Why we should applaud the Middlesbrough chairman

I manage a local league team on a Saturday and maybe it is for that reason that I get so frustrated at managers being sacked as soon as things start to go a little wrong. OK, I know there is a big difference between Wilton Town FC and the Premier League, but a manager at any level needs time and the support of his board or committee to succeed.

In fact, a manager needs time and support to succeed in any business. They need to build their empire and make sure that everything is run from top to bottom how they want it to be run.

Demand

To demand immediate success from any manager is ridiculous and impossible. There are, it would seem, very few Football League or Premier League chairmen who understand that point.

All of the above is why I am so fond of Middlesbrough chairman Steve Gibson. He has seen his club win just one of their last eighteen games. He can see that his club sit second from bottom. He can see that his club are now four points away from safety and have only eight games left to save themselves.

Question

Despite that situation and the fact that many Middlesbrough supporters are starting to question whether manager Gareth Southgate should remain in his post, Gibson insists that he will not sack his manager.

Speaking to the Middlesbrough official website Gibson said,

“I have 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 have always said that we have a knowledgeable crowd at Middlesbrough and you have to respect that. 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?”

He continued,

“Gareth has great experience of football at every level. He is working to the best of his ability to turn things around. When he was a player, he worked immensely hard to make himself a better player. He does exactly the same as a 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. When things go wrong, people lose faith in the manager. But there is a lot more involved and we must always continue to look at the wider picture before coming to decisions.”

Of course there is a shared responsibility. The players should take most of the blame if they are not doing their jobs, but the chairmen and boards of directors should take their share of it as well. Who employs the manager in the first place?

Looking for work

Should Middlesbrough go down, or even if they don’t, there has to be a possibility that Gareth Southgate will be looking for work in the Summer. There is no problem with that as manager’s are paid for and judged on results. If they fail, they know the inevitable outcome. It is just refreshing to see a chairman who is prepared to stand by and support his original choice for the job through good times and bad to allow them the chance to see the job through.

Luis Felipe Scolari, Alan Curbishley, Juande Ramos, Tony Adams and Paul Ince from the Premier League and Paul Jewell, Adey Boothroyd, Glen Roeder, Colin Calderwood, Jan Poortvliet and Alan Pardew from the Championship, could only dream of that sort of support. Who knows where their former teams would be now if they had been given a chance to turn things around? That is all managers request. A chance to turn things around.

Hope

It seems that Gareth Southgate is one of the lucky few to be given that chance. In so many ways, I hope he is able to make the most of it.