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Arsenal jigsaw puzzle 1989 90 Perry Groves book

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The first, in 1989, was disappointing yet it came as the last heave of relief after the post-liquidation drama. Those who remember the young side put together by Bruce Rioch will look back fondly at the sheer momentum they picked up as, by happy chance, they realised they were a pretty good unit after all and stormed through two divisions on their way to the top flight. The First was a stage too far. Boro's infrastructure was still that of a club recovering from nearly being snuffed out of existence. Money wasn't swilling around the coffers, and it told as Bruce's boys were expected to grapple with the likes of Barnes, Beardsley and a raft of pedigree teams and star players. Tony Mowbray was injured for swathes of the season, and that mattered, as did the botched signing of Peter Davenport, the first in a Top Trumps of Boro strikers who failed in England's premier league. Mostly, we were just happy to be there, to be anywhere, in fact, following a horrible period when it looked as though there might not be a team to support.

In 1991, Lennie Lawrence completed his first year in charge with promotion to the freshly established Premiership. For much of that season, Boro looked far too good for Division Two and Lennie had complemented some fine signings by his predecessor, Colin Todd, with Paul Wilkinson, Willie Falconer and, er, Andy Peake, to finish second. This was no squad of superstars, rather a well managed group of honest, decent players from an age before the money started rolling in who represented the best value around at the time. Piece by piece, Rioch's scratch side had been dismantled and in most cases Lennie's replacements added slight improvements to the overall picture. On the downside, his previous experience and profile - as manager of a workaday Charlton Athletic - meant he was never going to attract the players we needed to survive in the top flight. When Gavin Peacock and Robert Lee rejected moves to Ayresome in favour of Kevin Keegan's Newcastle, who were then playing in the second tier, the writing was already on the wall. One or two incredible results aside - the best was beating champions, Leeds, 4-1 - we weren't good enough for the top table, and Sky TV's marketing of their new baby seemed entirely odds with grim reality at Ayresome. After all, we just felt sorry for those cheerleaders they employed to rally the crowd on a bitterly cold March night whilst the side busily lost to Oldham.

Our next brush with the drop came in 1997, the inevitable end to a chaotic and exciting season in which Boro were rarely out of the headlines, often for the wrong reasons. I could spend thousands of words going on about this campaign, and in fact I have. There's a lengthy essay I once wrote about this term; if you would like a copy, leave your e-mail address in the Comments box below and I shall see you right. Speaking broadly and with the benefit of hindsight, it now seems incredible that we did as well as we did, that Boro's relegation came by the margin of three points that had been taken from us by the FA. Whether they were right to do so remains a debatable point that will never be resolved. What mattered was that they were fateful, as were so many things that season. Bryan Robson sought to augment his already lavish unit with a highly promising Brazilian midfielder who had amazing hair and a striker who came fresh from winning the European Cup with Juventus. Both Emerson and Ravanelli promised much, yet came with stings in the tail, the former sodding off to Rio de Janeiro when the feeling took him, the latter openly scornful of his new paymasters, their supporters and the area in which he found himself. More importantly, Robson made the mistake of grafting several undoubted stars to a side that was still largely 'Division One' in terms of overall ability. Too late he made decisive changes in defence. By the time Festa and Schwarzer arrived, our cards were already marked. That said, scoring goals was never a problem for us. And we had Juninho. By some distance the greatest pleasure of being a Boro fan was to watch this delightful, skilful and committed player strut his silky stuff for the place he stunningly decided to embrace. The biggest failure of that year's relegation was that it took the little fella away from us. We, and he, would never be the same again.

With Boro down, Robson was given fresh funds to send us straight back up. Though losing Juninho meant we now had a gap in the side that could never truly be filled, the manager did his best, signing Paul Merson from Arsenal. This turned out to be great business, not to mention a sure sign of our intention to charge towards promotion. 'Merse' was a pedigree England international, albeit a troubled one; he wouldn't normally have dropped a division but no doubt the wages were good and sure enough, a quick return to the Premiership we mounted. Robson then changed the tactical outlook of the team in an effort to ensure we wouldn't fall again. Sadly, what this meant was an increased negativity, a reliance on 'Route One' football that was signified in the arrival of Brian Deane to complement Hamilton Ricard and give us the two archetypal big lads up front. I guess it worked, but it called an end to the attractive, expansive game Boro had tried when Robson first took us up, a philosophy maintained to an even more stupefying extent under Steve McClaren.

1997 was avoidable, yet I don't think I would trade the memories of that glorious failure of a season. One thing we didn't do that year was capitulate, play as though we weren't good enough. Robbo's Boro thought they could survive, and do so in the right spirit. The latter part of that campaign showed signs that we had a great escape in us, something that was missing completely from what has happened this term. Yesterday, I noted a comment that Southgate's team had simply given up. I can't disagree. What makes relegation so painful is that it didn't have to happen. Boro were given more 'Get out of jail free' cards than a bent Monopoly player and failed to use them.

