NEW brooms sweep clean. Will Gareth Southgate take the opportunity presented by a new Riverside regime to have a dressing room clearout? Hasselbaink and Doriva are already gone, and rightly so. But will there be blood on the floor in a Riverside Night of the Long Knives? Will the Gate seize the moment?
A new manager has a mandate to reshape the team in his image. It gives him a perfect chance to not only mould the shape, style and philosophy of his side but also to stamp his authority on it. There will never again be such a politically perfect moment when the board are duty bound to back his judgement and the fans are eager to give him the benefit of the doubt.
If there is to be a wholesale change in personnel now is the time to do it. Should Southgate consider a purge?
Steve McClaren shifted an incredible 24 players in his first season. Curtis Fleming, Steve Vickers, Keith O'Neill, Brian Deane, Andy Campbell, Hamilton Ricard, Mark Summerbell.... regular first teamers as well as makeweights. Admittedly deadwood wise he was working in a dense swath of deciduous greenery but his achievement in moving on players who were too old, injury prone, not suited to the new culture or simply not producing the goods was impressive. