The Final Countdown... Keys To Success At Wembley For Aitor Karanka's Lads

Boro's big day, perhaps the biggest of all, is getting nearer, hour by hour, minute by minute. The nerves and excitement inside every fan of this proud football club are rising to what must breaking point as the £120 million Wembley challenge approaches.

The Championship Play-Off Final. It hasn't been as big as this for Boro since, well, the UEFA Cup Final in Eindhoven, and that was nearly a decade ago. Time really waits for no one. At once we are equally fearful and equally cheerful ahead of a match that does not seem more equally balanced than this.

We are facing a Norwich side managed by Alex Neil, the 33-year-old Championship managerial darling of the moment. The Canaries have not lost a single game away from home throughout his reign. And there's no such thing as Typical Norwich. While Boro may well feel burdened by years of historical near misses, Neil's men claim to be treating this like any other game, as if there is no pressure on them whatever happens. A 20% success rate in cup finals post-1995 doesn't exactly bode well for Boro either, with Cardiff in 2004 being an exception rather than the rule.

But, as my friend and fellow Boro fan Paul Ahdal has pointed out, Norwich have failed to score against Boro this season, both league games ending in 4-0 (albeit under Neil Adams) and 1-0 (albeit rather unluckily) Boro victories respectively. Additionally, Norwich's Nathan Redmond has labelled both wins "lucky", stating that his club have the better players. Perfect motivation for Aitor Karanka, who has shown, time and time again, that he doesn't do Typical Boro.

And as for Neil... the question remains. Is he truly a brilliant manager or is he simply riding the crest of a wave, basking in the glow of a honeymoon period that a top notch Championship squad have contributed to? Memories of how Stuart Pearce very nearly guided Manchester City into Europe at Boro's expense in 2005 come to mind; although Boro had been in the driving seat for much of the season, as they have been this season, Pearce's City found the right, revitalising momentum at just the right time to take the battle right to the wire. Less a case of managerial magic and more of a team unified behind the cause, if you ask me.

Boro approach Wembley with a bit of both, in the perfect state of mind to take on their formidable Championship challengers. Here, in my view, are a "magnificent" seven keys to Boro succeeding tomorrow.

MAKING ATMOSPHERE COUNT. As the Gazette's Anthony Vickers has put it, we don't want another Eindhoven where a day's worth of partying and drinking left Boro fans outsung by the Sevilla fans in the stand. And Boro's team were ruthlessly outfought and outclassed by Juande Ramos's side. We simply can't let that happen again.

We're not going to get a Giants Stadium circa 1994, where the first round match between Ireland and Italy in New York saw observers feast their eyes on a cascade of green with Italians nowhere to be seen. But we've got to try. We've got to make our voices heard tomorrow for the right reasons. And judging by what I've seen in photos from Trafalgar Square tonight, we can do it.

JELLE VOSSEN. The Belgian's goals, or lack of them in contrast to goalden boy Patrick Bamford, have become secondary to his value as a supply striker. His persistence and good footwork is the perfect compliment to either Bamford or Kike. If Vossen and one of Boro's two other forwards combines well, Boro will play well.

LEE TOMLIN. Like the Brazilian Ronaldo, he has been mocked for being overweight. But "Tomlinho" is a man for the biggest stages of all - his turn at the Etihad and his brilliantly taken strike in the semi-final second leg are proof of this - and more miracles are possible.

THE SPINE. Dimi Konstantopoulos. Daniel Ayala. Ben Gibson. Grant Leadbitter. Adam Clayton. The central players, the engines of the side, the inspirations to all of those around them are the main reason why Boro have had such a mean defensive record this season. Their ability to keep things tight and keep things ticking over while the likes of Albert Adomah, Tomlin, Vossen, Kike, Bamford or even Adam Reach do their magic will be paramount. And let's not forget George Friend either....

DOING IT FOR MOGGA. It's easy to forget that nine of the fourteen players who played against Brentford in our last match were either signed or developed by Tony Mowbray and Mark Venus; the local heroes' invaluable contribution to the Karankanaut should not be cast aside. If that can't help inspire the lads on the pitch tomorrow to "do it for Teesside", I don't know what can.

KIKE. I know that the temptation to recall Patrick Bamford will bein Karanka's mind, but I genuinely think that allowing the £2.7 million signing to keep his place will be his best bet. While Bamford is only just recovering from an injury and has not scored since the 2-1 win over Wolves, Kike is fit, firing and surely in the mood to do more damage after that beautifully taken goal against Brentford. Mood defines many a striker's momentum; I think starting Kike is a risk worth taking.

THE CORRECT PSYCHOLOGICAL MENTALITY. Boro have already shown that they can adapt to going a goal down. But the final battle in this long war will surely be psychological. Here's why.

Back in January, at the Etihad, Boro were able to adopt a "Nothing To Lose, Everything To Win" mentality. With less pressure of expectation, the team were less inhibited, and simply focused on going out there and giving it their best. They knew that there was something to fall back on even in defeat, and, once they realised Manchester City were there for the taking, both belief and composure enhanced, paving the way for a deserved triumph.

Tomorrow, the expectations will be much higher in an atmosphere of no second chances, an atmosphere with big prizes of enhanced status and much more money at stake. As a certain Nigel once put it on Anthony Vickers' UntypicalBoro blog, it is a situation where "all we have to win" becomes "all we have to lose".

And, as he added, such negativity can drain the power from players, filling them with uncertainty and damaging the team pattern. This, in turn, transmits itself to the crowd, who are weighed down by the prospect of ending up as The Nearly Men.

Boro can't let this happen to them at Wembley.

And, knowing both Aitor Karanka and the team, they won't. There is enough of a positively charge around to suggest that this gifted coach and his well-organised charges are truly up to the task ahead of them tomorrow.

Need I say I'm now looking forward to it?

Here's to a wonderful Wembley experience.

Up The Boro! Read more...

Looking Back And To The Future With Boro

It's nearly a year since Tony Mowbray was sacked. Si's Insights looks at his legacy and Aitor Karanka's start in the hot seat

Logic can be a very funny thing sometimes.

Logic suggests that we all learn and improve with experience or time, and football managers should be no different. When you look at Boro bosses, however, it’s a different story.

Hard though it may seem to believe, Bryan Robson was once in line to succeed Terry Venables, but it was Terry Venables that ended up succeeding him. Did Robbo learn from the mistakes of 1996-97? Yes he did. But we eventually paid the literal price with a “New Robbo” that always played it safe and continued throwing money at problems to solve them.

From 2003 onwards, Steve McClaren visibly scrapped his long-term plans at the expense of short-term achievements, leaving his successor with an extremely difficult, even impossible, task. Hence arguments that Gareth Southgate was finally finding his bearings in the Championship until his time was crudely cut short will continue to this day.

The more Strachanistas arrived, the worse Boro became. And Tony Mowbray? He was as Typical Boro as they come, building our hopes up with too-good-to-be-true runs that could not be sustained after Christmas. Mogga’s most heartwarming achievement, and one cannot underestimate it, was restoring belief and communal identity in the post-Gordon Strachan era. While it remains ironic that as Strachan’s spine – particularly Nicky Bailey, Scott McDonald and Barry Robson – departed, Mogga’s Boro gradually declined, the club’s identity remained intact.

It’s this identity that Aitor Karanka, still, in my mind, not fully accepted by every Boro fan, has been accused of trampling on, his mere presence a sign of the Chelsification that envelops the club. The loss of local heroes Jason Steele and Richie Smallwood are further strikes against him. Yet under his guidance we have built a stable, strong squad and are challenging for top spot in the Championship once again.

Yet the Karanka project doesn’t seem like one for the future – how many players, one wonders, are either loannees or on not-very-lengthy contracts? On the other hand, look closer: Albert Adomah, George Friend, Ben Gibson, Adam Reach, Luke Williams, Dean Whitehead, Daniel Ayala and of course Grant Leadbitter.

These are all Mogga Men that have become integral to AK’s Boro this season.

On the other hand, there’s the unwanted media attention that began to stem from the draw and penalty shootout at Anfield that had to be experienced to be believed. But if we can’t deal with that, we’re not fit to compete with the best in this division. A raised profile is a predictable price that comes with being a “top team” in any league, as are the vultures that, as Jeff Winter pointed out, will begin to circle over our key players – and our manager.

But, again, it is the cost of successful small clubs or even small national teams ambitious to join or rejoin the big time (see also: Walter Smith and Alex McLeish for Scotland, Lawrie Sanchez for Northern Ireland). This is also where the fickleness of fans is tested. We are behind players and managers all the way when everything is upwardly mobile, but when things aren’t going so well, or worse, badly, what was once a love affair turns to apathy (see: Rhys Williams and Matthew Bates. Beloved in 2011, who talks about them now? Sad, but true) and potentially hatred.

