Udayan's Corner - Half-Hearted || Middlesbrough F.C. news, reviews and comment

HALF-HEARTED 28-11-07
Udayan Mukherjee

As any one of the less than 24,000 spectators at the Riverside Stadium on Saturday can attest, Middlesbrough are in deep, deep trouble.

The warning signs have been in place for a very long time. As one text message I received in the aftermath of the Aston Villa defeat put it: "I think he's gotta go".

I've always been vocal in my belief that Gate will turn it around because I really want him to do well. In fact I think that the half-hearted boos last Saturday point to the fact that most of us want him to succeed.

Ultimately, however, Gareth Southgate is going to have to live or die by the results his Middlesbrough side gets. Yet when Premiership quality footballers are unable to concentrate enough to pass a ball around, is the manager entirely to blame?

The alarming capitulation that followed Villa's opener - another goal conceded in the so called red zones at the beginning and end of the two halves - was compounded by another conceded straight after half time. Game over.

Is it lack of drive and concentration from the players or not enough work being done on the training ground? And does this mean there are problems with the coaching and management within the club?

All I know is that it is simply not good enough.

Many of the players that Southgate has brought to the club are very good. The likes of Woodgate, O'Neil, Arca and arguably Tuncay and Mido, are of a quality to be at least upper mid-table. Or at least they should be.

On Saturday I went to the match with blind, unfounded hope rather than a solid belief that we even stood a chance.

Is this what it's come to?

I cannot speak for every fan but I used to go into games with even the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea with every hope that my team were good enough to pull off an upset.

No longer, it seems. Reality has dawned and if Mido and Arca do not come back and have us playing to a much higher standard than we are at present then the Boro haven't got a hope in hell.

I still have enough faith in Steve Gibson and Gareth Southgate to believe this won't happen. Actually 'believe' may be a strong word - hope is more accurate.

It is not the case with some of our number however. It was with great surprise that I have seen a fair number of people begin to question the credentials of someone who I believed was untouchable - Steve Gibson.

The nature of the Boro fan is fickle. One player can be deemed as being rubbish and within a few weeks he can be amazing. I've been guilty of it, as I'm sure you are.

Steve Gibson though? My first response was "yerjokinarenyer?!".

These people are not joking however. It is when the club is in dire straits that many supporters have understandably begun to question the running of Middlesbrough F.C. from the top down.

I am not criticising Gibson, and to do so would be churlish.

What I would like to draw attention to is the formation of two groups - one who will not hear a word said against Steve Gibson (the overwhelming majority) and an increasingly vocal minority who are annoyed with our lack of progress following Eindhoven.

People find it so easy to criticise the likes of Keith Lamb and Graham Fordy, forgetting that these people have played a huge part in the development of Middlesbrough Football Club. Graham Fordy was even part of the original consortium.

The fact is that we've not won in around three months. This isn't where we should be. Our UEFA Cup final opponents Sevilla are now Champions League regulars and always seem to have an outside chance of winning La Liga.

I'm not saying we should be playing at a level equivalent to Sevilla because we were trounced in Eindhoven, but surely we should have pushed on from there?

I find it very, very difficult to believe that we could not find a man suitable to take Middlesbrough Football Club forward after a position of strength such as being UEFA Cup finalists. It beggars belief.

Unfortunately we have now missed the boat and with the extra investment into other clubs from dodgy foreign mercenaries we are ill-equipped to compete.

We now cannot afford to pay players top dollar, nor does anyone want to come to us. Gibbo got the cheque book out in the summer and spent millions and millions but we have not replaced the men who could finish a move.

The question is, was Gareth Southgate ever going to be a good manager or even competent within a couple of seasons? Of course he wasn't. And this has prompted some fans into thinking that the club didn't even go for second best.

I have no doubt that given the right learning curve Southgate can make a great manager. He has already made some astute signings and some astute tactical decisions. The way we were playing earlier in the season was a joy to behold.

I cannot bring myself to really criticise Southgate and as the only half-hearted boos following the Villa performance showed, neither can the rest of the Teesside public. If it had been 'the ex' in charge then there would have been a very poisonous atmosphere by now.

Middlesbrough fans left that stadium dejected but with a kind of hopeless resignation. We couldn't even get upset like losing a loved one as the body has yet been found so you cannot have the funeral.

We can see it slipping away and it is very frustrating and very painful.

I just hope that Julio Arca and Mido can return and have us scoring goals again. If they do get us playing to even halfway to our best then we will avoid relegation easily. However it is a sad indictment of the state of our team that we have faltered so badly without them.

There is good news though. I'll miss the next two games because of a tonsil operation, so those are almost certainly nailed on wins. What's that? Arsenal you say?

Fuck.

Up the Boro

Udayan Mukherjee

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