this is probably one of them posts i shouldn't write. a lot of people will say "if you take the emotion out of it you can see it's the right decision". sadly, some things you just cannot take the emotion out of.
in frankly bizarre timing, with this Friday's match being hailed as the "Spirit Of Teesside" night, Middlesbrough have fired Tony Mowbray, as revealed by The Evening Gazette. perhaps not too big a surprise considering the run of dire results, but all the same sensational short term thinking.
Boro have been in a right mess since the most successful manager the team has ever had, Steve McClaren, was hounded out of the job to take the position of England manager, an assignment he was nowhere near ready for. we replaced him with Gareth Southgate, a man of no managerial experience and no UEFA qualifications, to replace him. a League Cup winning, UEFA cup finalist side was handed to a man who "fancied having a go" by a chairman who admirably wanted to support young English managers in the game. support them at quite a cost.
alarm bells rang at the start. the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson refused to say "OK" to his appointment without any qualifications, pointing out that he did not in any way, shape or form look like managerial material.
over the course of two years we watched Southgate dismantle a team capable of winning trophies at home and holding their own in Europe. he had no clue how to tame the raw talent of Cattermole and he couldn't spot the obvious skills of Adam Johnson. why he was allowed to do this, why a chairman who had invested so much money just stood and watched it, remains a mystery.
and then, following a course of promoting young English talent as managers, we turned senior Scottish manager Gordon Strachan. that went ever so well.
eventually and at last we got the manager we should have gone after when McClaren went. he did as well as he could with scant resources and a fed up set of supporters who had pretty much had enough of it all.
this evening, Tony Mowbray has paid for the sins of the long term damage done to our club by the appointments of Southgate and Strachan.
fellow fans have been calling for Mowbray to be gone for a while. that's fine, you can understand that in the face of poor results, no matter what reason there is for our limited squad. the problem was, and now is, exactly who do we replace him with? what manager is it out there that's available who would take on the job that can do better than Tony Mowbray?
i am hearing obscene names bandied about as a wish for the job. some are calling for that sideshow freak Neil Warnock (whose name is a perfect anagram of Colin Wanker) or that sulky, not as good as the press like to think Martin O'Neill to get the job. if either of those ever get appointed in any capacity at the club, even if it is toilet cleaning, that's me and Boro finished.
assuming that Steve Gibson is not quite so reckless as to appoint either of those two, good luck to whoever takes the job. i am already braced for hearing talk of "need to rebuild" and "settling time", though. i can really see League One in the not too distant future.
as for Mogga, the man was, is and always shall be my hero. it's a straightforward disgrace that his time as Boro manager has gone the way it has, and i really do not hold him responsible for it at all. i can only wish him the best of luck wherever he goes next, and hope that he is greatly appreciated.
be excellent to each other.
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