Gareth Southgate and Tony Mowbray found that out the hard way. Even as I admired Gate and Mogga’s values, I remembered the words of Irish journalist Dave Hannigan: progress at the top level demands a degree of distasteful ruthlessness. Something that Bryan Robson, Steve Gibson and now Aitor Karanka have all shown.

Now, were I to grade Karanka on his first year in charge, I’d award him a B+.

He has retained Boro’s essence while adding depth and meticulousness not seen in the Mogga regime (although, to be fair, this wasn’t all Mogga’s fault, considering the money available to him). But we have achieved nothing yet, and I am still not sure Boro have the elan required to achieve the right results on a consistent basis, even against the weakest opposition in the league.

The task now for Karanka and Boro is to ensure that the hard work of the current set-up does not go to waste, either in the short-term or the long-term. Success can breed complacency, lethargy or worse, egotism on the pitch: all traps that Boro must seek to avoid.

Much better to use Southampton and Swansea as role models: positive, upwardly mobile playing philosophies that fans can believe in and enjoy at the top level, regardless of which manager is at the helm. The absence of belief and identity renders results far, far less relevant, something that was clear under Strachan; even as he led us to the fringes of the play-offs, we were apathetic. Because it wasn’t Boro we were watching, but a generic breed of “warriors” and so-called Bravehearts in red.

Something we are definitely not watching at Boro today – and we are all the better for it.

(Originally published at Gazette Live on Friday October 17 2014.) Read more...

Why Mogga Ran Out Of Luck... And Is Venus The Answer?

In many ways, Boro's 4-0 triumph over Doncaster Rovers this day last week made me sad.

It was as typical an illustration of Bipolar Boro as you could have imagined. Six days prior, Tony Mowbray's last Boro XI had crashed 3-2 at bottom of the table Barnsley and looked like a team going nowhere.

Steve Gibson took action. Local hero Mogga was on his way. Caretaker manager Mark Venus, a lifelong Boro fan himself, stepped into the hotseat.

Cue three points, a clean sheet, and four very well taken goals, all scored past Ross "I'm too big for Boro" Turnbull in front of more than 20,000 Riversiders and the Sky cameras. To paraphrase our beleaguered ex-manager, it was what it was... a handful of changes both in the dugout and on the pitch had turned unwatchable Boro into unbeatable Boro.

But is this anything new?

The parallels between Gareth Southgate's and Tony Mowbray's Boro reigns, respectively, are quite staggering. Both were legendary leaders on the pitch who were not capable of replicating their qualities in the managerial dugout.

Yet both men were really up against it from the very moment they became Boro boss. Succeeding managers who had taken tremendous management opportunities, spent Boro's money and left the club for the worse, Gate and Mogga found themselves working with more limited resources than their most recent predecessors, mainly because of the need to try and balance the books. More than that, both began their final season attempting to bounce back from wretched freefalls that neither man seemed to have the answers to.

Southgate’s final teams, however, still had that aura of "bouncebackability" about them. Their Premier League experience, to an extent, intimidated a number of opposition sides, and kept them positioned amongst the best teams in the Championship, at least for a handful of games. While the end of Mogga's tenure may have been characterised by the same lack of leadership, the same inconsistent tactics and the same unbreachable rift between manager and fans, it was also characterised by more meagre resources and a lack of truly classy players; something that even Southgate could claim to be less undermined by, as Adam Johnson repeatedly proved.

Mogga's 2011 "transformation" of Boro, which was really more about making Strachan's Bore-o an aberration and restoring the club's identity, was actually originally built on the goal scorers, leadership and solidity left over from both Southgate and Strachan. Key to Mogga's early success were the goals of Leroy Lita (a Southgate signing), the Strachan spine of Stephen McManus, Nicky Bailey, Barry Robson and Scott McDonald, and the re-invention of Andy Taylor as an attacking midfielder. Both Taylor and Lita would depart by the end of Mogga's first season, with Robson, McManus, Bailey and McDonald eventually following suit. Over time, Mogga would try, and fail, to replace them with his own spine; as key remnants of the previous regime ebbed away, with the exception of Jason Steele and Marvin Emnes, so too did the self-belief Mogga had initially restored to the club.

The local hero's two full seasons in charge followed similar patterns. To be frank, if we were to have any chance of going up in 2011-12 or 2012-13, we had to be the surprise team that upset the apple cart, that sneaked into the promotion race amidst the strongest teams in the division (see: Reading in 2012, Hull in 2013). Because neither of our squads were strong enough. In both seasons, we exhausted our luck and graft at the wrong time, and it was only a lack of draws (plus "unlucky" and "wasteful" defeats at Cardiff and Birmingham, to name but a couple), that kept our promotion pretence intact at the end of 2012. What we arguably didn't realise at the time was that Mogga was filling the squad with more potential match winners, but slowly ripping apart our dependable spine in the process.

It initially looked like Mogga had the mentality to bounce back from truly wretched setbacks (contrast the haunting late concessions against Doncaster, Leeds and Burton Albion with the spectacular if meaningless end to 2010-11). But over time, his managerial ethos regressed. Once upon a time, he had been able to take what was good about Strachan and build on it by giving youth a chance. Tony McMahon, Joe Bennett, Adam Reach, Cameron Park, Curtis Main, Luke Williams and Richard Smallwood were among the "kids" that looked like they could really prosper under Mogga. Today, both McMahon and Bennett have left the club, and the rest just haven't seemed to improve. It is possible that in his increasing desperation to appease the faithful by trying to maximise results and provide excitement, Mogga had forgotten to pay attention to players' development. That is never a good thing.

Many overly systematic coaches (especially Strachan) have been criticised for not allowing their players to optimise their strengths, but finding a system, a means by which the players can organise, inspire and complement each other, is equally important. It is not a question of being systematic; it is a question of finding the right system, one that strikes a balance between expressionism and organisation.

And Mogga failed to do so. For example, when he handed Rhys Williams the captaincy and tried to solidify him in a centre back role, was the manager restricting the player's ability, particularly when "Rolls Rhys" had evidently thrived as a midfield playmaker? Placing Williams and Jonathan Woodgate, two classy, temperamental ball-players, alongside one another was never really going to work as a dependable centre-back partnership, especially with Woodgate past his best and, like Williams, prone to injury.

The consensus that Strachan filled us with too many workmanlike, "do the job" players, making Boro about as exciting as watching paint dry, is a valid one, but towards the end of his reign Mogga was going too far in the other direction. When looking at a typical Mogga XI, you saw "artists" and "goal scorers", or, worse still, players who thought they could be artists and goal scorers. George Friend is better remembered for his goals and marauding runs rather than his defensive prowess. The likes of Marouane Zemmama, Emmanuel Ledesma, Faris Haroun, Malaury Martin have been flickering, enigmatic presences. Ditto Lukas Jutkiewicz and Marvin Emnes, unplayable on their best days but workmanlike, sulky and uninspired on their worst. At least Grant Leadbitter, Muzzy Carayol, Albert Adomah and Kei Kamara have virtually become cult heroes.

Most damning of all for Mogga, if you leave aside the mob rule that played a major part in forcing his (and Southgate's) exit, was that by his reign's end, his team did not easily pick itself. Kamara or Jutkiewicz up front? Jozsef Varga, Dean Whitehead, Jacob Butterfield or Leadbitter in midfield? Gibson, Hines, Woodgate or Rhys Williams in the centre of defence? He no longer appeared to know where this team was going or what they should be doing, and neither did we.

We needed someone new to come in, stop the rot, get the team organised and believe in themselves again; and Mark Venus appears to have done just that in his first game.

What helped Venus no end was the sentiment from those in the crowd who had gathered to pay their respects to the departed local hero; it was, after all, his team who were on the pitch. With Boro no longer pressurised by the mob or the need to save their manager, they relaxed and pulled their best performance of 2013 out of the hat. Of course, some will wonder just how different things might have been if Jutkiewicz had taken his chances against Barnsley or if Mogga had signed Daniel Ayala in time, but that's life. And football.

There's no denying Venus is a good organiser, a good coach, but is he the right manager for Boro? Being a good tactician is all very well, but you also have to be a good motivator, an inspirational figurehead; qualities that do not yet seem fully apparent in Venus. Perhaps we will see them at Blackburn, or maybe beyond, if Steve Gibson gives him a chance to be more than "the man behind the man".

Returning to Mogga, my final thoughts following his departure are loaded with regret. In many ways he appeared the ideal manager for us – a man with a vision who lived and breathed Boro.

It was only unfortunate that his vision ultimately proved misguided.

(Photos: Evening Gazette/Getty Images). Read more...

