Middlesbrough Chairman Steve Gibson has once again made it clear that struggling manager Gareth Southgate still has his full backing.
He is fully aware of the fans' feelings towards Southgate and the club in general at present but intends to stick by Southgate as he does not see what good would come of sacking his manager now.
Gibson said: "I've spoken with a lot of fans over the last few weeks and they ask me about Gareth Southgate.
"But the magic wand in our situation isn't sacking Gareth Southgate. Of course everybody has their opinion in football and I understand the frustration of the fans.
"I've always said that we have a knowledgeable crowd at Middlesbrough and you have to respect that."
Respect of the fans' wishes aside, Gibson has always maintained that Southgate would be given time to bring his own players to the club, implement his own style and learn on the job.
But Southgate now has a squad largely of his own making and whilst they played entertaining attacking football, particularly on the counter attack, early on this season, the tactics soon degenerated into back passing, conceding corners and not scoring.
Boro have managed to plug the holes in their defence and have stopped needlessly conceding so many set pieces but we still have the poorest strike rate in English football. It would be laughable if it wasn't so painful.
Gibson has always been praised for being a local Chairman and putting his faith in one manager, not chopping and changing like Newcastle, for example. I wholeheartedly agree with this policy but how long will Southgate be given?
If we go down, will he still be manager? And would you put your faith in him to bring us back up?
"I take on board the views of the fans because I care as much as they do. But if I was to sack Gareth Southgate at this stage, how would it help the situation?"
I agree that it probably wouldn't help Boro to sack Southgate at this point in the season but I'm not sure anything will help us now and at least it would be an acknowledgement to the fans that the Southgate/Gibson partnership has not delivered what the fans were promised.
Gibson continued, "The one thing I know is that Gareth Southgate is hurting as well.
"I see him on a regular basis and I know how much our situation is hurting him."
I can see both sides of this argument. I, like most Boro fans, like Gareth Southgate. His personal conduct and general demeanor, not to mention his intelligence, exceeds that of a lot of managers and as our former captain, we all wanted him to succeed. He's a young English manager, everybody wants him to succeed!
But as failures go, sending Boro down to the Championship in your third season in charge is pretty unequivocal. So are our dismal records (home and away) this season and our awful goal difference.
Gibson also said, "But I also see the hard work he is putting in all day, every day of the week and I know that things are being done the right way.
"The real work is done on the training ground during the week.
"It doesn't matter how much preparation is put in, once the game kicks off at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon any manager is limited in what he can do to influence the result. And the result is everything.
"Gareth has great experience of football at every level. He is working to the best of his ability to turn things around."
The trouble is it is precisely phrases like "the best of his ability" which worry the fans.
"When he was a player, he worked immensely hard to make himself a better player. He does exactly the same as a manager."
I understand the point Gibson is trying to make here. Southgate was a fantastic player and an exemplary captain, but you cannot call him an experienced manager.
"I couldn't expect any more from him in terms of blood, sweat and tears.
"We can't put what happens on the pitch fully on Gareth's shoulders and that's why we have to share the workload and the responsibility," he said.
"When things go wrong, people lose faith in the manager."
Undoubtedly people have lost faith in the manager, but when those 'people' include the majority of the players, you have an uphill struggle.
I agree that the players should be held accountable because there have been too many times when a lot of them simply haven't turned up for games this season, let alone battled to win. Gibson himself must also take some of the blame, which he is obviously aware of. Ironically, the only thing that has really been a team effort for Boro this season is our downward spiral.
However, we were promised an attacking team and most of the time this 'attacking team' has played defensive tactics. It doesn't work, it hasn't worked all season and yet nothing has really changed.
Gibson ended slightly ambiguously: "But there is a lot more involved and we must always continue to look at the wider picture before coming to decisions."
The trouble is the wider picture still includes relegation. In fact, it is dominated by it.
First published on www.ComeOnBoro.com on 24/3/2009
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