A Fragile Peace Over The Boro Barricades
THERE IS an eerie calm on the streets of Planet Boro. There hasn’t been a sniping incident for a week.
The once fearful optimists are walking tall and even former terrace target Steve McClaren feels safe enough to return to the technical area protected by his bullet proof smile.
But the war is far from over. As Gerry Adams said of the IRA, the boo-boys haven’t gone away you know.
The squabbling may have abated for a while but despite the results against Chelsea and in Stuttgart there remains a large and vocal minority implacably hostile to the boss.
Having made their decision over the course of a deeply disappointing season - or further back in some cases - they are not likely to swing back because Boro battered the champions and edged through in Europe.
In fact, for many, it reinforces their position. They would argue that if the right team with the right tactics and properly motivated can demolish Chelsea then why haven’t they ripped apart lesser teams on a regular basis? It just underlines how often Boro have fallen short of the kind of performances levels expected.
Listening to the cyber chatter since that eye-catching result it seems optimism levels are soaring and for under-fire McClaren the pressure is off.
But while fans can be fickle it would be naive to believe that the political landscape has been changed dramatically.
The opposition to McClaren remains deeply entrenched and tactical, philosophical and sometimes personal animosities built over years will not be wiped out in a week.
How much breathing space has Chelsea bought the boss. Not much I would imagine.
Defeat against Preston or having a slender lead dented by a late goal in Stuttgart overturned on Thursday would reignite the flames.
And defeats in the big basement battles at West Brom and at home to Birmingham would see a resumption of the spleen venting fury and a queue of would-be Red Book throwers by the dug out.
The peace is fragile. It can only be maintained by winning.
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Anthony Vickers
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The current peace can be maintained by winning - but peace at any price?
As you say the dis-satisfaction is more longstanding than the last few results. For me it began in the second half of last season and I called then for a thorough strategic close season review of all aspects of the playing and commercial sides of the club to sort out a way forward.
The do-nothing option - which was what we got - would in my view deliver us what we have had this season. I wish I'd been wrong.
Now is not the time for that sort of review - we're still in the trenches, muck and bullets and all that. All the effort must go on surviving the battle - and it's far from won yet.
But at season's end we must have that fundamental review and act on its outcome otherwise we risk winning the battle (I hope we do!), losing the peace and finding ourselves back at war again next August.
GET OFF MCLARENS BACK REMEMBER 29.02.04
All the disatisfaction is just sitting under the surface. Whatever the rights and wrongs, Mac has lost a section of the fans and it is difficult to win them back. As soon as something goes wrong the boards and phone-in will be full of grumbling.
Even if we have a decent end to the season europe is unlikely to be direct qualification and the grumbling will start.
The world cup may deflect attention for a while but when the season ticket renewal forms start hitting letter boxes we may see a reaction from the unhappy.
Fans will look at the cost and may decide that as they can get tickets to any match why buy. The club will probably do incentives anyway. That may be the point when the scale of any mutiny becomes apparent.