Patience May Have To Overrule Desire

"For (Sir Alex) Ferguson, the result has always been more important than the game... You can detect (his) influence on football by witnessing the foul-mouthed win-at-all-costs yobbery of players and spectators alike at a local common near you."

-- Len Masterman, following Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement

Watching Boro's steady if unspectacular progress since the embarrassing elimination from the League Cup by Accrington Stanley, and analysing the fans' reactions to it all - including my own - over the last number of weeks, I've come to the conclusion that a certain legendary Glaswegian might have had an extremely harmful influence on us all.

More so than we suspect.

But reflection has also convinced me that Mogga is almost certainly going about things the right way.

Not that I thought this post-Sheffield Wednesday.

When I burst into an unrighteous rage at the end of the match after discovering that we had "only" drawn 1-1, I failed to realise just how unreasonably I was behaving at the time.

It was not unreasonable for me to expect more from the team that day. What was unreasonable, perhaps, was how I had reacted. We'd had several chances to win the match and had only drawn it.

Something worth being annoyed about, but certainly nothing to lose sleep over at such an early stage in the season. Rather, the sort of thing to positively reflect upon before moving on. It is "spilt milk", when you can do nothing else but look back on the game and point to the positives.

Did I have a right to be annoyed at our inability to mark set-pieces? Of course I did. Did I have the right to be furious at our wastefulness in front of goal? Of course I did. Did I have a right to feel let down after Boro threw away victory at Wigan? Of course I did.

But are such over-the-top reactions fair when there's still a lot of time to put things right? I'm not so sure.

And was I really upset because of bad defending and wasteful attacking, or was it because I believed that six wins out of six against Sheffield Wednesday at the Riverside gave us a divine right to beat them?

The Sir Alex Ferguson mentality, if you believe Len Masterman (personally, I prefer to focus on the way Fergie’s teams played and his masterful building and rebuilding of squads) has, in a way, been very bad for modern football. To paraphrase Masterman slightly, for today's breed of fan, mostly enveloping but not limited to the "Twitterati", the result appears to have become much more important than the intricacies of the game itself. The evidence is there for all to see in the angry, knee-jerk rants on 606, football phone-ins, and social networking news feeds.

If Mogga really is starting from scratch again with a Lawrie Sanchez/Jack Charlton mentality, except with good football, it might well be because it has been forced upon him. Fans wailed against the numerous defeats brought upon by "Teesside Tiki-Taka", so Mogga recognized the need to stop the rot and get the team organised once more about all else. Hence, despite misgivings, the more defensive line-ups of recent times.

What surely must frustrate so many is that Mogga's teams have remained attractive and capable of better results than they are currently achieving. Varga, Leadbitter and Whitehead have formed an admittedly impressive central trio, but more for their solidity than their creativity.

It is believed that Jacob Butterfield, who has a point to prove, will add both vitality and creative nous in the central at the park, but this may come at the expense of breaking up a strong holding formula. As with the signing of Kei Kamara, who himself could either be like a good Emnes (a second tier Juninho-lite) or bad Emnes (see: Aliadiere), it is a gamble... but in my opinion, it is a gamble worth taking.

And it is also to Mogga's credit that he has taken a stance against another ruinous approach – overreliance on "Roy Race" figures, otherwise known as mercurial talismen. Scott Murray's "Roy Of The Rovers Ruined The English Game" elaborates on the dangers of this mentality when discussing the character of Roy Race:

"He was super-talented... able to belt in goals from all angles, usually thundering home one of his trademark Racey's Rockets in the last minute to save the day. But while his insistence on sportsmanship offered a valuable life lesson for impressionable young readers, his talent for timely goalscoring and pulling irons from fires warped their minds in far more harmful ways... thanks to Roy Race, English children spent their formative years… being taught a very strange lesson: it doesn't really matter what you do for 89 minutes because a superhero will turn up eventually, welt the ball into the net, and you can all go home with your cups and medals."

Think of last season's home wins against Burnley, Blackpool and Leeds, where the Adam Reach's, Luke Williams's and Curtis Main's turned up at the right time to become heroes in the eyes of Boro fans everywhere, and you'll see where Murray is coming from. Reach's three late goals have, like Main and his crucial interventions, turned him into a "magic man", a stick to beat Mogga with should things go wrong. A more rational football fan, however, would conclude that on the evidence of the Accrington Stanley defeat, Mogga learnt that Reach and Main were not quite the answer that we all thought they were, and has rightly sent them out on loan to gain valuable first team football.

Yes, I said "rightly". Neither Reach nor Main has really proven himself over ninety minutes at Championship level. Cracking cameos are one thing, consistent capability is another. Even seventeen-year-old Lee Cattermole, prodigious though he was, couldn't do it all on his own – he needed Southgate and Boateng alongside him to start prospering. And at this moment in time, Boro do not really have a leader that is capable of tirelessly indulging the errors that our young "stars" are prone to making. Rhys Williams is regaining his composure as captain, sure, but it won't happen overnight.

There's something oddly Shakespearean about the "Boro Problem" too.

Fans of the Bard, particularly "The Merchant Of Venice", will know that he wrote about the dangers of pursuing what many desire and as much as we "deserve", and suggested that we must "give and hazard all we hath" in order to be rewarded. It's easy to believe that he was hinting that success comes from patience, turning base metal into gold, rather than demanding instant and easy satisfaction.

And we've been there before. Remember when Bryan Robson fulfilled our desires – strike that, exceeded them – by bringing Juninho, Ravanelli, Ziege, Karembeu and Boksic to the Riverside. What did we get in the end? Two relegation struggles, two desperate freefalls and lots of controversy.

Worse still would be convincing ourselves that being in the Premiership for as long as we have gives us a divine right to return. It is fair for any fan of any club to expect greater things if they personally feel that one is underachieving, but one should never think that success is owed to them.

If Rhys, and Mogga, are erring along the way to re-establishing Boro as some sort of force in this division, then they are erring in trying to do the right thing. I am more convinced, after our recent signings and reflection on the Sheffield Wednesday game that results will come... the more worrying thing is, will fans have the patience for this? Read more...

Copy. Paste. Repeat.

New season, same old story.

Boro start well. Boro fail to kill opposition off when on top. Opposition scent weakness like, in the words of Martin Samuel, "a shark smells blood", and seize their chance in the most painful way possible. Fans and players to reflect on what might have been rather than celebrate what could so easily have been. It was last season encapsulated in a mere ninety minutes.

There's very little to add to the subject of Saturday's hugely disappointing league opener that hasn't already been discussed in the newspapers, the blogosphere and by the Twitterati, but I'm going to try and do it anyway.

For all our hopes that lessons really would be learned over the summer, it truly was as if nothing had happened. Morale levels are low (see: Faris Haroun), individuals are being forced to play out of position (see: Jozsef Varga) and inexplicable selections and substitutions have been made. While there is a certain logic in bringing on a player like Haroun, unsettled though he might be, to shore things up a little, why do so at the expense of sacrificing the small amount of penetrative width that we have?

Especially since the prospect of signing Albert Adomah is getting slimmer, and neither Adam Reach nor Cameron Park made the squad for the day. Likewise, even though the arrival of Luke Williams was welcome, why substitute a genuine wide man – Stuart Parnaby – when replacing a central midfielder might have made more sense?

Understandably, the absence of Justin Hoyte and the not-at-his-best form of George Friend meant that my "attacking full backs" ploy, discussed in my season preview, could not be implemented even if Tony Mowbray had wanted to do so. And you can't blame him for not wishing to change a winning formula.

What you can blame him for, perhaps, is the lack of morale, penetration and mental strength in this squad. If we cannot finish teams off by means of "Teesside Tiki Taka", a term which surely flatters this squad now even on its best days, we must at least learn to see things out. Play a more muscular, running game, a la Otto Rehhagel in 2004, even if the purists hate it. Good results bond teams and increase morale regardless of the style of play.

To look at it another way, consider Barry Robson, Nicky Bailey and Scott McDonald. Three leftover Strachanistas who clearly were, or tried to be, the epitome of the qualities I discussed in the previous paragraphs – mentality, morale and penetration. Maybe Mogga thinks that he has found ready made replacements in Grant Leadbitter, Dean Whitehead and Lucas Jutkiewicz, but I am no longer convinced that any of those individuals are up to the job, even after just one game.

Looking at it another way still, raising morale need not necessarily come from sacrificing an exciting style of play. The win over Burnley at home in our second league game last season was extremely telling in more ways than one. It wasn't that we won, it was how we won. Before the final twelve minutes, the score was locked at 1-1 and the Twitter waves were full of moaning about wasted dominance, wrong tactics and misguided team selections – in other words, typical Boro fallacies.

A quarter of an hour, two thunderbolts and a 3-2 win later, everyone was smiling; especially the team. A belief seemed to have been injected into the squad that particular night that we could accomplish anything.