We could all see it coming by Christmas, our doom writ large as we entered the January transfer window and hoped Gareth would buy one or two players, if only to add other options to a wafer-thin squad. It didn't happen, unless you count the Mido-King swap deal that handed us a limited striker in exchange for someone far better but more troublesome. The folly of our lack of action became clear late in the season, when we would look at the players and line-ups available to Boro, and found very little for Gareth to play with. In the meantime, Blackburn and Portsmouth sacked their young, English managers when it looked like they were in peril. Both teams recruited more experienced hands, and as much as we might scorn the lack of time they gave to their charges it's they who will be playing Premiership football in 2009/10.

We go down with a game West Brom side that wasn't really talented enough to play open football with the players they possessed, and the team that Mike Ashley turned into a joke during his stewardship. I would have hoped for better where Mowbray was concerned; I don't think Newcastle deserved anything more than they got. As for us, our place in the Premiership has been taken by Hull, or by Stoke City. They're next year's cannon fodder. Neither squad has the kind of ability Gareth had to play with and wasted. The bottom line is that relegation was entirely avoidable, and that's why it hurts. Unlike in 1997, I can't see us rushing back to the top flight anything like as quickly.

Post from BoroMania: Middlesbrough Football

Looking on the Bright Side - This cut hurts the deepest

Even discussing the imbalance of coverage is of course a bit like arguing that sleaze is an occasional issue within the Conservative party. It has always been thus, whether it's Five Live's featured match invariably involving one of the 'Big Four' or last week's Match magazine boasting Ronaldo/Torres/Fabregas on its front cover. Sky TV arrived with a mandate to do things a little differently, actively guaranteeing each club a number of live games in return for your monthly premium though the latter part of the campaign was always taken up with the title race. That was the deal. Sky worked around the gamut of the Premiership in the first half the campaign, then concentrated on the pivotal matches during the business end.

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TOPPS PREMIER LEAGUE 2010 STEWART DOWNING No 36

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In recent seasons, the nod and wink in favour of the big boys has really gone into overdrive, and the current year is the worst yet. My choice of Boro's live Premiership games on Sky has been against Chelsea (getting thumped at the Riverside - not pleasant) and clinching a draw at Everton, and in April I'll be able to watch them go to the Emirates and take on Arsenal. With the honourable exception of the Toffees, who are consummate upper echelon finishers these days, the schedule represents matches we are not likely to win, taking on sides who play to the cameras on a wearying regular basis. Though I'm sure that Sky will do anything to avoid the kind of 0-0 against Charlton that we ever seemed to be embroiled in previously, to the entertainment value of nobody, there's just nothing fair about this deal to the Middlesbrough supporter, in particular those of us who now live miles from Teesside and can't afford both to journey over and pay for tickets each fortnight.

Football First at least gives us a chance to watch extended highlights, but what about those of us without Sky? Match of the Day remains as horribly skewed as ever. When Boro aren't last on the slate, sixty seconds of coverage apologetically tacked on to the end of the show, they're up against a glamour side, invariably losing and then subjected to the 'expert punditry' of Lawro and his mates who very clearly have done the bare minimum of research about us because their comments are little more than sweeping platitudes. The BBC's radio coverage is declining also. I used to be a 606 regular, but now my listening is reserved for Danny Baker who at least makes me smile. Elsewhere it's ill-informed bobbins. I have heard that Alan Green hates Boro. Chances are this isn't true and in reality he just knows very little about us. How else could one explain his constant refrain about giving Southgate a chance whenever a frustrated fan vents spleen on the wireless? It was no different when McClaren and Robson were undergoing tough times of their own, and it's pointless. Just don't get me started on Tim Lovejoy...

Things get little better in print, quite an incredible state of affairs when you look at the sheer amount of space newspapers devote to football coverage. You might think that publishers would appoint a reporter with some knowledge of Middlesbrough Football Club, but this rarely happens. Instead, we are discussed in the broadest of brushstrokes with little knowledge, perception or even concern over why things are going wrong. I guess the reasoning for this is that very few people want to read about Boro anyway. Joe Public would far rather wade through endless articles about the top four, and if not then tough because that's generally all there is. I'm a Guardian reader, but I'm not sure for how much longer when day after day brings further verbiage about the fact Manchester United have lost their last two league matches and Liverpool are at last beginning to justify their colossal outlay by inching closer to their cross city rivals' points haul. You know what? I don't care. I'm sick to death of reading stuff about Steven Gerrard. Or the eternal debate over whether Man Yoo have peaked too early and will now concede the title. Not arsed. Sorry.

