Middlesbrough may well find themselves looking back in anger come the end of the season
Football managers have a well worn answer when asked how they would like to leave a club. It goes something like: “In a better state than when I joined.”
Only time will tell whether Middlesbrough chairman Steve Gibson was right to replace Gareth Southgate with Gordon Strachan.
But given that Southgate was sacked after a home win, and just one point off the top of the Championship, there is only one way Strachan will be able to say he’s left Boro better off. With promotion.
The problem is Strachan has inherited all the problems Southgate had. A young, inexperienced squad, prone to mistakes and finding it hard to cope with the pressure of playing in front of a fractious home crowd.
Strachan took the job saying he will get time to build a squad.
Gibson says he wants promotion this season, and the reason he sacked Southgate was because he didn’t think he’d deliver.
Unless Gibson can muster a decent level of investment in the January transfer window for Strachan, and hold on to star man Adam Johnson, I fear Boro will look back with nostalgia at the lofty league position that got Southgate fired.
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