There is, however, a marked difference from the Boro of last year and the Boro of today. Back then, it felt as if Mogga had signed almost a completely new side, and he had retained both Bailey and McDonald.

Now both those players have gone, and not one of our newest signings looks to be capable of providing the spark that will really lift this club out of the ordinary and into the limelight. That, and the strength in depth the QPRs and Wigans of this year look to possess, makes things look rather ominous.

Ah well. Perhaps a win over Accrington Stanley will kick us into gear. Or will it be another false dawn? Read more...

Season 2013-14 Preview: Panic Ye Not...

Despite a couple of gaps in the squad, there's no need to worry just yet. Si's Insights illustrates how Boro can still be a force this season

It is the nature of the Boro Beast that we cannot be sure whether or not we will strike it lucky, or unlucky, at the top, middle or bottom of the Championship table in 2013-14. And I am sure that the more rational Boro fans among us would laugh at the absurdity of any kind of promotion challenge following the awful freefall of 2012-13 that left a once untouchable Tony Mowbray in pieces.

Yet, in general, we, as football fans, let our rationality go out the window. I had more modest expectations once upon a time. But years of following this not always beautiful game of ours has firmly established the truism, in my mind anyway, that "it ain't over 'til it's over". I am not saying that we will be anywhere near the top of the table by even Christmas, let alone the end of the season. All I am saying is that we might be... and we can be. Judging by the way we finished last season, it is highly unlikely. But it is not impossible.

It's very much, as it almost always is, an England Expects scenario; that is to say, more about hope than expectation, and more likely to end in tears than with a party. A look at our current squad and our attendances, not to mention Mogga's managerial record at the top, suggests that Boro would be a laughing stock were they to reach today's Premier League. Then again, if Mogga’s key men – who he has been fortunate enough to keep mostly intact this summer – can rise to the challenge, who knows?

The Gaffer

Tony Mowbray's halo slipped a long time ago; the broken man who appeared in front of the  press after an embarrassingly weak showing at Hillsborough was as far away as you could possibly imagine from the towering 2011, where it seemed he could do no wrong. For the first time, our local hero – and I once said that if I had the choice, I would not want anyone else managing our club – has had countless holes picked in his regime by fans weaned on a decade of loadsamoney Premier League football, the sort that we once took for granted. Things have gotten so bad that some have begged for foreign investment to "help" us back up – even if it were to rob the club of its soul. Still, it is possible that the lack of expectations and belief in the club may work in his favour. They will need to. He's on borrowed time in far too many people's eyes.

Team Talk

One of Boro's greatest managers, Jack Charlton, was, for all the accusations of old school long-ball football aimed at him, a bit of a pioneer. He emphasised the importance of not only pressurising the opposition, but utilising the full-backs' attacking ability. Were we to merge this philosophy with the Teesside Tiki Taka we enjoyed playing at our best last season, then anything is possible. To play the fast-paced attacking game of an Arsenal or the German national team would be too dangerous; once said teams are prevented from getting into their groove, they can be easily turned over. Furthermore, we do not have the players to risk such a game.

What we do have are attacking full-backs, at least three of them, that can complement a midfield that does not always need to play a running game. And here is a potential Boro strength. Assuming the goalkeeper and back four speak for themselves; Jason Steele, with Justin Hoyte, Jonathan Woodgate, Rhys Williams and George Friend in front of them, you have at least two or three "starting formations" to choose from.

In the pre-season friendly win against Bordeaux, Mogga chose a traditional 4-4-2 with Jozsef Varga – a defensive midfielder – playing on the right-side of midfield. That was understandable, as our right-sided options beyond the full-back area are extremely limited, but there are other ways of utilising Varga besides the right flank.

Mogga could consider, perhaps, using Varga to shield the back four with former Sunderland teammates Grant Leadbitter and Dean Whitehead both anchoring and playmaking in front of him. This leaves room for two "wing-forwards", say, Marvin Emnes on the right and Mustapha Carayol on the left, to potentially thrive either side of Lukas Jutkiewicz while we can capitalise on the deliveries of Hoyte, Friend or Andy Halliday. I've always seen Jutkiewicz as Boro's Peter Crouch – a tall, skilful and surprisingly mobile forward who seems to work best as a solitary striker. With Scott McDonald out of the way, he couldn't possibly have a better chance to prove himself, if he ever needed it.

Lest this line-up appear too narrow or defensive, there are more penetrative options in reserve. We have pace, youth and width in Adam Reach and Cameron Park, but as Martin Jol once said, there is no need to use such players from the start. If Mogga finds it more prudent to start with the Bordeaux formation against Leicester – Varga, Leadbitter, Whitehead and Carayol behind Emnes and Jutkiewicz – Luke Williams can enter the fray if Emnes is having an off day. The pace, positional sense and magical right foot of the other Williams could prove a vital weapon. Another alternative would be to move Leadbitter out wide and bring on Faris Haroun, Emmanuel Ledesma or Richie Smallwood for Varga, to add more drive, vitality and creativity in the centre. They're certainly no worse than the ultimately disappointing Josh McEachran was last season. And if "Juke" is misfiring, Boro's Chicharito, Curtis Main, can enter the fray with both physical presence and powerful shooting.

It's also possible, of course, to play a "diamond formation" in the centre, with Varga the holding midfielder and Ledesma the attacking midfielder behind Emnes and Jutkiewicz, but that may be gambling unduly. A more pressing worry, perhaps, is that the "attacking full-backs" ploy is dependent on Hoyte's staying fit, as I do not believe Stuart Parnaby has the legs to pull the role off. Furthermore, the fitness of Woodgate and Rhys Williams is always cause for concern, and with Seb Hines on the treatment table until September, is Ben Gibson really ready to step up to the plate, no matter how good his pre-season has been?

It may yet make more sense to stick to the 4-4-2 that served us so well against Bordeaux and see what happens.

Keys To Boro's Success

Steele, Leadbitter and Carayol maintaining their good form, Jutkiewicz's shooting boots, good service from the flanks, and a solid defensive partnership.

Must Do Better

Haroun & Ledesma (far too enigmatic), Emnes (vanishes for long spells), Rhys Williams (when he returned from injury last season, he was unrecognisable), Friend (Fundamental to Boro's pre-Christmas promotion charge of 2012-13 before horribly losing his way).

If They Don't Break Through By Now...

Luke Williams, Park, Reach, Main and Smallwood. All in their twenties now, it is time to stop saying that they are “about” to come good.

BORO SQUAD FOR 2013-14

Goalkeepers: 1  Jason Steele, 31 Connor Ripley, 32 Jayson Leutwiler

Defenders: 2 Justin Hoyte, 3 George Friend, 4 Rhys Williams (captain), 15 Seb Hines, 16 Andy Halliday, 21 Stuart Parnaby, 22 Ben Gibson, 39 Jonathan Woodgate

Midfielders: 7 Grant Leadbitter, 8 Jozsef Varga, 11 Emmanuel Ledesma, 17 Cameron Park, 18 Dean Whitehead, 19 Mustapha Carayol, 20 Adam Reach, 33 Richie Smallwood, 38 Faris Haroun

Forwards: 9 Lukas Jutkiewicz, 10 Marvin Emnes, 14 Luke Williams, 23 Curtis Main Read more...

Busted Boro Bow Out On Bum Note

So that's it then.

What a way to celebrate Si's 100th Insight.

I have spent the weekend covering the City Of Derry Jazz And Big Band Festival, so I have had little time to pay attention to what to me was ultimately a meaningless match.

Well, surprise surprise, I missed nothing. We were dreadful. We had pride to play for and we could still - albeit cruelly - have relegated Sheffield Wednesday. Yet we rolled over and handed Championship survival to them on a plate. 2-0 Wednesday, and it could have been more.

I'm not going to dwell on the tactics. Rather, I'm going to focus on a few images from Saturday instead.

It was very late at night, in fact, early on Sunday morning, when I saw the words "Sheffield Wednesday" and "Middlesbrough" pop up on a TV screen in the basement of Derry-Londonderry's River Inn club. Already knowing what had happened, and claiming not to care - I might as well not have, because the players obviously hadn't from what I'd heard - I probably would have been better paying attention to the music in the bar.

But, like the ever curious Boro fan I am, I switched my focus to the TV.

I watched a guy who couldn't get a game at a relegated League One side run on to a through ball that carved open our "defence" with ease and power Sheffield Wednesday into a 1-0 lead. I watched former Boro hero Leroy Lita grab the second. I watched, and cringed, at the wasteful finishing from Wednesday and lazy defending from Boro that could, and probably should, have turned the game into an utter whitewash.

It was almost heartbreaking to watch Tony Mowbray's face on the screen after the highlights.

