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100 (AND 20) NOT OUT 14-2-08
Toby Higgins
A lot like what you do for a living, or whether the colour of your boxers matches that of your socks, there are some things that only you care about.
The significance of this article falls into that bracket with some ease. This is my 100th article published on ComeOnBoro.com and whilst for me, it represents achievement, to you, it's probably nothing more than another article to glance over in passing.
A glance back at my earlier work makes me want to cower in my desk chair. My first article was 928 days ago by my reckoning. Hopefully, I've improved since then. I'd like to think I have.
The missed capital letter at the start of the second sentence suggests it can't have got much worse. In 928 days from now, I'll probably be cowering again, re-reading today's piece.
As well as it being my 100th article (did I mention that?) it's also my twentieth birthday. Quite a day, really.
Of course, I couldn't be the first ever COB writer to reach 100 articles. James Bassett, media whore, has contributed to at least five or six features and thus raced past the 100 post months ago. We've agreed to race to 200. Your crown is mine, Bassett.
It's very much a cliché (something that regular readers will know that I'm not afraid of using. a lot) but things in life move pretty quickly indeed.
If I look at myself at 17 years and 107 days (how old I reckoned I was when I wrote my first article), I don't even see the same person, let alone the same writer. As people keep telling me, you do a lot of growing up in these years. Boobs, fart, poo. See?
Though it's only been two and a half years, it's rapid how much has changed in football since I started here, too.
Michael Owen was a Real Madrid striker back then, Steve McClaren was Sven's assistant with England (though even then I boldly predicted he would become Sven's successor as Head Coach), Bolo Zenden had just walked away on a free transfer after helping us get into Europe for the second consecutive season, and Emmanuel Pogatetz had just signed after impressing against us during our first run in Europe.
Newcastle's manager at the time was Graeme Souness. Since then, Glen Roeder, Sam Allardyce and now Kevin Keegan have all had a crack at it.
Newcastle were residing somewhere in the bottom half of the table, underachieving massively. I suppose for everything that does change, some things have to stay the same.
For us, much as changed in a short space of time. We've swapped McClaren for Gareth Southgate, we've reached a major European Cup final and we've smashed our transfer record. We're a club going in the right direction.
At this moment, we look a very solid and respectable Premiership club. While, as ever, we flirt with the idea of relegation, it's been many, many years since we were embroiled in a genuine battle to stay up.
There is something satisfying about knowing that we are, as ever, a lot better than most people give us credit. This league table shows just how good we've been over the last fifteen years, let alone the last two and a half.
With Southgate at the helm, the short-term future, at least, looks very rosy.
While Jonathan Woodgate was quick to bitch about how he is now working for a "proper" manager in Juande Ramos (misquote or not), he's clearly overlooked the fact that Ramos' early years were uneventful and actually, quite poor.
Southgate coming in at the top and keeping us in the league is one hell of an achievement. Not unlike the difference between my first article and this one, the progress is visible.
The man behind the whole thing is obviously Steve Gibson. While I've become to resent the 'Steve Gibson can do no wrong' articles, I admire the guy for what he has done for this club. When speaking in the media, he is brutal and honest, whether it be about his managers, players, or agents comments. He tells it how it is.
His ambition, despite being questioned by former players, is as prevalent as ever. The signing of Afonso Alves proves this and whilst I don't always agree with everything he does or says, you know he's always got the best interest of the club and its fans at heart. Cut the guy open and he'd bleed Boro red.
In the future, we will look back and think these were our halcyon years. Gibson is astute enough to be able to keep the club in the top flight, getting it wrong only sparingly. With him here, we have little to worry us.
In the long term, though, you do wonder. I turned twenty today. This year, Gibson turns fifty (pardon me if you have already, Steve, I couldn't dig out your date of birth).
We might have at least another twenty years under Gibson's command but when I'm forty, where will this club be? Who will be in charge? Some multi-millionaire foreign businessman? We will never find another Steve Gibson, that's for sure. Long may he reign.
Even as little as two and a half years ago, the concept of a thirty-nine game season, with one being played on foreign soil, would have seemed totally ahead of its time. Even today, it probably is.
That's another thing that seems to have changed very quickly. In 2005, there was really just one team with a rich foreign owner - we were in the middle of the Chelsea boom. Now, you're the exception to the rule if you don't have a mega bucks owner. Again, thank the Lord for Gibbo.
This proposal, like Dong Gook Lee actually scoring a goal, is something I won't believe until I see it happen. That's not to say it won't - the mumblings from the FA suggest it has the backing of all Premiership clubs, which probably makes it more a case of when, rather than if, this thing goes ahead.
The problems and issues with the scheme have been well documented, so you don't need me to restate them.
The more I think about it, the less I like the idea though. Imagine a stadium in the USA with 30,000 fans wearing Boro shirts. Who are they? And why are they supporting our team? It will be a very surreal experience unless, as many predict, nobody will turn up.
If the last two and a half years of 'writing Boro' every week have taught me nothing else, it's that you just can't predict what football will through up next. It's why we love it so.
Here's to the next 100 (and 20).
Same time next week.
Up The Boro.
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