Udayan's Corner - Saw 'Em At The Forum || Middlesbrough F.C. news, reviews and comment

SAW 'EM AT THE FORUM 14-2-08
Udayan Mukherjee

This week's Udayan's Corner comes after your writer spent a few hours in the company of Gareth Southgate, Keith Lamb and Julio Arca at the BBC Tees fans' forum in the Middlehaven Suite at the Riverside Stadium.

I'm sure that all three are busy men but all three stayed for around an hour to talk to supporters after the official forum had stopped. They were all very candid and forthcoming.

Many issues were covered including long term goals, Downing's contract, the sale of Woody, the 39th game, transfers and the issue of competitive prices at the stadium for season ticket holders and casual fans alike.

I have to say that Gareth Southgate impressed me the most. He was as his on-camera personality suggests: Friendly, intelligent and with a good sense of humour.

He even seemed to take it in his stride when I started to talk about whether he felt he was the best dressed manager in the Premiership and whether he wore tank tops or sweaters under his jacket.

Before I make myself look like an even bigger doyle, I will move swiftly on (the answer is both, in case you actually care).

What impressed me even more was his ability to engage with normal supporters and take their views on board. With me, Steve Goldby and Andy Morgan from this site, he was engaging and would have been happy to carry on talking had the stadium staff let us.

It transpired that Julio Arca is captain as long as it suits the team and Julio. Southgate talked at length about the added pressures of being a captain and the fact that as a captain you tend to take defeats more personally.

Southgate enthused about the fact that this season we had more natural leaders in the team, where we only had two in the last campaign. He's right - Young, O'Neil, Arca, Mido, Poggy, Huth, Wheater, Tuncay and deposed leader Boateng are all feasible future captains.

Southgate and Keith Lamb were asked about the sale of Jonathan Woodgate, the renewal of Downing's contract and the wider problem regarding the repeated failure to tie down contracts early.

As expected, the answer from Keith Lamb was one designed to dodge the bullet. It seems that many contracts, e.g. Andrew Taylor's recent extension, were done without a fuss or much media coverage.

Lamb simply said that there are a lot of issues regarding contracts in that the club has to strike a balance between giving players what they want and what is good for the club.

The much talked about renewal of Stewart Downing's contract also came up. It seems that Downing has signed improved terms a total of five times already. This returns us to the point of whether Downing deserves his new deal just yet as he is two and a half years away from completing his current one.

Both Keith Lamb and Gareth Southgate expressed their absolute desire to keep hold of Downing.

A question about Jonathan Woodgate's sale was also asked and subsequent questions centred on the circumstances of his departure.

The response from Southgate was interesting in that despite the likes of Sky Sports et al repeatedly reporting "blasts" at one another, Southgate believes that Woody had no intention to bad mouth him to the press.

In fact, Gate believed that Woody was simply trying to "big up" his new club rather than knock Middlesbrough.

However, it seems that Woodgate's heart was simply not at Middlesbrough and that Southgate allowed him to go because a) Wheater et al were playing so well and b) he felt that Woodgate did not want to be at Middlesbrough any more.

The alleged quotes from Woodgate regarding Southgate not being a "proper manager" led Southgate to say that Juande Ramos had been in the game for fifteen years and had improved as a manager and that Southgate would be happy to emulate him one day. In the meantime, I feel that Gate is doing OK himself.

I don't suppose that the real story behind the departure of Woody will come out for a good few years yet.

I'm sure by now, many of you will have read the comments by Keith Lamb regarding the introduction of a 39th game to the season.

"It's not all about money but it's not far off when you sit on my side of the table.

"Everything is expensive and so if we can get another £5m out of playing in a foreign country it's a big help to us."

Lamb does have some reservations about the proposal, particularly on a football level.

"I can only find one flaw in it and that is the one that has been described as the 'sporting integrity flaw'" he said.

"I find it odd that you can play thirty-nine games and it might mean that one of those games is against a team you have to play three times.

"That is the only reason I can find for not doing it."

Well Lamby, that's a big bloody reason!

From a personal perspective, making our league a laughing stock and removing the integrity of the system in place is stupid and should never be allowed to happen.

Mr Lamb likened it to the decision to introduce the play offs a few years ago, with many people making the same accusations of loss of integrity.

It is seemingly 100% about the money and selling the brand abroad. £5m, a figure that Lamb mooted, is enough to make it worthwhile for Middlesbrough F.C. to support the proposals because it would make us run at less of a loss.

If giving a piece of the club to the fans abroad is so important, then it makes one wonder whether having a shirt that sells exclusively in Middlesbrough and nowhere else is a sensible option.

When I asked him whether he thought we could ever compete with the top four he said "We do, on a regular basis!". He went on to answer my question by saying that he felt that we were very close to a brilliant team on several occasions throughout his twenty-one years at Middlesbrough.

He also said that he felt this team was quite close to being very good, requiring possibly four signings to strengthen.

It seems that we were also very, very close to adding both Vagner Love and Fred before the end of the window.

All in all, Arca, Southgate and Lamb were brilliant company and my opinion regarding all three has improved. You can catch the forum itself and form your own opinion, however I feel it would be remiss of me to write here much of what the three said off camera as I feel that I may misquote them.

With Southgate at the helm, we have a very intelligent manager who is beginning to really get the knack. Crucially though, he is willing to take everything on board and listens intently to everybody. He seems to be a much more confident character this season and is learning all the time.

With results on the pitch getting better and better, we can only go up.

Exciting times indeed.

Up the Boro

Udayan Mukherjee

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