It was a sad, weary face of a man who looked older than his years. A man who was gutted that the season had fallen apart in the manner it had. And a man who once seemed unstoppable, but now did not seem to know what the future held for either him or the club.

If only that were the whole story.

On Saturday, I saw a lovely young lady beat the drums in the corner of a Derry bar with the skill and nous of an experienced professional. I saw a not-so-well known Parisian jazz band bring spontaneous joy to many people in the basement of a club. And I saw the UK City Of Culture's Artist In Residence, Neil Cowley, a powerhouse pianist who pounded and tinkled the keys as if his life depended on it.

These artists, and several other people who turned up to sing at, play at, blog on, write on or photograph the events at this terrific jazz extravaganza put our now without doubt overpaid players, our "heroes", to shame.

"Heroes" whose wages currently eat up an unsustainable 119% of our turnover.

"Heroes" that were not fit to wear the shirt at countless away grounds - particularly Hillsborough, Ashton Gate, Selhurst Park and Portman Road - or even, for most of 2013 so far, the Riverside.

They are now packing their bags for summer holidays they have not earned.

Grant Leadbitter, Jason Steele, Mustapha Carayol, Richie Smallwood and perhaps George Friend aside, few of our players can really hold their heads up at all this season.

Boro, once so buoyant, now look burnt out and busted... a club that has gone backwards.

I am not about to continue pretending that we "belong" in the Premiership, if we ever did. No one has a divine right to a place in any top division, in any country.

But Boro's bipolar 2012-13 has been hugely frustrating and disappointing even by our standards. What we thought might end in a promotion party has actually ended up as a humiliating endurance test.

For more than four months of the season, we dared to dream. We genuinely could dream. And then, for some unknown reason, the players switched off. From Mogga. From their goal. From... everyone. From everything.

It is unbelievable. It is deplorable. It is inexcusable.

No organisation. No drive. No leadership. Very low morale. Very little confidence. And much, much paranoia and fear.

It's no way to end a season, and certainly no way to drum up confidence for the next campaign.

Where do Boro go from here?

* * * * *

On the other hand, we could be Wolves. Yes, Steve Morgan, I'm looking at you, the same man who decided that redeveloping the Stan Cullis stand was more important than building a team...
Read more...

It Will Take More Than That, Boro...

Exactly seven years on from that 4-2 win at the Riverside that everyone talks about, Boro recalled something resembling the Spirit Of Steaua to salvage a dramatic point at home to Charlton Athletic.

For most of the match, this had looked almost impossible as Boro had appeared to be sleepwalking to another damaging home defeat; that is, until Scott McDonald and Emmanuel Ledesma entered the fray.

Suddenly, Tony Mowbray looked like he had a Plan B after all. His decision to substitute Curtis Main and Adam Reach did not backfire, and both McDonald and not-very-marvellous Marvin Emnes made their points - and earned one for Boro, consigning the Addicks' play-off hopes to the dustbin.

But it will take more than a highly unlikely and rather fortunate comeback to convince people to hop on board the Moggalution again in 2013-14.

Now, for a long time, I have pleaded with my fellow Boro fans to be patient with Mogga. Towards the end of last year, I went as far as saying that I would have no one else in charge. Here is a man who, on an extremely limited budget, re-established the communal feel that virtually died under Gordon Strachan, restored both pride and spirit to the club, dealt with adversity admirably and made Boro exciting to watch again. He gave Boro their identity back, and much more. All in the space of six months.

And better followed... despite a free fall of sorts in the second half of 2011-12 (I say "of sorts" because we still managed to stay in touch with the play-offs until the very end), the Boro Army had full faith in Mogga's abilities at the end of 2012. One point off automatic promotion, with a superior goal difference to second-placed Hull, and ten points clear of then seventh-placed Nottingham Forest.

What a difference a truly horrible freefall makes - to the mentality of both the fans and the team.

Regardless of today's eventual outcome, it only takes a glance at the teamsheet to spark off at least a handful of anti-Mogga tweets before a match has even started nowadays. And the team producing a first-half home performance of the season that was as insulting as this one - Charlton could and should have been out of sight long before Emnes' goal - is more than offensive. It's downright wrong.

Today's "great comeback" and the three single-goal home victories we have achieved in 2013 have been, and still are, no more than temporary respites from the seemingly endless gloom beside the River Tees and in every Boro away end around the country so far this year. No amount of small mercies and minorly improved performances can disguise the fact that there is still much work to be done, or the uncertainty over whether Mogga really is the right man to do it.

We know Mogga's passion for the club still remains, but has he the drive and energy to inspire a third Boro promotion campaign? More significantly, will he have the time and resources to do so? To restore the drive, organisation, morale and leadership that has been almost always absent from the club since another famous 4-2 win? Read more...

Away Day Boo-Hoos For Miserable Boro

While the obvious temptation today would be to focus on our "unlucky" loss at Bolton (well, Anthony Vickers and many others thought it was; John Powls thought otherwise) and how it has mathematically consigned us to another season in this division with a lesser squad, there are more serious matters - or should I say, there is a more serious matter - to be concerned about.

To be frank, the nature of yesterday's defeat doesn't upset me in the slightest. We were genuinely unlucky against a play-off chasing team. On another day, Woody might not have gotten sent off and we would have won the game. And we have played much better in the last few games, albeit with little to show for it.

But is that the sort of thing that is going to entice the numerous Lost Riversiders to return? It is tough enough for them that Boro have blown as good a chance as any to get promoted (let's face it, Cardiff aside, none of the promotion challengers have shown any real consistency). That Mogga will have no money for new players unless he sells. That the manager is fielding soon to be lost causes (Dyer, despite his goal yesterday) at the expense of more hopeful ones (Reach, who didn't even make the bench). That the goals have dried up for Scott McDonald and that Lukas Jutkiewicz is nowhere to be seen.

No, most damning of all is that a season that promised so much is fizzling out with potentially our lowest league finish since 1990. And one can only suspect that the real reason to that has little to do with injuries, suspensions, bad luck or even Mogga's tactics, but an away day hoodoo that has dogged Boro for years.

After three consecutive away defeats at the start of the season, we went on a seven match winning spree on the road in both the league and cup, lasting from September 21 to November 3, which finished with a 1-0 win at the Stadium Of Light followed by a 4-1 romp against Charlton at the Valley. If you felt "the higher you peak, the harder you fall" at that stage, you'd have been correct, as Boro have managed just a solitary victory away from home since then.

But this is nothing new for Boro.

The club's away day hell has actually been extremely consistent throughout the whole of the Riverside era. Many point to the extremely large injury list for our freefall in 1995-96, yet the fact we managed just one away win after October should have been more of a concern. And in a way, it was kind of fortunate, with Lucas Radebe forced to play in goal for half the match and Gary McAllister blasting a penalty over the bar. 1996-97 was worse, with only the Juninho-inspired victory at Filbert Street (the same win that probably cost us the League Cup) to celebrate on the road after September. And in 1997-98, only one away triumph between the end of December and early April, including a dreadful run of just one point in fifteen, came very close to derailing our automatic promotion campaign.

Had enough yet? We managed only one away win between September 1998 and March 1999 - and that was at Old Trafford! - and in 2002-03, we picked up a mere 12 away points from a possible 57. Crucial injuries and a UEFA cup campaign were entirely legitimate reasons for nearly throwing away qualification for Europe in the league in 2004-05, but a solitary away win after November 14 is also telling.

It truly was hell for poor Gareth Southgate on the road in the Premiership. The 3-1 triumph at Charlton was our only away win in 2006-07 until May. 2007-08 saw a solitary victory on our travels either side of December, a 2-1 win at Fulham that would not have been if David Healy's "equaliser" had not been cleared from behind the line. 2008-09 saw Boro pick up no points on the road after November. Not one.

And after both Southgate and Adam Johnson had departed in 2009-10, the journey home from Plymouth was the only one the travelling Parmo Army could celebrate. It was one of just three away wins in Gordon Strachan's abysmal tenure. (For fun, see if you can name the other two.)

There have been exceptions to the rule, of course, like our great run earlier this season, and the twelve away victories of 2011. Six of those were consecutive, with Boro notching up twenty-three league goals away from home in the New Year during 2010-11.

But said "exceptions" have been few and far between. What is it? What exactly is holding Boro back on the road, not just this season, but throughout most of the last twenty years?

Whether it's fear of failure, tactics or just bad luck, your guess is as good as mine, but it's become quite clear now, more than ever before, that focusing on taking care of the away day boo-hoos could really help us move forward.

Let's just hope that (shudder) our home form doesn't suffer as a result. Read more...

