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THE DNIPRO DOSSIER
With Harry Haverton
For those of you who were not aware, Dnipro knocked out Mogga's Hibs in the first round and Tony was then contacted by Boro officials who wanted to have a gander at his Dnipro dossier.
We've had one of our undercover reporters camped out in Edinburgh this week in an attempt to collar Mogga and ask him what is in the Dnipro Dossier.
Speculation as to what this dossier contains has been raging ever since the story broke and eventually our man caught up with Mogga in an Edinbugh side street one rainy night and asked him what the dossier contained. But Tony wouldn't tell him so we're none the wiser on that one.
It's probably out of date now anyway as shortly after the Hibs game, Dnipro manager Evhen Kucherevsky left his post to be replaced by Vadym Tyschenko. Tyschenko is fourty-two years old and was the USSR Olympic team coach in 1988 when they won the gold medal.
Apparently Kucherevsky had lost control of the team, currently lying tenth out of sixteen in the Ukrainian top flight with four wins and seven defeats. I wonder if the chairmnan was giving the team talks?
New manager Tyschenko kicked off his reign with a home win against Arsenal. No, not Arsene Wenger's Chelsea wannabes. The other Arsenal. The Russian ones.
Well they're not Russian of course. They from Ukraine- a country that was in the grip of Communism for many years. It wasn't until 1991 that independence was realised with the break-up of the old Soviet Union.
Despite this, democracy remained elusive as the legacy of state control and endemic corruption stalled efforts at economic reform, privatization, and civil liberties.
A peaceful mass protest in the closing months of 2004 named the "Orange Revolution" forced the authorities to overturn a rigged presidential election and to allow a new internationally monitored vote that swept into power a reformist slate under Viktor Yuschenko who is offering his citizens hope that the country may at last attain true freedom and prosperity.
So what's that got to do with football then? Well it's no coincidence that Ukraine have continually clambered the heights of world football since then and hvae become contenders instead of also-rans?
Ukraine were the first team to qualify for next year's World Cup and the club teams have constantly held their own in the European competitions over the last few years.
So although the Dnipro team and players are not exactly household names in the world game, we do expect a challenge tonight from our mystery opposition but it is a challenge that we can meet head on and overcome.
If we can forge out a win tonight then we have almost certainly qualified for the knock-out stages for the second year running.
Dnipro officials have been quoted praising Boro for their Manchester United demoliton job on Saturday and although we deserve all the plaudits that have come our way this week, we can't afford to be sitting on our laurels and may need to produce the same level of performance tonight to overcome Dnipro.
I'm sure that Steve McClaren realises that, with or without the help of Tony Mowbray's Dnipro Dossier.
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