What annoys me most is the fact that Boro have now been a Premiership stalwart since 1998, and yet apparently the possibility that we may at last lose our place at the top table is of no interest. Only eight teams have enjoyed a longer unbroken run. Even less have won a major trophy in that time, and before Boro's appearance in 2006 the last time an English side made the UEFA Cup final was in 2001. By anyone's standards it's a decent and eventful record, but so little interest has this generated that you would think it had never happened at all. Football 365 barely raises an eyebrow where Boro are concerned, though it would be hard to come across a website more devoted to talking about the usual suspects. Worse still is its sneering 'lad appeal' language, the sort of one-note dicussion about clubs that suggests they can be described wholly in less than five words, thus:

• Manchester United WIN THINGS
• Arsenal PLAY GOOD FOOTBALL
• Chelsea SPEND LOTS OF MONEY
• Tottenham SPEND MONEY AND SUCK
• Manchester City also SPEND MONEY AND SUCK
• Liverpool SHOULD DO BETTER
• Newcastle HAVE GOOD FANS

And so on, the others not mentioned because these are the sides that matter and that everyone cares about. Of if they are discussed, it's in a kind of snide, sniggery way because this is entertainment, right, and the teams involved deserve nothing better than being made to look like hapless fools. Forget their supporters, or the achievements they have produced in the recent past. All that concerns us is discussing the big clubs. The rest are there as fodder, to make up the numbers.

I went into the Premiership with my eyes open. The sides that were favoured in the mid-1990s are the same ones that get all the attention now, only these days it's more blatant. I'm not sure how much I want my team to be part of it. I think given the horrible choice it's possible I would prefer Boro to move down a notch and be spared the condescending opinions of journalists who haven't set foot in any part of Teesside that isn't related to the Riverside Stadium, not to mention the drooping levels of television and radio coverage that seem to forget we exist.

Post from BoroMania: Middlesbrough Football

Looking on the Bright Side - Blanked Coverage

Don't get me wrong. I don't want to sound like your archetypal Mr Glass Half-full. It's my belief that sometimes you know, you just know that your season is headed in the wrong direction. The worrying signs were there before it started; long before, in fact, back perhaps to when Boro sold Jonathan Woodgate in January 2008. Woody wasn't even playing especially well when Gareth sold him to Spurs for £7m; it was more that he was an established England international, a defender of the highest quality, a local lad, someone who surely needed little motivation to turn out for his boyhood team and we let him go. The reason was that with the emergence of David Wheater we no longer needed him, but I imagine we fooled no one. From being a side that competed with the best for the finest players (well, maybe not the very best or indeed the absolute finest, yet still pretty good) our Boro was turning into a selling club and one that jettisoned bona fide stars in favour of willing, locally grown talent.

Nothing wrong with that, to an extent. Boro's colossal debt reality was only just emerging and with the bumper crowds of the Robson years not returning to the Riverside a belt tightening exercise had to be on the cards. Better to keep a Wheater on the books than a high roller like Woodgate - you do the maths. But was it? As fine a servant as the Rock is, replacing an experienced centre back who has played at the very highest level for a Redcar lad in his first season as a Boro regular can only lead to a dip in both quality and the lustre the club commands. Would you be more likely to buy a season ticket on the back of Boro signing an England international whose quality is undoubted, or a kid from down the road who still has rough edges?

In any event the selling continued, until we found ourselves in the pickle we're in now, scrabbling around for inspiration but hardly any of our players are experienced enough to take charge on the pitch. Our captain isn't good enough to make the back four. When he's not around, the armband is passed to Stewart Downing, who might be many things but he isn't a leader. The only player who has really struck me as a potential captain is Didier Digard, not a native English speaker nor with many seasons under his belt and therein lies a big problem with this current bunch. When the chips are down, who's there to inspire them into doing anything, rousing them to action? It's bizarre that one of our best captains in recent years was none other than Gareth Southgate, who has turned out to be blissfully unaware of the qualities he possessed to lead the side and which he can't discover in any of his charges.

We need lions out there. What we have are lambs, too fresh-faced to take matches by the scruff of the neck and command them. It's shocking to see a player like Tuncay win so many admirers when his main asset is simply to keep running at defences, trying to mix things up. Most often, nothing comes of these efforts, but efforts they are and that's admirable in this climate of a Boro side showing too much effort and not enough end product.

It isn't even Gareth's fault. Not really. The man looks a little more drained at the end of each new defeat and I admit I feel for him. It must be excruciating to try and approach every match as a fresh start, pick a side with the meagre resources available, do everything you can to pick them up before the game, to make them believe, and then watch them run and sweat and come away with nothing. Gareth's been called for his failing tactics, his perceived lack of motivational talent and his eye for a turd that polishes up well in the transfer market. Some of the criticisms are fair enough. He's made a lot of mistakes. The one I find frankly unbelievable was the £12.7m signing of Afonso Alves, which quite clearly was sanctioned on the strict condition that his spending power in the summer of 2008 was severely curtailed. So the money gets spent. The player arrives, a striker who has ripped a new hole in practically every opponent he's come across, and over here he fails. So complete is his ruin that he's now a substitute. Tuncay (not a striker at all) and the utterly ordinary Marlon King are selected ahead of him. Watch those last shreds of tattered confidence fray, ladies and gentlemen. Even someone like me whose sole experience of management is on a computer game knows that if you're going to blow your transfer budget on one man, then for Juninho's sake make sure it's the right one. Track his adaptability when moving to different leagues, his preferred position, what sort of player he likes to partner, etc. Don't whatever you do get him and then try to bend him to fit your shape. If you do, the money's pretty much wasted. You could have bought three players and then tried and tested all of them until you found the one you wanted and ditched the others.