Victory At Last... But Still No Easy Street For Boro

As far as results go, Boro's 1-0 win over promotion-chasing Forest was a massive relief, a huge shot in the arm for the fans and the team, if not necessarily the club.

The performance itself was, to cut to the chase, a cut-and-paste job. But not the cut-and-paste job that you might expect. To Boro, the story of 2013 to date has been one soulless and damaging result, mostly a defeat, after another, with celebratory moments extremely few and far between. And when analysing the win over Forest, you only have to look back at our 1-0 triumph over Leeds earlier this year, and indeed many of our wins this season - well-taken goal/s, plenty of commitment and passion, but unnecessarily nervy due to missed chances and/or defensive mistakes. Déjà vu, cut-and-paste... the story of both the best and worst of Boro's season. Or Boro full stop, for that matter.

But, nervy or not, win we did. This was one of those rare nights where Boro fans had no need to worry too much about Tony Mowbray's starting eleven (although I did hear discontent over the exclusion of Reach and Jutkiewicz). Truthfully, we need not worry about the starting eleven at all; no matter what team Boro puts out these days, you can't predict the result. It's the very nature of the club. So we're left with having to hope that the players out there deliver. And thankfully, most of them did.

If the win over Forest is to genuinely mean something, and is not just another false dawn like the wins over Leeds and Cardiff clearly were, then there are so many positives to take. Andre Bikey and Rhys Williams, running more like a Rolls again than a Fiat, were superb at the back. Richie Smallwood truly lived up to his "Dormo Destroyer" tag. Nicky Bailey, when he came on, was extremely combative. Grant Leadbitter barked from the bench with passion, his leadership qualities shining through despite the suspension that has temporarily rules him out of action. Kieron Dyer and Josh McEachran lived up to their Premiership reputations, with McEachran's brilliant pass creating the winning goal for Muzzy Carayol. The more you see Carayol shine on the big occasions, the more deeply you regret his enforced five-month absence earlier this season.

Not everything worked, of course. Scott McDonald remains off colour. He missed two sitters, one more than the baffling Faris Haroun, who's capability for even the occasional impressive performance (remember his double strike against Peterborough?) is dwindling by the day. And the promise Sammy Ameobi showed on his debut has long since evaporated. With Bailey, McDonald, McEachran and Bikey, to name but a few, all certain or at least almost certain to depart during the close season, the rebuilding job remains as difficult as ever.

One should not kid him or herself into thinking that one win will solve all our problems. Scarier still, the crazy nature of the Championship has ensured that victory at Bolton and defeats for Leicester and Forest would push us up to three points behind the play-off places with two games to go. And if Leicester, Bolton and Forest were to lose again, and we were to beat Charlton...

No. No. We cannot think like that. The hope will kill us. Far better that we build on what we've learnt from our win and play without fear in our remaining matches, to ensure that we can look forward to the summer in a better frame of mind.

We can still go up. We've won a game. But don't be fooled. Questions still remain. Read more...

2012-13: No Easy Street For Boro

If there's one thing that Saturday's wretched result - and indeed, the whole of the wretched run that now threatens to transform what was once a promotion campaign into - heaven forbid! - a relegation fight, it's that there are no easy answers for Boro's malaise. And to be frank, I like it better this way.

2012-13 can't really offer many, if any, standout excuses or scapegoats for Boro to fall back on. No simple, silly "answers" for our shortcomings this season. No one, or nothing, to point a finger at. No individual we can really, truly criticise for a lack of responsibility. We have actually been forced to ask the hard questions about what's really, truly going on at the Boro. And this is a good thing. No, really, it is. 

Genuine failures, like our unsustainable promotion bid this season, fully expose the chinks in the Boro armour. We are made to genuinely question the structure and strength of the squad, the manager and the club as a whole, rather than just one of the above and injuries or/and loss of form to individual players.

With sentimental or "heroic" failures, there is no such thing. Toss in a scapegoat here, a "what if" there, and difficult questions need not be asked.

We have had many of those in the past. Nicky Bailey's injury in 2011-12. Gordon Strachan for, in my colleague Mike Baker's words, taking "a tremendous management opportunity, spending our money and sending us spiralling off in reverse" where in truth, Steve McClaren did almost the exact same thing and came out smelling like roses. The timing of Gareth Southgate's departure in 2009-10; for all his and the team's weaknesses, the stat of "one point off the top" will forever reek of what might have been, particularly when one considers what followed.

But, in my humble opinion, there's no better example than 1996-97, Boro's ultimate dream nightmare season.

When watching that 1-1 draw at Elland Road in May 1997 and witnessing the tear-stained faces of both Juninho and the Boro fans, it is really, really difficult to think of anything but the "evil" and "heartless" nature of Graeme Kelly, Tony Parkes, Harry Redknapp, Jim Smith and just about every other footballing figure who ganged up on us to make sure we were punished for an injury and illness crisis that was out of our hands. How dare the FA suggest that a deduction of three points was "right and fair" when Spurs had gotten off far more lightly for even worse "offences"?

No one's denying that the FA's conduct during the situation was more than a little out of order; they seemed pretty determined to make an example of us so that no team would ever "call in sick" for a match ever again, to the point where they conveniently ignored that we had acted on advice given to us by them. Worse still, it was later proven that Rick Parry had lied during the affair, pretending that he wasn't in the office to take a crucial phone call.

But what had really, truly, rubbed the FA, Parkes and company the wrong way was not so much what we did but when, why and how we did it. Almost a week before the postponement took place, Boro had turned up at title-chasing Liverpool with a team low on morale and key players and had gotten thrashed 5-1, completing a run of twelve games without a win. In the meantime, Blackburn were slowly but surely on their way out of the drop zone.

It really doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure out that Parkes' anger at Boro's postponement stemmed not so much from illness and injuries as the fact that Boro were there for the taking. Furthermore, we had served extremely late notice regarding the postponement, and had fulfilled a reserve team fixture with a side featuring both Emerson and Mikkel Beck on the Tuesday. There was nothing to disprove the cynics' theory that we knew we were likely to keel over at Ewood Park and so knowingly cancelled the fixture in order to buy time for recruitment, regrouping and rejuvenation. The relief than even I felt at the postponement at the time admittedly had more to do with not having to go through another ninety minutes of torture.

Questions about the very nature of the affair remain to this day. Why weren't Blackburn contacted earlier? And why, despite not having received a clear answer from the FA on whether or not we could postpone the fixture, did we decide not to fulfil it anyway?

In a way, however, that three point deduction was a godsend to Boro. Not only did it inspire the team to play like they almost never had done throughout the whole of the season up until then - just four defeats in the last sixteen games, and three weren't particularly deserved - it gave Boro something to fall back on, someone to blame if the fight against relegation failed, especially if it failed directly because of the points deduction. And, Boro being Boro, that is exactly what happened.

But those three points were just one of whole series of things that would blind us to the Riverside Revolution's flimsy framework. That whole season was the biggest collection of "what if"'s imaginable. What if Nigel Pearson's knees hadn't been so dodgy? What if Mark Schwarzer hadn't broken his leg a mere month or so after we found him? What if Pearson's header against Newcastle had gone in? What if Ravanelli's perfectly good goal in the same match had stood? What if Emerson had converted that penalty against Wimbledon? What if David James hadn't gifted our relegation rivals, Coventry, a last minute winner in a game that Liverpool had bossed from start to finish, all while Emile Heskey was breaking our hearts at Wembley?

Questions like these allow us to ignore the bigger issues and overlook many of the problems behind the scenes. Too often that season, rather than confronting our problems, we ran away from them; with that in mind, the Blackburn fixture that never was pretty much summed up the worst of 1996-97 in a nutshell. That Boro were a team that, if they could, would cut and run at the first sign of serious trouble.

And even though I don't agree with Spurs fan Dan Clark's argument that "the FA had no other choice" when it came to the points deduction, his final point about the Riverside Revolution as a whole is extremely valid:

"That a team which had lavished millions on assembling a squad could fail to field a starting eleven was a damning reflection on the true lasting value of the vision projected by Gibson and Robson. It confirmed that the project had shallow foundations and was never built to last."

Over the years Boro have established themselves as a team that - how do I put it? - only turns on the style when it suits them. When we want to. Then we dare to wonder why we have earned such a stinging reputation in the eyes of the southern press. It may well be that we bring it on ourselves. We preach equality and justice in football when it suits our needs; otherwise, we are more than happy to take advantage of dubious situations when they favour us. Nowadays, which Boro fan talks about David Healy's late equaliser that did cross the line? Or Boro getting away with calling off a home match against Newcastle on Friday because of "snow", just days after the team loses their unbeaten home record?

The Boro mission should be to consistently confront the reality of the situation rather than forever live in a world of simple answers and wishful thinking. And by searching for easy scapegoats and fixating on targets of hate, we will not do that.

