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WHY DOWNING'S NUMBER IS ALMOST UP 13-11-07
Toby Higgins
Football chants are very much like the adverts before the start of a film at the cinema. Everyone's got their favourite, they're funny, sometimes you don't 'get' them and even if you remember nothing of the main event, you'll remember the adverts word for word.
Like adverts, there have been many football chants over the years that have really captured the imagination. And some that really haven't.
Whether it's regarding the odour emanating from Sir Bobby's under crackers or commenting on Robbie Savage's sexuality, singing at a football match is true football tradition. It is also a chance to blow off some steam, if nothing else.
The latest one is about Boro's own Jeremie Aliadiere and is to the tune of "Baby Give It Up!" by KC and the Sunshine Gang. Even though the half cut guy stood next to me in the queue for the urinal at half time couldn't quite get the words, or indeed the tune, right.
This got me thinking about the cleverest song ever concocted by the Boro faithful:
"One Job on Teesside, there's only one job on Teesside"
It's brilliant because of its simplicity and its impact on so many levels.
So what that Middlesbrough is one of the more economically poor areas of the country? At least we can have a laugh about it. One job on Teesside? There might be a few more than one but you get the gist.
The second meaning related directly to Joseph Desire-Job, arguably the real target of the song. He was Boro's Carling Cup hero and the song got plenty of airtime during his time with the Boro.
There was also a third meaning however.
When the song was first heard, Boro were in the middle of a Premiership survival battle and having decided that Bryan Robson wasn't going to be able to keep us up on his own, Steve Gibson recruited Terry Venables to turn around our failing club. This was something that Venables achieved.
But, as the song suggested, there was only one job on Teesside, and after Robson's dismissal and Venables' reluctance to return to full time management, Steve McClaren was appointed.
Now, seven years later, rumours are rife that the same man will be called upon to save us from the drop for a second time. Rumours are all they may be, with Gibson announcing that he is totally behind Gareth Southgate. It is evident that he is keeping his head, and his manager, when all the chairmen around him are losing theirs.
Whether he'll be so sure if we are still in the bottom three at Christmas and struggling to pick up points is anyone's guess. The temptation to bring in a more experienced manager, or at least a 'director of football' type of person to overlook things, could be too great.
It would be a huge statement of Gibson's belief (or lack of it) in a man he boldly handed a five year contract to when fans wanted a man with experience to build on one of the club's most progressive seasons ever.
That Gibson rarely gets it wrong, is particularly loyal (given he's a chairman) and his reluctance to actually sack a manager outright means that Southgate's job could be safe, at least until the end of the season.
There are a couple of others at MFC who could be moving on, or indeed be moved on, before the end of the season though.
Mark Schwarzer's contract, which expires in the summer, will presumably not be renewed. Schwarzer's uncharacteristically unreliable start to the season and his reluctance to commit to a new deal suggests that it could be as early as January when a replacement for him is sought.
The other is Stewart Downing.
It speaks volumes for a small minority of supporters that Boro are probably the only club who could take a young English talent with a huge future, and one who has started the season in impressive form, and turn him into a nervous and disheartened bystander who looks lost on the wing. This is why he is totally out of form.
Downing bagged three goals in his first seven games and started the season looking as fresh as ever. He kept his place in the England squad and looked like he could be ready to return to his best having declared his commitment to the club during the summer. His stunning decline in form has baffled everyone and some fans have wasted no time in getting on his case about it.
Which came first, Downing's drop in form or the unnecessary criticism that has been hurled in his direction is as difficult a question as chicken and egg. In actual fact it's irrelevant because when Downing made the announcement last week that he had spoken to the manager about leaving, he made the rift between himself and the support as wide as it has ever been.
At Bolton on Sunday the crowd sang his name before kick off, hoping to get a rise out of him. Or at least some acknowledgement that he had fans support. His decision to ignore the fans won't have done anything to smooth relations, intentional or not, especially as Southgate and Colin Cooper waved at the fans when their names were sung.
Downing's performance was in truth lacklustre, although that was largely due to him seeing very little of the ball. This is something for which he can't be held entirely responsible. The main gripe fans have with him is his reluctance to put his foot into a tackle or compete for headers. Basically, anything that might involve him getting hurt.
The argument that claims he is a winger and therefore isn't going to fly into tackles in the same manner as O'Neil, Cattermole and Wheater is wearing thin. This is especially true as fans now view him pulling out of challenges as a sign of not being committed to the club, particularly when he's the only one of the eleven doing so.
On Sunday, he looked more disinterested than anything.
The fans were behind him from the kick off and he failed to deliver, not just in terms of quality, but in passion and heart. Another few games like that and Downing, who hasn't been substituted all season, could finally see his number come up. Fans at the Boro won't tolerate players who don't want to play for the club - and rightly so.
In honesty, however, it's easy to see where he's coming from. If everything I did was being scrutinised to the extreme for no particular reason, I'd be looking to move away too, hometown club or not.
The boo boys who do exist, despite everyone who has been asked to speak on the subject claiming that "they personally don't boo", need to consider whether their actions are actually worth it.
Driving the only player considered good enough to be part of the current England squad away from the club, when the chairman does everything in his power to push forward our English talent, will mark a very, very sad day. Unfortunately, it now looks like a matter of when, rather than if, and neither Downing, nor fans, can consider themselves blameless.
And finally, anyone who thinks bringing back Adam Johnson to replace Downing is the perfect solution should consider the striking similarities between the two. Both have impressed on loan in a lower league and then both have had a huge weight of expectancy lodged upon them.
If Johnson's got any brains, or balls, about him he wouldn't come back to play second fiddle if Downing is forced out. This is because he'd know that, in front of some sections of the Boro crowd, he was only a few bad games away from suffering the same fate himself.
Same time next week
Up the Boro
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