The sorry tale of Afonso aside, though, I think its a case of being sinned against for Gareth as much as it's down to his inability. Too little money and a mandate to save rather than spend, his time in the hotseat has been a poisoned chalice compared with the riches Robson and McClaren enjoyed and often squandered. You could argue that Gareth's ill fated big money splurge for Alves proves he can't be trusted with large sums of cash, but all managers make these kinds of mistakes and are allowed to get on with their lives (even Sir Alex Ferguson who squandered many millions on Juan Sebastien Veron, the very epitome of a fish out of water in the Premiership). In reality, he's had little to play with, and no matter how he dresses this up in the media - and he has - he can't disguise the fragility of our situation when a few players take on knocks and expose the lack of back-up that's available on the roster.

What sticks in my throat is that there are managers famed for their ability to get the results they need without massive resources. I know the mere thought of Sam Allardyce has many Boro fans reaching for the sickbag but I really can't think of a better candidate to steer the ship in troubled times. How he produced the goods at Bolton on a consistent basis made him the stuff of legend, even if that legend came in the form of sorry looking football and endless spoiling tactics. Given the 'difficut times' Boro are experiencing, where's the logic in appointing an inexperienced coach who possesses clearly limited tactical acumen and flexibility?

Sadly, the ultimate losers are us, the supporters. I think back to before the Gibson era, when the top table really was a cut above our means and our participation in the occasional season of Division One football was the culmination of momentum rather than spending for success. It's obvious, and has been for some time that we're heading back to those days, and there's no one to blame for this. We can either allow Sir Steve to carry on writing the cheques and plunging Boro further into the red, or face the truth of our situation and accept the drop as a likely outcome. It's been coming, hasn't it? My only wish is that the players didn't carry on as though they've accepted relegation just yet. That's for people like me to do.

Post from BoroMania: Middlesbrough Football

Looking on the Bright Side - How I learned to stop worrying and love the ‘R’ word

Portsmouth's reasons for handing Adams his cards seemed fair enough. They want to stay in the top flight; they saw Tony as the wrong man ultimately and are now looking for somebody with more experience. Former Chelsea man and Herbet Lom lookalike, Avram Grant, has emerged as a favourite. Whether the Israeli wants the job or not, it appears to be his for the taking, the likes of Alan Curbishley heading a list of usual suspects if he decides that bugger all is more fun, and who could blame him if he does? As for Chelsea, it's the typical rota of big names that ride the merry-go-round of posts at the top echelon - Riijkaard, Hiddink, Mancini, yawning etc. You have to like the fact that Curbishley and Mancini have both failed to live up to their Board's expectations previously, so why should we expect anything different from them this time?

I don't really care about Chelsea, in all honesty. If someone can't make a success story out of a squad like theirs then they deserve the push. Scolari apologists have highlighted the lack of funds he had compared with Mourinho's spending as a factor in his failure, yet he hardly had a duff hand to start with, and if Abramovich and Kenyon chose not to enter Chelsea into a perpetual bidding war for talent with the absolute profligate spenders at Manchester City then that doesn't sound like bad business to me. Incidentally, doesn't City's willingness to spunk £14m on Craig Bellamy and £12m on Wayne Bridge remind you a bit of this classic comedy sketch?

In Adams's case, the results didn't flow, it's true, but equally pertinent was Pompey's reinvention as a selling club. Adams signed Hayden Mullins and Angelos Basinas, but these were far from straight replacements for Lassana Diarra and Jermain Defoe, two bonafide first teamers whose sales flooded the best part of £40m into the Fratton Park coffers. Back in Harry Redknapp's day, their spending was a different matter. Portsmouth were high rollers for a time, lavishing cash on the likes of Peter Crouch and the aforementioned Defoe, but Adams enjoyed little of those kinds of riches, a credit crunch manager for a belt-tightened era. His eventual sacking had more than a whiff of knee jerkery about it. The Board panicked, pulled the trigger and are now left with no manager and no clear idea over who can keep them up.

Perhaps Boro will help do their job for them. As bad as things might appear at Fratton Park, Portsmouth are yet to enter the free-fall we're currently experiencing at the Riverside. My regular visits to the club's official website are taking on an air of tragedy, adverts for the seemingly endless sale at the MFC shop holding hands with regular defiant messages from whichever player has drawn the short straw that day (it was Robert Huth when I last checked) and crumbs of comfort that are treated like sensational news stories, such as the Reserves' 1-0 win over Everton. Calls for Gareth Southgate's sacking continue and now that it's become clear the club are going to take no such action we have a raft of conspiracy theories doing the rounds. My favourite is the rumour that Steve Gibson wants relegation, the logic being that when we go down our Chairman will use a combination of the parachute payment and the sale of Boro's more illustrious players to start again from scratch. I could believe that if the one-off windfall for dropping out of the Premiership was worth anything like what we would get for staying there.