Read more...

Bad Vibrations

Sigh... (no pun intended, at all) Why bother?

Writing another detailed piece tonight would merely consist of copying and pasting most of the uninspiring thoughts that have plagued our hearts and minds during this season-destroying freefall. I suppose a clean sheet and a point must amount to some sort of minor triumph, but (a) when your manager has reshuffled his pack (again) in the failed pursuit of a win, when (b) said draw was at home to a side near the bottom of the table, and (c) said point is only our eighth out of a possible forty-five, we have every reason to feel pessimistic and downbeat.

We've become our own worst enemies. We've been spoilt by the heights we reached during the most glorious days of the Moggalution. We've never truly been able to accept that the team's incapability of sustaining the highs attained during the last two years has been hampered not solely by the management (and mismanagement) but also by the economy, amongst other things. To point the finger at individuals, even Tony Mowbray, even our misfiring strikeforce, would be all too easy; it's a collective failure, a combination of both internal and external factors. No one seems to have any faith in Mogga being able to inspire a third crack at promotion; if we survive in this league, that is. It does appear that, as Keith Lamb put it, we will have to make do with the Team We Can Afford - and the fans' uncomfortable reactions to such a scenario. Bad vibrations are being felt all around the Riverside, and everyone seems powerless to do anything about it.

On that note, I'll return to reviewing a story of Good Vibrations, and leave you all to debate our club's future. Read more...

There's No Knowing Where We're Going

I'm pretty speechless.

From almost certain play-off contenders to nine points off the dreaded drop in a matter of weeks. What more is there to say?

What can you say, when our back line is apparently failing to grasp even the most basic aspects of defending? Or when the manager, for the sake of proving a point, continues to try and jam square pegs into round holes?

Seriously, McDonald in midfield? Especially when Smallwood and McEachran are available? Bikey as a holding midfielder, when Bailey, despite his unpopularity and bad influence, can do just as good a job, if not better? It's like watching Matthew Bates struggle in the same role - and, as we all remember, such a tactic did nothing to stop us from being relegated.

And substituting the two players who were hurting Wolves most, regardless of how effective their replacements can be on their day?

Apparently, the Leadership Question I raised yesterday has only been half answered - if Leadbitter added drive and charisma (not to mention two goals), he failed to bring confidence and organisation, the very things we are lacking completely at the moment, and need most. Once upon a time, everything Mogga touched turned to gold; now, everything's melting in his hands. He seems to have no idea what to do, and neither do we. There really is no knowing where we're going.

If you want a more detailed opinion on today's game, be sure to read John Powls' report on Boro Banter. In the meantime, I'm going to dedicate a poem to the club:

There's no earthly way of knowing
Which direction we are going
There's no knowing where we're rowing,
Or which way the Boro's flowing,
Is it raining? Is it snowing?
Is the hurricane a-blowing?
Not a speck of light is showing.
So the danger must be growing.
Are the fires of hell a-blowing?
Is the grizzly reaper mowing?
Yes! The danger must be growing!
For the Boro keep on rowing*
And they're certainly not showing
Any signs that they are slowing...

(With apologies to Roald Dahl.)

* * * * *

*I wonder if "rowing" should be pronounced differently the second time around, considering the supposed friction in the dressing room these days. Read more...

Boro Lack Lucre... And Leadership

The news about Boro's finances, thoroughly, painfully and professionally explained by Anthony Vickers last week, made exceptionally grim reading for every Boro fan. (Words like "unsustainable" do not even begin to describe supporting a wage bill consisting of 119% of turnover.) But much more of an issue to me is not so much whether or not Boro will mount a successful bid for promotion, nor whether or not we will have the funds and wherewithal to make it to the Premier League.

It's who will stand up, be counted, and lead us, successfully, to the "Promised Land".

It's no secret that Boro have been lacking in truly dependable, determined leaders since Gareth Southgate called time on his playing career in advance and, arguably against his will (though that is for another discussion), entered the managerial dugout. When looking back on Gareth, we tend to try and remember the player, and not the manager, and rightly so; for there was no better club captain in the Riverside era, before or after him. The sight of him placing a hand around future Sunderland captain Lee Cattermole's shoulders as the then 17-year old bawled his eyes out during Operation Season Ticket Throw will live with me to this day.

Roy Keane had the right idea when he said that a perfect manager always recognises who needs motivation most of all, or a simple pat on the back, and such responsibilities spread through to the perfect leader. A truly legendary captain must be more than just an effective figurehead, a la Eric Cantona or Alan Shearer - he must be inspirational, organisational and unflappable. It's no surprise that despite Dino Zoff and the aforementioned Shearer's deserved reputations, the best captains have been defenders or midfielders.

Bryan Robson had all kinds of faults as a manager, but he had a good eye for a player. And, being one of England's most famous captains himself, it was little surprise that one of his first signings was Boro's finest captain of the Riverside years, barring Southgate - Nigel Pearson. Two promotions and three cup finals speak for themselves. In my colleague Mike Baker's words: "Without (Pearson), the defence descended from being a machine to separate parts waiting around to be gelled together." On its really bad, Pearson-less days the Boro defence could be anything from confused to statuesque to dangerously incompetent. His injury during various stages of 1996-97 contributed majorly to our relegation.

Robson maintained his eye for strong leaders with the signing of Andy Townsend and later Paul Ince. Even though their best years were clearly behind them, their effectiveness in the centre of the park was never really in doubt. And, going back to the 1980's, what of the local lad who became captain at the age of just twenty-two and led the club, along with Bruce Rioch, from liquidation to the top division in the space of two seasons? He's the same local lad who is sitting in the Boro manager's chair today, struggling to find a way to salvage our season; and that may well be because he has been unable to find a club captain worthy of the position in 2012-13.

Admittedly, neither him nor Gareth Southgate have been dealt the most fortunate hand. George Boateng and Jonathan Woodgate seemed ideal leaders during the early Southgate years, but the captaincy only appeared to hamper their game. Cue a lot of "armband swapping", from Arca to Pogatetz to Downing to even Tuncay in the years ahead. When Southgate actually did find a classy leader - Robert Huth - he was out the Riverside door after four league games as captain, bringing poor Gareth back to square one.

Fast forward to the present season, and the club captaincy has been swapped around four times, from Rhys Williams to Grant Leadbitter to Nicky Bailey to Woodgate (again). But no one in the team seems to look up to them in the same way as Mogga's previous leaders, let alone our great captains. Matthew Bates and Barry Robson may have had injury and temperament problems, but they were genuinely inspirational. In that regard, our four captains this season have failed, and have a lot to answer for.

Hopefully, tomorrow at Molineux, one of them will step up to the plate and be the leader we long for. And we really do need that to happen. Read more...

Summer Of Tough Love Awaits For Dying – Or Should That Be Dead? – Moggalution

It's hard to believe that only a matter of months ago I was sitting amongst the bright lights and buoyant chatter of my favourite cafe in Derry-Londonderry, punching the air repeatedly beside my laptop and not caring what the people around me may think. Back then – November 3rd, to be precise, when we overcame a miserable first half showing to trounce Charlton at the Valley – it was very easy to take Boro wins for granted. And despite a typical post-Manager Of The Month slump, the team did enough by the end of the year to suggest that reaching the Championship play-offs would be a mere formality.

On Saturday, I found myself sitting amongst the bright lights and equally buoyant, if not quite as homely, atmosphere of a coffee house in the West Midlands. And hundreds of miles up north, the not-even-half-full Riverside Stadium now resembled a cauldron of doom, a pressure cooker. No matter what team our once untouchable manager put out, it felt that his job was on the line. That the fans could do a much better job in his position. That the players, no matter how many chances they created or how hard they tried, would be accused of not trying hard enough. It was as bad, if not worse, than the closing days of Gareth Southgate's reign, where mob rule ultimately forced Steve Gibson to relieve our former Captain Fantastic of his duties. (If you're getting uncomfortable déjà vu here, you're not alone.)

When I first glanced at the starting line-up against Birmingham, a smile spread across my face. Justin Hoyte, such an exciting and vital presence on the right this season, had returned from injury. The equally exciting and penetrative runs, passes and crosses of Sammy Ameobi and Adam Reach – one home-grown, one not-so-home-grown – would be seen on the pitch from the start. As would our top scorers this season, Scott McDonald and Lukas Jutkiewicz. Even Faris Haroun had popped up with the odd vital goal... on his good days. With a starting eleven like this, and the usually dependable back two of Woodgate and Bikey back in place in front of Steele, how could we fail?

