Southgate's time at the Boro: 'six bad weeks'

I’m not saying he was i’m saying it was typical of that half arsed he’ll do attitude of that time.

that saw the likes of MK (I won’t even use his name), polute our club.

it was an awful era at the club and Gareth was a poor and weak manager.

but I wish England well
 
zorro_mfc said:
I’m not saying he was i’m saying it was typical of that half arsed he’ll do attitude of that time.

that saw the likes of MK (I won’t even use his name), polute our club.

it was an awful era at the club and Gareth was a poor and weak manager.

but I wish England well
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We cut everything back, everything was based on figures.. the bottom line. We failed to see the possibility of doing more with less. Eg we bought the best midfielder we could for £4m at the same time as dismissing 4 £500k players who were ten times as effective.
 
newyddion said:
We cut everything back, everything was based on figures.. the bottom line. We failed to see the possibility of doing more with less. Eg we bought the best midfielder we could for £4m at the same time as dismissing 4 £500k players who were ten times as effective.
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I agree but ( and this is my opinion) my issue with Southgate is if it was so bad and I’m not saying it wasn’t is then why didn’t he walk away.

if I was in a situation that was like this that I knew was so restrictive I’d walk away.
 
So when were these six bad weeks? When we couldn't buy a win after November in 2008/9.....from memory if you discount the fa cup we didn't win again until the end of February.....that's more than six bad weeks!

I always thought Gibson misjudged how competitive the Championship would be after we went down, he expected us to bounce back relatively quickly hence not acting when we seemed destined for relegation, when we were playing Matty Bates as a holding midfielder in February. Southgate had done as much as he could with us by then. The irony is Southgate would have probably made a better fist of getting us back up than Strachan.

I like Southgate, he comes across as an intelligent fella who thinks deeply about the game and understands his players. I think he might lack that little bit extra you need to be a top manager.
 
Otto42 said:
So when were this six bad weeks, when we couldn't buy a win after November in 2008/9.....from memory if you discount the fa cup we didn't win again until the end of February.....that's more than six bad weeks!

I always thought Gibson misjudged how competitive the Championship would be after we went down, he expected us to bounce back relatively quickly hence not acting when we seemed destined for relegation, when we were playing Matty Bates as a holding midfielder in February. Southgate had done as much as he could with us by then. The irony is Southgate would have probably made a better fist of getting us back up than Strachan.

I like Southgate, he comes across as an intelligent fella who thinks deeply about the game and understands his players. I think he might lack that little bit extra you need to be a top manager.
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Exactly oddo as someone said on here (Not me btw)

That season was like watching your fave pet dog die slowly.

it was a truly truly awful shocking season.
 
One player can easily make 4 or 5 points difference especially keepers and Schwarzer was a very good Premier keeper while Turnbull and Jones were not Premier League standard. Turnbull was third choice at Chelsea and Jones never more than second choice at Liverpool. I remember WBA at home Turnbull was at fault and it gave WBA another 2 points and lost us 1 in a 1-0 defeat. I didn't think Jones or Turnbull were any better than say Bettinelli.

Emnes was bought and he only played one game that season - and it was a very critical game at Newcastle near the end of the season a real 6 pointer- what was the thinking behind that? In the same game Shawky (hopeless signing) played ahead of Arca who loved playing Newcastle.

I remember we ended up starting games with a young lad called Josh Walker who ended up at MK Dons, as our main central midfielder, well before he was ready.

Even if we assume we had to raise some cash in the summer of 2008 - the players we brought in were poor (for PL) in the 2008/9 season - Hoyte, Digard, Emnes.

With Rochembach, Schwarzer, Boateng, Young, Cattermole all leaving.
 
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zorro_mfc said:
What is this based on then, great manager really.

let’s see how he handles the best England squad in a generation this summer before throwing phrases like great manager around.
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He has already performed very well at the highest level as England manager. He doesn't have that much to prove ... though I am sure he is determined to learn and get better.
 
Muttley said:
The timing of Southgate's sacking was very strange. As said above I would have sacked him with ten games to go to give someone else a chance to keep us up, or I would have sacked him once we had been relegated OR I would have sacked him when it became plain that we were not capable of promotion from the Championship. I would not have sacked him when Gibbo did. I can understand the logic but I think that having shown faith to let him try to take us back up he should have shown that faith with a proper crack at it.