I'm afraid the situation is a lot simpler than that. Gareth keeps rolling out Boro's latest debt figures for a reason. Our £85m in the red is the culmination of years of overspending, the cost we lashed out for staying up, for achieving seventh under Steve McClaren and achieving an unforgettable UEFA Cup Final. Those of us over 30 will recall a time when the prospect of making the showpiece of a major European competition was as unattainable as Andorra clinching a place in the South Africa hosted World Cup. We lived the dream. We are paying the price for it.

Our predicament this season is the result of the 'cutting back' process instigated by the Board in an attempt to reduce Boro's debt. It's an evil, but a necessary one. The alternative is for us to risk 'doing a Leeds United' and spending our way towards possible, even likely financial oblivion. Nobody wants that. The fire sale undertaken by Venables and Reid at Elland Road is something that won't happen at Riverside, which at least shows Gibson has some control over the books, and that's the good part. The bad is that we're saddled with what we've got in terms of our playing personnel and coaching staff. You don't like Gareth? You reckon he makes endless tactical mistakes? Tough. Get used to him because he's it for the time being, in charge of a small squad into which you don't need to cut too deep before you reach the soft underbelly of raw, locally developed youngsters who have talent but lack experience and guile. Knowing this, which manager is out there who you can possible imagine doing a better job right now? Be realistic. We aren't the most attractive prospect at the moment.

It's worth bearing this in mind when we take another pop at Southgate on one of the various message boards and radio phone-ins that are out there. I think he cuts a rather heroic figure currently, with his willingness to keep plugging away and try new things. Clearly, he hasn't written off our chances, even if the majority of the supporters believe we're watching the last days of our long Premiership stay. Heck, I think the same and yet I was quite encouraged by the way we played against Manchester City. More performances like that - and not having to face one of the country's best keepers with a point to prove - and the goals will surely come. I'd like to see Gareth return to his tactics of the season's first few weeks and attack more. Why not go for it? Everyone surely expects us to defend in numbers, protect Jones or Turnbull, so why shouldn't we show that we're made of more than our present position?

In the meantime, how about some hats off for Cool Hand Steve? It would be the easiest thing in the world for him to show Gareth the door and offer the reins to Curbishley, or pay Coventry for Chris Coleman, or even go for a tried and tested firefighter along the lines of Sam Allardyce. Adams's sacking was the downfall of yet another young English manager, another nail in the coffin of homegrown coaching as Chelsea go for Dutchman Guus Hiddink and Pompey show an interest in Israeli Grant, Swedish Eriksson and Slaven Bilic, last seen masterminding England's downfall as the trainer of the Croatian national team. Under Gibson, Boro have tried to do their bit for their country, recognising quite rightly that the club's profile can only grow as it nurtures English players coached and managed by Englishmen. It's as frustrasting as hell when the bad times are in full swing, but there's a lot to admire in Gibbo's attitude.

Post from BoroMania: Middlesbrough Football

Looking on the Bright Side - Cool Hand Steve

Those days have now passed and we got our 'less.' Gareth inexplicably played for the draw in a home game against Blackburn, who are one point and one position ahead of us in the Premiership. If this match wasn't a points banker, then nothing was and I'm dismayed at how often Brad Jones had to be called into action to stave off the lukewarm Rovers attack. Boro are playing at Manchester City this weekend. It's live on Sky. I'll be the one watching the action through gaps in my fingers.

Several things got to me about the Blackburn game. One was the use of five centre backs in the starting line-up. I can understand Pogatetz filling in at left-back, but Justin Hoyte was fit so why use David Wheater on the right? Though Shawky and Arca have had more than their fair share of knockers this season, and rightly so, why were both players picked as substitutes whilst another defender, Matthew Bates was chosen to partner Josh Walker in midfield? What was Afonso Alves doing on the bench, when he has actually looked like finding the back of the net in recent weeks? Surely, the sensible policy in a home game would have been to pitch him alongside Marlon King, the latter playing the 'knock down' Heskey role and drawing defenders, giving our £12.7m man space to score. But no. Once again Gareth baffled us with a formation and choice of players that didn't make an awful lot of sense.

Yet all this was small beer compared with the shock of finding we were signing no one during the January transfer window. That is unless you include the 'swap deal' that saw Marlon King arrive in place of Mido, and no doubt few would. All right, King isn't terrible by any stretch, but when the Egyptian's head was up he had the sort of nose for goal that few in a Boro shirt have matched. It was just a pity those dizzying glimpses of what he could do didn't turn into long stretches of good form, making Mido a tantalising and frustrating player. Sorry Wigan fans but enjoy him while you can. He's the worst kind of football star, the sort who has touted his wares from club to club, never giving everything, always finding some excuse to move on and generally on bad terms. We have simply joined Roma, Ajax, Marseille and various other naive teams in making the investment in him, only to have our fingers burned. By all accounts, when he left Mido was becoming a disruptive dressing room presence. Yet there will always be managers who are desperate for his skills, who'll take the plunge because you never truly know... one day, he may settle down... Yeah, right.