And fail... we shouldn't have. Poor and nervy though we were – it comes with the territory when you're on a run like ours and are in need of a win, any win, to get the season going again – we had our chances. Scott McDonald had a goal disallowed, albeit rightly so, when George Friend went on a now increasingly rare run and Jack Butland could only parry a shot into an offside Scotty's path. Sparked into life, we forced seven corners early in the second half, with Friend heading onto the roof of the net, Woody having a header blocked and Reach firing just over. Even replacing Juke and Ameobi with Carayol and Miller respectively didn't make us any less determined to put things right.

Then... boom. It happened.

Giant Birmingham frontman Nikola Zigic had already been booked when he intentionally handled the ball; yet he stayed on the pitch. And yes, you've guessed. Shortly afterwards our entire backline was caught ball watching as Steele pushed out a Birmingham shot. Even then Haroun should have dealt with the loose ball easily, but remarkably, he lost it, and who else should be there to trundle the ball into the Boro net but Zigic? It was a sucker punch of the highest order, the worst kind of punishment for a team that had done virtually everything right on the day. The Riverside (and Twitter) were doom-laden by the time the final whistle was heard.

But, as always, did we really have anyone to blame except ourselves?

And I will still not join the "Mogga Out" brigade. What, after all, can the man do if his players don't seem to be showing any fighting spirit, and fail to adhere to the most basic attacking and defensive principles of the game when it matters most of all? I am not saying the man is blameless, but it doesn't need re-iterating that his crisis – strike that, our crisis – is little or no different from the numerous freefalls that we've gone through since we moved to the Riverside. If not before.

A greater worry is that even if Mogga and the team recover and finish the season on a high, another Summer Of Tough Love could await the club; and this time, we will not be so well equipped to deal with it.

* * * * *

I remember really thinking that the summer of 1997, following relegation, would be a really tough one, with an inevitable exodus of players. In the end, we got off lightly. Neil Cox's departure left the door open for Curtis Fleming to play in his natural right-back position, Paul Merson filled the breach left by Juninho, and Mikkel Beck, despite losing his touch in the second half of the season, no longer needed to play in imbalanced attacking tandem with Ravanelli. Even Merson's departure and Branca's career-ending injury in 1998 were hardly the crises we thought once Hamilton Ricard had found his shooting boots. The lack of new faces in 2003 was quickly rectified once Mendieta, Mills and Zenden joined on loan and several injured and suspended players returned.

And what of Gareth Southgate? What, indeed? Steve McClaren may have given us a taste of success, but he had left us with no European football, an even more crippling debt than ever before (that UEFA Cup run alone cost us £12 million) and an aging, disjointed and demoralised side by the time the final whistle had blown in Eindhoven and he had left for England. In other words, he had, as my colleague Mike Baker would put it about another ginger manager (no prizes for guessing who), taken a tremendous management opportunity, spent our money and sent us spiralling off in reverse. In retrospect, it's sort of impressive that, however unconvincingly, Southgate guided us to a mid-table finish and the FA Cup quarter-finals in his first season. That he did the same the following season despite the hindrances of no Viduka, no Yakubu, Mi-dough, Alves and Aliadi-almost-anywhere-but-the-net is sort of commendable too. (Let's just try and pretend the home embarrassments to Notts County and Cardiff never happened.)

2008 seemed like one Summer Of Tough Love too many for him. Losing two deadly forwards is one thing; losing five key players – Schwarzer, Young, Cattermole, Boateng and Rochemback – and inadequately replacing them is another. Things seemed to get even worse in 2009 when Huth and Tuncay were instrumental in the start of our 2009-10 "promotion campaign", and Southgate was forced to sell both at the end of August. But, despite ire from the fans, the cracks in both the team's set-up and the club's poor home record, he had the true emergence of one Adam Johnson (to date, he has never played better) and Boro's brilliant away record to keep him afloat. Or so he thought...*

Now, imagine what Tony Mowbray could be achieving if he had more of the rub of the green regarding both injuries, money, and the form & attitude of key players. He's survived losing, or selling, the likes of Leroy Lita, David Wheater, Gary O'Neil, Andrew Taylor, Tony McMahon, Joe Bennett, Matthew Bates and Barry Robson, among others, to keep Boro in the top ten throughout his two full seasons in charge. Season by season, the squad seems to be getting cheaper, weaker and less contented, yet we remain in with a remote chance of promotion even now.

I just wonder if, with Josh McEachran set to return to Chelsea, Zemmama, Ledesma & Emnes failing to fulfil their promise, George Friend and Rhys Williams losing their way, and the need to get players like Nicky Bailey and Scott McDonald off the wage bill (unless, of course, they're willing to take a cut), 2013 might be a Summer Of Tough Love too many for Tony Mowbray.

Is it a crisis of Southgatian proportions, or worse? Is the Moggalution set to die? Or, judging by Saturday, is it already dead?

* * * * *

* Ultimately, the end of Southgate's reign was marked by a series of very fine margins, if you forget the West Brom thrashing. What if Aliadiere had converted that chance at Ashton Gate? What if someone had picked up Leon Best at the Ricoh, instead of joining the rest of the defence in thinking we'd done enough? Against Watford, what if Sean St. Ledger's goal had stood and Tony McMahon's rocket had gone in? And are we also forgetting that the winning goal in that game was scored by Tom Cleverley, now a key component in the midfield of England's champions-elect? A little extra thinking time does help sometimes... Read more...

Daring To Dream... And Paying The Price

A rather poisonous atmosphere existed amongst Boro fans before we had even kicked off at Ashton Gate yesterday. Never mind that our smash-and-grab at the same ground last season (Malaury Martin, where are you when we need you?) was a distant memory, let alone our quadruple EIO over the same opponents more than two years ago. No, the ninety minutes hadn't even begun yet, and already members of our crowd resembled Chelski fans, clamouring for the manager's removal despite the fact that he was, and still is, doing his best in an impossible job.

Forget that the above image was more than likely photoshopped - that it was on Twitter at all is absolutely shameful. More shameful than even the humiliating team performance, but we'll get to that at the end.

Those who are not directing their venom at poor Tony Mowbray - and I mean "poor", because it appears that no matter what team he puts out these days, the fans complain - find themselves asking, how could this have happened? How could Mogga go from hero to villain so quickly? How could Boro go from being such a force in the Championship to being so powerless now?

Of course, free falls, minor or major, are part and parcel of being a Boro fan. I've become more than a little familiar with them over the last two decades. But is the pain we feel over the most recent free fall really Mogga's fault?

Or has it just built up because we dared to dream yet again, and have once more been brought back down to earth?

Two years ago, I wrote the following words for ComeOnBoro. And I find they still ring true today.

"There's never been an easy answer to the Boro Question (i.e. Why the repeated rises and falls?), but much of the blame can lie with Bryan Robson and the two Steve's, Gibson and McClaren.

It was Gibson's money and Robson's high profile that enabled us to build a stadium and facilities worthy of any club in the country, allowed us to sign players who we would never have dreamed of signing in the Lennie Lawrence years and played a large part in three Wembley appearances.

"In addition to Cardiff and Eindhoven, McClaren took us to the last sixteen of the UEFA Cup, two FA Cup semi-finals and a League Cup quarter-final. That's six times under him that we dared to dream. Even the much-maligned Gareth Southgate has three FA Cup quarter-final appearances to his name, even if we fans would prefer not to be reminded about one of them.

"The tragedy was not that these men failed, but that they succeeded beyond any pre-Riverside Boro fan's wildest dreams. They helped make the impossible possible.

"More significantly, they helped create a new breed of Boro supporter. This supporter saw a small club trying, and apparently succeeding, to play the big boys at their own game."

Now, ask yourselves: why were we all calling for Southgate's head at the beginning of 2009/10, even though, when he departed, we were one point off the top of the Championship with a young team and no money? Simple, really; we modern day Boro fans had known no worse than the "unjust" relegation of 1996/97 (let's be honest, we nearly succeeded that year in spite of ourselves). The fact that a promotion immediately followed enabled us to forget how stressful that season had been.

And also ask yourselves: why are we now calling for Tony Mowbray's head even though he has done a more than admirable job under the circumstances? Is it genuinely because we believe someone else could do a better job, or is it because we are weary of having illusions (or delusions, you name it) of grandeur created then shattered, season after season? Lest we forget that as far as building our hopes up goes, Mogga is far from alone amongst Boro managers.

As empty and Strachan-esque as the performance and result against Bristol City felt yesterday, a consistently negative attitude amongst the fans is equally as inexcusable as the lifelessness exhibited by our players. The season is just one mini-revival away from being salvaged. Vent your anger directly after each game if you must. That's what Twitter and phone-in's are for. But everything else should be directed towards inspiring - if that word can be used - our manager and our players to turn around this dying season. If we are to be let down, it is far better that the team goes down fighting rather than limply sleepwalks to failure.

Now, I'll leave you all to enjoy Mother's Day... Read more...