we needed a top drawer experienced manager to develop the team and make it premier league stalwarts every season....
In hindsight I just think it's a bit unfair to blame this not happening on Southgate. Would an experienced manager have done better? Yeah probably for a while. But if the reality is that Gibson needed us to cut costs then in all likelihood we'd have been flirting around with relegation whoever came in. Strachan was experienced but I don't think we'd have done much better having him 3 years earlier.
and yes the Cardiff QF was the worst Boro performance ever given the games standing....
I agree it was dreadful. Worst is difficult to quantify though. Worse than conceding in the first 40 seconds in the FA cup final? Worse than the playoff final vs Norwich?