Quality Time

No-one should be surprised that the whispers have already started about the future of Gareth Southgate as Middlesbrough manager, after a last gasp Phil Jagielka goal gave Neil Warnock’s Sheffield United their first Premiership victory and condemned Boro to 16th place – a position that could worsen if Spurs were to beat high flying Portsmouth at White Hart Lane. And no-one should be surprised that the press have exacerbated the situation by carrying out little surveys of disgruntled fans, with entirely predictable results.

Apparently, the clock is ticking for Gareth. He lacks experience. He is “intelligent and personable” but those qualities “won’t lift the team up the table”. He could turn out to be yet another example of a great player who can’t cut it as a manager. And so on.

The fact that these reactions are not surprising masks something much more important. The vast majority of them are unhelpful, unwise and unintelligent. It is worth emphasising that there is no template for a successful football club manager – even at the highest level. Great players have been known to do it successfully (Dalgleish, Beckenbauer and Klinsmann spring to mind) though many have failed. Modest players have developed into outstanding coaches and managers – Ron Greenwood, Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger for instance. Indeed, the present (and currently very successful) England manager (or Head Coach as some people have it) had a remarkably undistinguished playing career. And after some five years as Middlesbrough boss, he left the club in precisely the same league position in which he found it.

So much for logic – or rather the lack of it – which where football management is concerned is about as much use as the knee jerk reactions which are being applied so enthusiastically to Gareth Southgate’s present predicament. Fortunately for Gareth, he was appointed by Steve Gibson, one of the best chairmen in the history of English football, so he will be given what most people seem so anxious to deprive him of – sufficient time to develop and to prove himself. He deserves it because he is intelligent, talented, committed, loyal, articulate and highly motivated – and he has an outstanding playing career at club and international level behind him.

And if all that isn’t enough, consider this. Sir Alex Ferguson was given time at Manchester United when for ages there were no trophies. And Arsene Wenger was given time at Arsenal to introduce new ideas in the face of initial scepticism from players, press and public alike.

Get it?