Elsewhere, the concensus of opinion about who Boro needed tended to fall into two separate camps. Those who agreed broadly with Gareth's policy of signing younger players would have wet themselves over the prospect of Crystal Palace's Ben Watson joining, so just imagine the mess if the rumour about getting Carlos Vela on loan had amounted to anything. Personally, I could have taken or left Watson. I'm sure he will turn out to be a very fine player but we need the complete, finished article, and we need it now.

The second group, the one I found myself erring towards, argued for experience, and it's this that is missing from the line-up. Horribly so. I am reminded of the time that Dean Windass was acquired by the Robson-Venables axis, back when Middlesbrough were in danger of going down during 2000/01. 'Wide Ass' looked almost the opposite of what a Premiership force should be, yet his strength and passion turned out to be a crucial factor as we eased our way towards safety. More than anything, Windass brought guile to the forward line, a heavyweight presence that added power to an essentially puff pastry unit. It's difficult to see where the sort of inspiration he brought is going to come from this time around.

Gareth has blamed a lack of funds and the team's lowly league position for his failure to sign anyone of significance. I think it's a terrible excuse. Bottom placed West Brom have added four new faces to their squad during the transfer window, and though I appreciate that a Riverside cash crisis probably does exist, the current financial plight is nothing compared with what we face if we go down. The squad has been crying out for warm bodies since the start of the campaign. Are you really going to argue that there were no potential loan moves out there, Mr Southgate?

To cushion the blow, our manager has suggested that Bates's return from injury and the emergence of  Walker is like having two new signings on the books. Am I the only one who feels fear at the blind optimism of that statement? Surely not. The last seven days represented a watershed for the club. Had we won against an incredibly average Blackburn team and introduced a couple of older faces to anchor our young side, I might have had some hope for the rest of the campaign. And now it's gone, another MFC failure. If on the other hand, Gareth steers us out of trouble following this latest debacle then I'll forever rest my doubts about his credentials. I hope I've read the situation wrong. I hope the lack of a supporting comment from Messrs Gibson and Lamb doesn't spell out the worst for us.

Post from BoroMania: Middlesbrough Football

Looking on the Bright Side - Boro’s Transfer Window Review

As has been made indelibly clear to us, Boro don't have the same sort of resources they might have had in the past. We've cut our cloth accordingly for a club with colossal debts. In recent seasons, we might have drawn comfort from picking out a number of teams that were worse off than Boro. Effectively, the fodder at the foot of the Premiership cushioned our own status. That isn't the case in 2009, with Stoke, West Brom and Hull proving to be no pushovers. There isn't a 'Derby County' this year. Our rivals have sacked inexperienced managers before they could do too much damage, recruiting old hands like Sam Allardyce who could more or less write his own survival handbook. Like it or not, and I can't imagine anyone who does, trouble loves us.

According to the hyperbolic likes of Sky Sports, teams facing the drop get involved in 'relegation dogfights,' evoking images of thrilling boy's own adventures crammed with exciting tussles and teams whirling about each other waiting to strike. But as we know, real struggles to avoid the fall aren't like that at all. They're slow, torturous and agonising, a drudge of eking out points and checking endless Premiership league tables to see what the results mean, how other sides have fared, what we still need to do, etc. Teams in this situation don't play fluid, open football. They do everything to avoid conceding sloppy goals, intending to counter-attack and creating muddy midfield tussles where the ball rarely troubles either outfit's 30-yard area. I know. So does every Boro fan. We've been here before, and it isn't a pretty sight.

Middlesbrough have a kiss, cuddle and fiddle with relegation on a near annual basis, but the last time we really faced the drop was during the 2000/01 season. On this occasion, Steve Gibson saved our bacon by recruiting Terry Venables to 'assist' a beleagured and increasingly bleary-eyed Bryan Robson. 'Teesside Tel' was soon in full control in all but name, and the results did improve. Robbo however had cocked up the first half of the campaign so spectacularly that we weren't officially safe until May. Victories over Liverpool, Newcastle and a crazy 3-0 win at Highbury eased us past Bradford, Coventry and Manchester City and up to the dizzy heights of 14th. Mostly though, it was just dull. Venables managed to shore up our leaky defence, coaxing excellent work out of the pedestrian likes of Steve Vickers. Even he struggled to get much service from the unprolific Ricard and Deane, though, and it took the £600k signing of a battler like Dean Windass combined with moments of brilliance from the shockingly overpaid Alen Boksic to grab valuable goals. There were lots of draws, especially away from home. The mantra appeared to be 'avoid defeat' - get the win if possible, but don't lose. Don't lose. It was slow work. The 42 points we accrued that year were earned through gritted teeth, blood, sweat and indeed the occasional bout of tears. I remember relegation rivals Coventry signing John Hartson, who showed an irritating tendency to score crucial goals. They troubled us for an awfully long time, or so it seemed.

