Barry Robson with Steve Agnew as his no 2

Karanka would have kept us up if backed properly in January.
Agnew is a player's mate, not a coach.

Rubbish. The reason the January window was a mess was Karanka. He insisted on unrealistic targets who were not going to come here because they didn't want to or their club wouldn't allow it. If he'd accepted reality and went for more realistic targets we wouldn't have panic bought a load of **** at the last minute.

Agnew did not do a good job there is no escaping that. But Karanka left him in a bad position. A team designed to play for draws and to keep it tight. He should have took more risks earlier in the season than plodding a long hoping to average around a point a game. He needed to win games so had to change from being a defensive team to trying to be more open. Which obviously did not go well.
 
Tbh Aberdeen is the perfect job for Wilder and his particular interests right now, going on what happened at Boro. He'd likely start well and would probably achieve half decent results for at least the 9 games required to cement their place in the top half before the split. He'd also (whilst catching Hearts in 3rd may well be beyond him) have quite a good chance to have them finish the required 4th (or 5th if the Scottish Cup is entirely predictable) to qualify for Europe which would be viewed as a success given their finishing a lowly 10th last season, even their current position and last 5 results especially.

Whereupon another vacancy he viewed more favourable such as mid-table championship sides would come up and his head would be given a good twist again, his more recent CV looking a tad better after the mess he left here....
 
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He is - have a look at his coaching record. Every team he’s involved with gets worse, sometimes dramatically so.

I know there’s only so much a coach can do and it’s more to do with the managers he works with, but he still has a Lampard-like ability to turn everything he touches to ****. If football is a results business, Agnew is objectively terrible at it.

Also have a look at the all time Boro managers win % list. From memory Agnew is pushing up the daisies at the bottom on a solid 7%.
That is totally untrue. And in any case considering he is a coach and an assistant not the manager how can he carry the can.
But in any case it isn't true.
 
We were 4 points above the bottom 3 on Jan 1st 2017 and only 5 teams had conceded less goals than us.
We had 19 matches left at that point.
We needed goals and Karanka was given Gestede.
Was he "given" Gestede? Or was he party to the signing?
 
Agnew took us down with a whimper, he also went all in on Gaston in the press who then got himself sent off in the first 25 minutes at Bournemouth. The guys a joke.

Got a lot of time for Barry Robson though, gave his all and was one of the few bright sparks in a particularly dour time in our history showing heart and scoring some great goals for us, good luck to him. 👍🏻
My recollection is that we did visibly pick up, but not by enough, for anywhere near enough games.

Was Sunderland his first? We played OK in that game, but the squad was so divided it was irreparable I think.

He's obviously a decent coach, albeit maybe not cut out to be a manager.
 
Karanka would have kept us up if backed properly in January.
Agnew is a player's mate, not a coach.
Really? He is widely respected in the game - I remember chatting with him straight after he stepped in as caretaker following Strachan's departure. He chatted to me about how he was trying to change the style of play - he couldn't do anything too radical but he told me how many passes we averaged a game under Strachan - and you don't need me to tell you just how low that number was. He compared that to pass masters, Swansea. It was about a quarter of the number a game to Swansea. He then told me the level they had stepped up to for the next game, was it Notts County? We drew 0-0 I think. But in his games he helped steady a sinking ship and laid a few foundations for Mowbray to turn it around.
He has always been a student of coaching and is vastly experienced now at all levels. A more friendly, approachable guy you could not wish to meet. I wish him well with Barry Robson - it really sounds like a great team because Barry is also so down to earth also. I remember chatting to Barry Robson once in Starbucks, in the Cleveland Centre where he and his family had paused their shopping for a drinks break. I cannot imagine too many other Boro players have ever gone in there with their shopping.
 
Really? He is widely respected in the game - I remember chatting with him straight after he stepped in as caretaker following Strachan's departure. He chatted to me about how he was trying to change the style of play - he couldn't do anything too radical but he told me how many passes we averaged a game under Strachan - and you don't need me to tell you just how low that number was. He compared that to pass masters, Swansea. It was about a quarter of the number a game to Swansea. He then told me the level they had stepped up to for the next game, was it Notts County? We drew 0-0 I think. But in his games he helped steady a sinking ship and laid a few foundations for Mowbray to turn it around.
He has always been a student of coaching and is vastly experienced now at all levels. A more friendly, approachable guy you could not wish to meet. I wish him well with Barry Robson - it really sounds like a great team because Barry is also so down to earth also. I remember chatting to Barry Robson once in Starbucks, in the Cleveland Centre where he and his family had paused their shopping for a drinks break. I cannot imagine too many other Boro players have ever gone in there with their shopping.
Let’s not change history, we looked a shambles as soon as Agnew took charge. We went even further backwards

Hull away sticks in my mind where we were all at sea at the back

Just cos people are nice to chat to doesn’t hide their inadequacies for their role
 
Let’s not change history, we looked a shambles as soon as Agnew took charge. We went even further backwards

Hull away sticks in my mind where we were all at sea at the back

Just cos people are nice to chat to doesn’t hide their inadequacies for their role
Look at his experience - you do not get to coach that long in the game and to that level if you are just a nice guy and get on well with players. He is an extremely respected coach.
No, he didn't keep Boro up and you may disagree with his appointment but he has rarely been out of work since. He will bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to help Barry Robson in his task at Aberdeen.
 
Look at his experience - you do not get to coach that long in the game and to that level if you are just a nice guy and get on well with players. He is an extremely respected coach.
No, he didn't keep Boro up and you may disagree with his appointment but he has rarely been out of work since. He will bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to help Barry Robson in his task at Aberdeen.
I must say I agree, you don’t coach at premier league level if you’re just a chancer who got lucky. I don’t lay the blame at agnews door for relegation, the players had the biggest hand in that with bust up and segregation. His record at boro shouldn’t hold bearing on his future jobs as a coach.
 
Was he "given" Gestede? Or was he party to the signing?
Well given his press conferences, I’d say he was quite clear he said he was not provided the quality needed, referring to the Gestede signing saying we are signing players who didn’t play in the championship. He was clear he said he did not sort the signings, he was the coach.

Karanka Jan window
 
I'll never trust any of these 'not my signing' reports regarding Karanka.
Especially since there were similar reports regarding appearance-dodger Adlène Guedioura.
Next minute he turns up at Forest signed by Aitor!!
Fancy that, the same unwanted player signing twice for the same unlucky Manager!
 
I'll never trust any of these 'not my signing' reports regarding Karanka.
Especially since there were similar reports regarding appearance-dodger Adlène Guedioura.
Next minute he turns up at Forest signed by Aitor!!
Fancy that, the same unwanted player signing twice for the same unlucky Manager!
What he was actually saying was the team needed more quality and to be able to be ready from the get go. Gestede only had 8 Villa starts to January the window he signed, Bamford 0 starts at Burnley, he was alluding to the fact they were not ready to provide the firepower needed and he needed pacy creative players to boot or we’d struggle. He was proven correct.
 
Look at his experience - you do not get to coach that long in the game and to that level if you are just a nice guy and get on well with players. He is an extremely respected coach.
No, he didn't keep Boro up and you may disagree with his appointment but he has rarely been out of work since. He will bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to help Barry Robson in his task at Aberdeen.
How many times has he been manager since he left? Good coaches don’t automatically make good managers
 
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