Southgate has made some hard decisions within the coaching and playing staff allowing people to move on and of course during the Huth saga, a proposed signing by all accounts he may have inherited from McClaren. The ankle injury discovered during the medical may have been the excuse for Southgate to pull out of the proposed deal, but he had the balls to do it rather than go for a halo signing to appease the fans. Hopefully Southgate will spend the club's hard-earned judiciously so that we will not be signing any lame ducks any more. Five mill for Huth? Yer joking arn yer!?
It gives a message to us all that as a manager he is his own man and will make the hard decisions he thinks will benefit this club.
There are stories floating around in the press already, as the media switches it's attention from the WC to the EPL that we are aiming for Europe. Well I bet Mr.Southgate isn't making those claims. I bet he's saying in time this club should be back in Europe and our aim is the CL. You'll see a measured and structured evolution from Gareth Southgate and the bairns will prosper. I believe we will see a far more flowing brand of football with more mobility based on a pressing brand of intelligent pacey midfield play.
The professional commitment of the squad, fitness and stamina levels will be higher than ever. As I said, we'll see more use of the babes who are now at that critical point. Either they sink or the swim. Perform and show that you can step up or it's lower league ignominy.
I think it's stating the blatantly obvious that Steve Gibson is a very shrewd man. He has more than likely mulled over possibilities to take our club forward and harboured a replacement plan for McClaren even before he got him to sign an extended contract. In that plan, Gibbo had a time-frame to blood Gareth and Coops over the future years in a grooming period until they were ready to take the club on to the next level. That would have happened after McClarens replacement had done his stuff but circumstance and fate as we all know took over. So we got some recompense in financial compensation from the FA and the master plan clicked up a gear and missed a phase.
Let's be candid here (have you known me being anything but?), Steve McLaren left a playing roster that needed some trimming in volume, both due to age and a few others being ready for pastures new. For a start, Sir Gareth has to do some blending, buying, and blasphemy to get his message over. I think we will be very pleasantly surprised at what occurs and the brand of football we will end up playing.
One things for sure, Southgate is by all accounts a favourite of the media pack as he's a very affable sort of chap, extremely sociable and very intelligent. He will give a good account of himself in front of the cameras after a game and during it, as I expect some very active bouncing around that technical area from the lad, as he certainly has heart and soul.
Our priority is to survive and prosper but he could just well be the best thing to happen to our Beloved in a long, long time. When he transfers his amazingly consistent, skilled and resilient pitch presence into the dressing room, onto the training pitch and thus through his charges onto the field, I can see the Riverside faithful finally having a manager they can call one of their own.
Good luck Gareth, you'll certainly need it, but you have our full support and Smoggy diehard passion.
Evolution to Revolution, Southgate's the man for the moment and beyond!
Enough Said,
ErimusRed.
TALK ABOUT IT IN THE NEW HOLGATE MESSAGE BOARD
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