Venables of course couldn't fail. If we went down, it would have been because things had been so bad to begin with under Robson that the season was unsalvageable. Stay up and Tel gets the glory. So cosy was the honourary Teessider that he made out management really wasn't that hard; all you needed to do was pick the best player for each position and the rest was up to them. In fairness, Venables's England appeared to be built on just this philosophy and they reached the semi-finals of Euro 96. Not for him the struggle to play people out of position in order to fit a certain style and there's some simplistic logic to that. Hey, why don't you or I apply for the Boro job if it's that easy? I have done well with Middlesbrough on Football Manager. I wouldn't play Stewart Downing in the middle. Mohamed Shawky would be kept away from the pitch under my regime, as much for his safety as for that of the club.

Presumably Gareth doesn't yet know that coaching is so straightforward. It would resolve those sleepless nights far more comfortably than spending £5m on James Harper, though we could certainly use the Reading midfielder. I can only imagine what it's like to be him. After all, I worry about relegation. I am aware from experience that - unless you 'do a Derby' - the matter is never resolved quickly. Picture what it must be like to have all that on your shoulders, to know you're responsible for the team's survival. It isn't a position I envy, though I would argue that he is as safe a pair of hands as it's going to get for the time being.

Post from BoroMania: Middlesbrough Football

Looking on the Bright Side - The Grind of Relegation

A thread on the FMTTM messageboard lists helpfully all the managers with Premiership experience who could be considered 'available,' from Sven-Goran Eriksson through to the bald-headed horror story that is Attilio Lombardo. There's a decent selection of names in there, though the only one jumping out as realistic is Alan Curbishley. Even your Curbs has tried and failed elsewhere. There's no guarantee it would be any different at the Riverside, though I quite liked the last time we recruited a boss who had Charlton on his CV. Boro affiliates Brian Little and Bruce Rioch are also listed; we would only approach either for heart-driven reasons, surely. Someone proposed George Graham, who I recall wanting to be the boss in the wake of Bryan Robson's tenure. Not so now, football having moved on since the likes of 'Gorgeous' once lamented his Arsenal side conceding a goal during a 6-1 victory.

Besides which, you have to wonder what Curbishley could do to sort things out. With allegedly little money to spend and a small squad on his hands that he had no part in putting together, the incentives for taking charge aren't exactly glowing. They're Gareth's players, and the more I think about it the greater in favour I am of him dragging us out of the mess he's played a significant part in getting us into.

It's obvious that things aren't working out. The optimism washing over Teesside at the start of the campaign has dispersed as nearly all the things that could have gone wrong have gone wrong. All right, so giving the starting goalkeeper's jersey to Ross Turnbull turned out to be an inspired idea. Ross has been great; the most likely alternative signings, Paul Robinson and Scott Carson have hardly set this sex on fire. Elsewhere however, the risks haven't paid off. Here's why:

1. It might have seemed a really good idea to save some cash by getting rid of Boro's oldies, those players who by now were long in the tooth and earning a fat wage for diminishing returns on the field. How we miss those players now; in particular we could do with George Boateng and his presence as one of the few who could rally the side when needed. What we wouldn't give for Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink or Mark Viduka and their implacable confidence in front of goal right now. Boro look kind of rudderless without the guiding hand of experience.
2. When Gareth transformed Julio Arca from left wing meanderer at Sunderland to a fine attacking midfielder at the Riverside, I got the impression he had the sort of eye for a footballer that went beyond the usual 'watch a few videos, listen to scouts' transfer business. Sadly, his forays in the market have netted a mixed bag. Didier Digard looks a true success, as anyone with a copy of Football Manager could testify, but why is Marvin Emnes held back during our hour of need? We need players now, not a couple of years down the line. Justin Hoyte is improving yet possesses little of the instant competence Luke Young brought to the fullback role, and was clearly signed with an eye on the purse strings.
3. And then there's Afonso Alves, the non-scoring goalscorer with the crashing confidence that you suspect George W Bush might look down on. It seems to me that in his case Gareth is making a very similar mistake to the one Steve Van Claren committed with Massimo Maccarone i.e. break your team's transfer record on a striker and then refuse to build the side around him. If Gareth didn't rate Alves enough to do that then why blow £12.7m on him, the kind of cash that could have bought three very decent players? The unfortunate consequence is Boro having the lowest 'Goals for' count in the Premiership, a shaming statistic that doesn't look like changing any time soon.

Our inability to hit the back of the net counts for much that's wrong with MFC at the moment. Opponents must rub their hands at the prospect of playing us, knowing that we're unlikely to give them too many defensive headaches and affording them an instant license to push forward. If we are to stick with Gareth, then to save our season the only obvious answer is to spend money, but that doesn't look too probable. We're told we have to sell in order to buy, yet the players have been informed they're going nowhere, even if this means fielding wantaways and homesick stars when what we need is lions.