Pity, things might have turned out a lot better and we might at least have avoided the twin disasters of Strachan and Monk.
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That's the point. I was against Gibson's decision to stick with Southgate following relegation, but he needed to be given until Christmas time at least. If we'd gotten off to a really poor start then I could have understood it, but we hadn't. We were 4th in the division and there's every reason to believe we'd have been been in and around the play-off spots all season if we'd stuck with Southgate. I don't think we'd have gone up automatically with him in charge.

I think fans should shoulder some of the blame as well to an extent. I was at the home game vs Leicester when we lost 0-1 and many fans turned on Southgate that night, chanting "Southgate out" after Leicester scored. I think the issue was many fans were still frustrated at Southgate for taking us down though, and that night it just reached boiling point.
 
It’s noticeable his current England coaching staff none of which were at the Boro With him. Why didn’t he bring them in then.
 
Southgate was learning on the job with us and I imagine he learnt a lot. The mistake was appointing him in the first place, no other established Premier League club at the time would have. Similarity would have been Man Utd making Giggs Fergie's successor.
 
parmoboy said:
there's every reason to believe we'd have been been in and around the play-off spots all season if we'd stuck with Southgate.
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I didn't believe that then and I don't believe it now. I think there was every reason to believe our descent down the table would have continued. Specifically, our form had deteriorated sharply as soon as we lost our 2 best players, and there was no prospect of them making a return to the team.

I didn't see any reason to believe that form was suddenly going to improve again.
 
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newyddion said:
The appointment of Gordon Strachan was the single worst decision the club has ever made.
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I think if we're being honest, it was only in hindsight this was the case. I think most people supported the Strachan appointment on paper, just as most people agreed with sacking Gareth as the general consensus at the time was he was another great player who couldn't transition into a manager.

newyddion said:
Selling our main keeper? He moved to Fulham on a free. The Middlesbrough hierarchy didn’t think he was worth as much as he was asking for.. or maybe they just didn’t have it to pay out.
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And the fans had turned on him too, best keeper in our history and he was virtually hounded out the stick he used to get. I always wondered what level of keeper the ones criticising him wanted, no doubt Buffon or Kahn, those idiots ended up with the keepers they deserved.
 
Gains said:
I think if we're being honest, it was only in hindsight this was the case. I think most people supported the Strachan appointment on paper, just as most people agreed with sacking Gareth as the general consensus at the time was he was another great player who couldn't transition into a manager.


And the fans had turned on him too, best keeper in our history and he was virtually hounded out the stick he used to get. I always wondered what level of keeper the ones criticising him wanted, no doubt Buffon or Kahn, those idiots ended up with the keepers they deserved.
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Gordon Strachan was a total turd of a manager long before he darkened out doorstep. Nobody agreed with the timing of his sacking (of Southgate). I would say quite a few wanted him changed out in January, the majority would have accepted him being shipped out in the summer.. not many thought it was a good ideas to fire him when we did. I remember a section of our supporters booing Schwartzer.. idiots.
 
zorro_mfc said:
I agree but ( and this is my opinion) my issue with Southgate is if it was so bad and I’m not saying it wasn’t is then why didn’t he walk away.

if I was in a situation that was like this that I knew was so restrictive I’d walk away.
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No you wouldn't zorro.
 
I was more than happy for Southgate to be sacked when he was. I would have preferred it if he had gone earlier, but as soon as possible were my thoughts.

The problem was our performance in big games. Losing 5 nil at home to wba. Dear me.

I also don't remember schwartzer getting hounded out. My memory is of people being furious that the club let him go.

Such a shame there's no archive of this message board from 10 years ago.
 
Sheriff_John_Bunnell_ret said:
I was more than happy for Southgate to be sacked when he was. I would have preferred it if he had gone earlier, but as soon as possible were my thoughts.

The problem was our performance in big games. Losing 5 nil at home to wba. Dear me.

I also don't remember schwartzer getting hounded out. My memory is of people being furious that the club let him go.

Such a shame there's no archive of this message board from 10 years ago.
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I remember folks being critical of Schwarzer.. no doubt the ‘academy lads’ were seen as worldies.
 
newyddion said:
Gordon Strachan was a total turd of a manager long before he darkened out doorstep. Nobody agreed with the timing of his sacking (of Southgate). I would say quite a few wanted him changed out in January, the majority would have accepted him being shipped out in the summer.. not many thought it was a good ideas to fire him when we did. I remember a section of our supporters booing Schwartzer.. idiots.
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Strachan might have been a bad appointment for you, I'm just saying at the time the majority thought it was an upgrade from Gareth and yes, it proved to be terrible decision but that doesn't mean it was seen as the same as say, the Woody or "We're going with Steve" decisions which both got a very luke warm reception from fans when they were made.
 
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