Fixtures Could Be Tough Luck For Boro Fans
OH NO! We're going to get battered! The fixtures are out and we haven't signed anyone and we've got a rookie boss and it is looking like a relegation struggle already. Southgate Out!
The publication of the fixtures is one of those moments when base instincts kick in and the crowd is divided into the Boro crowd's traditional glass half-empty/half-full factions. There is no current form or injury list to shape a rational picture so it comes down to disposition. The optimists will be convinced this our year for the Champions League and like the look of those opening six games while the pessimists will be digging in for the relegation battle and picking out that key date in October when Boro will get their first win.
Reading have the winning habit, will be fired up for their first ever Premiership game and there will be an incredible atmosphere with locals and neutrals all willing them on. Chelsea will come looking for revenge after last year. Pompey are a beefed up bogey side. Then Arsenal and Bolton away. Then Blackburn at home. That will be a battle. Ah, Sheffield United. We should beat them. D'oh!
Now, I'll put my hand up and say I am a pessimist. A realistic pessimist. Don't get me wrong. I revel in the undesputed fact that Boro have been doing incredibly well in recent years, have won things and been in a European final and are in an unprecedented Golden Age with the structure in place to push on - an assessment of the club's current position that admittedly puts me on the ridiculously positive end of the pessimist spectrum.
But - here's the rub - I am have constant nagging doubts about whether we can make it permanent and am haunted by the fear that we are playing above our station, that sooner rather than later Boro will be dragged back down by the weight of history and by a kind of football gravity. What goes up must come down, that's science.
The fact is for a club like Boro, no matter how many exciting cup runs you go on, you are just one bad season away from going down. Look back to January. No one can seriously say the club weren't in real danger. If Petr Cech had saved that weak shot for the spawny first goal against Chelsea then we could be looking at whole different universe.
That is what scares me, that we were so close. That and the fear that the luck will run out. Since the dam burst we've enjoyed 128 years worth of fortune at Cardiff and along the road to Eindhoven. But what if it dries up? A colleague argued today that Steve McClaren was the jammiest man in football and that his good fortune in the face of all logic was the single most important thing in propelling Boro to Carling Cup and European glory. "But what if Southgate just isn't lucky at all?" he asked. And we shuddered at the prospect.
Of course none of this is scientific. Gareth ticks all the right boxes, Gibbo's judgement has generally been proved right and he thinks the Gate is a future England boss. But there are no guarantees. And to me those look like tough opening fixtures.
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Anthony Vickers
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We all fear that the bubble will burst.
I think of clubs in groupings. There are the big clubs - Arsenal, ManU, Lpool, Chelsea - we expect to see in the top four or five every season.
Then there are the sleeping 'giants'. Newcastle, Everton, Villa, Tottenham, Man City, Leeds. Teams who underachieve giving their history and drawing power. Occasionally one will break into the big boys and displace them in the big boys league or go the opposite way and spend time amongst the underclasses.
Then there are the 'lodgers'. Teams which rent space in the top division. Sunderland, Blackburn, Bolton, Charlton, Boro, West Ham and many more. Our problem is we know that a top half finish, european adventures, the odd cup are within our grasp but we also know that a poor season could see us evicted. We look at Derby, Leicester, Southampton and shudder because we have been in that situation.
Teams can move between groupings but each has its own ceiling. The days of a small club winning the premiership are gone, probably for ever. The limit is a champions league place, the danger of overachieving is that expectations and spending rise to suit leading to heartbreak later.
We have fears. Is Steve Gibson immortal? Will I wake up and find the FA have deducted 10 points for being Boro? Was my Carling Cup DVD a huge Beadle stunt and we didnt win it after all? Will Hansen get it right this time about never winning anything with kids? Even worse will Lawro get his tips right about Boro always losing?
But it wont happen. But then someone publishes the fixture list and you cant see where the points are going to come from. The comforting thought is that most clubs fans think the same way.
You are right, when the fixtures come out it is a blank sheet for anyone to draw whatever pictures suits their own preconceptions.
My mate looked down the list groaning and ticking off all the early defeats and calculated that Hasselbaink scoring the winner for Newcastle in October would mean Southgate resigning and Mogga arriving to take over for the relegation battle.
Like you he says he is a 'realist'
My take on the fixture list is that we have an easy run in December and January that will conincide with Boro's traditional Christmas and New Year slump
If we can break that tradition then we should be set up nicely for the remainder of the season. Have to agree that Gareth's first few games look tough though.
The teams we play this season are the same bar three from last season, it doesn't matter what order they come in.
'Realistically' if Everton can finish fourth and Tottenham fifth there is no reason at all why Boro can't do the same. Whats more, statistically we must be due a blinding season in the league!
Add to the previous science that we now have an ex player in charge this will give us the 'Coleman' factor that Fulham benefited from during his first season as a manger.
The above equation only has one solution, a fourth place finish next May!!
Understand and share the possible effects of the potent mixture of snuff and sennapods - the Boro fans drug of choice - that we all begin to suffer from at this time in the pre-season.
I'd could have taken less of the sennapods in the blend with an experienced European manager rather than Gate - even though I bow to no-one in my admiration for the guy and his longer term potential. But he's our man now and I'm right behind him.
But Gate could help himself and the rest of us by quickly getting 2 or 3 more of the right new faces in - Malbranque for example - and properly securing Huth.
He could further prove his mettle by pruning the dead wood.
We have a really good set of pre-season friendlies to tune us up. We'll know then what we're in for in the season proper.
We'll start with 3 points though. Reading are about to sell their only Prem quality player, Sidwell. No sign of Madjeski coughing up for any new talent of the right calibre and he's talking about jumping ship himself. Coppell will get a nosebleed in the Prem like he did before. The town isn't a football town anyway, properly, and they won't get support if they start losing. They are more a Norwich or Mackems than a Wigan or a West Ham.
There, did that help the confidence?
Of course Relegation is always a reality. It is as much a reality now as it was when McClaren took over. Look at West Ham, or better still take a look at Leeds. It could happen. Its a matter of playing good football week in week out.
Why did we do so badly in the League last year? We played AWFUL football. It was shocking. We couldnt pass, we couldnt defend, we couldnt control. Hence the string of awful results.
Last season was not just a case of tatics, or recruitment, or injuries, it came down to a lot of players giving less than 100%, being unhappy at the club, and seeming frustrated with the Coaching staff.
Its only when Gibson started to get involved and Southgate himself told everyone to pull the proverbial finger out, that Boro actually started to PLAY better.
McClaren seemed to have everything going for him, except what the Boro needed. For all of his modern idea's, Prozone this and Beswick that he never really did anything amazing while in charge. At least nothing more than Bryan Robson was able to do.
I think that Southgate is enthusiastic, excited and educated, and that the Boro will play that way with him in charge. I hope so. I think that he will be able to at least do as well as McClaren and Robson have done before him, both of whom had as much experience as he had coming into the job, as is as good a choice as any to take over at the Boro