Though the word 'loan' could do with entering Gareth's head right about now, the thought occurs to me that relegation has been on the cards for several years now. On each occasion (and yes, I include Van Claren's last season in charge - we nearly went down then also), we've eased away and managed a safe finish but how many times can you flirt with the drop zone and get away with it? Clearly, there isn't the kind of cash swilling around the Riverside treasury as in the past, or maybe there is and other sides have just pulled away from us in terms of financial clout. Ten years ago, there weren't many teams outside the obvious big hitters that could sign a mean cheque like we did, and often, but that's all changed now. We're being left behind and there's no easy response to that, save sacking the board. And nobody's going to suggest that, are they?

So perhaps we're getting the Boro we deserve, a team that can't command full houses, possesses a decent but perilously small squad and a manager who talks nicely yet isn't capable of working miracles or even make consistent sense with his tactics. I like Gareth and I've seen him guide his charges away from danger in both his full seasons in charge. But you could argue that on each occasion he could call on better players and had more cash to dabble with. This time, the jokers have been removed from his pack and there's nowhere left to hide. Either the current group start performing or we go down.

Post from BoroMania: Middlesbrough Football

Looking on the Bright Side - From Despair to..?

All this follows the endless debate over Downing's destination, a to and fro argument that has kept my BBC Sportdaq portfolio in credit crunch-biting buoyancy but has done little else in terms of putting a smile on my face. I admit at certain points I thought the lad was off, especially once the money started creeping towards the alleged £15m mark, surely the moment we could have started taking the offers seriously. Now it looks like he isn't going anywhere, at least until summer. If he can sort his daft head out and put the needs of his team ahead of the prospect of reckless nights with Jonathan Woodgate in that London, Downing is in a position to do us a lot of good. Given his middling form for much of the season, it's the least we deserve from a player on whom we have lavished a great deal of money and attention.

Personally, I don't blame him for wanting to leave. I've said it before and will stupefy anyone who'll listen in saying it again that Downing probably needs to go to a bigger club in order to improve as a player. If he is to become the kind of regular international fixture that his talent suggests he might be, European football and the biggest of opponents are surely what he requires to hone his skills. Apparently, Liverpool have been sniffing around and that's the calibre of team I would expect him to be linked with, despite Rafa Benitez's uncanny ability to reduce to first gear the careers of certain players e.g. Jermaine Pennant, Robbie Keane.

I hoped for Arsenal, thinking - no doubt like Gareth himself - that only under Arsene Wenger and the philosophy of continental, attacking flair would he truly thrive. That and the fact that of your Big Four, the Gunners are the only ones that don't come across like greedy, odious little gobshites. Well, they do a bit, but they're the best of a bad bunch.

But Spurs? Don't get me wrong here - I believe their league position is an abberation and they're far more capable than we are of hauling themselves out of trouble. My problem is the continual shoving down our throats of how much bigger than Boro they are, how little right we have to hang on to a player they covet and how they're practically doing us a favour by agreeing to take him off our hands. The 'comments' of supporters on messagbeboards across the realm is one thing; more shocking has been the general media bias towards Tottenham that has taken a bewildered, sometimes affronted attitude towards Gareth's reluctance to sell Downing. Believe the likes of Football 365, to name one offender, and you would think that (i) Spurs have a perfect right to go for any player they please (ii) because they're bigger and all round better than Boro (iii) Downing isn't that good anyway (iv) everyone only goes on about him because he's the only de facto left-winger who's also English. No need to let the facts get in the way of a populist stance. Whereas we know he is a very good player who deserves the attention he gets, common 'knowledge' has it that he's a one-trick pony who can't raise his game for England and isn't fit to lace Ashley Young's boots.

In many ways, I'll be glad to see the back of him when he does eventually trot off, which will odds on be in the summer of 2009, relegation or otherwise. Stewie has never struck me as a Middlesbrough player, more a gifted winger who by happy chance happens to come from the locale and turns out for the nearest outfit. My idea of a Boro boy in the classic sense is David Wheater, the Redcar Rock with his no-nonsense tackles that thud like granite colliding with human flesh. Not that I have anything against Downing; it's more that I suspect we will all be able to breathe a sigh of relief when he leaves, putting an end to all the speculation and comment, and the feeling that we're being chided for having the temerity to possess a talented footballer. When it comes down to it, the press has discussed his future so often because, contrary to popular opinion, he is most definitely worth the trouble. There will be many of us sorry to see him strut his stuff on another stage, to find a different team getting the benefit of his peak years, but by then we'll have put the whole thing behind us, pocketed the cash and discovered if Adam Johnson is really up to the Premiership and fond gazes from the likes of Real Madrid.

But please, Mr Downing Sir - don't go to White Hart Lane. You're better than that and you don't need to take my word for it. Just ask David Bentley, a star at Blackburn and knocking on the door of international recognition. One move to Spurs later and nobody's talking about England anymore, or stardom, and thinking about it no one even mentions Bentley himself very much. We wouldn't want that for you.

Post from BoroMania: Middlesbrough Football

Looking on the Bright Side - Downing the Dumps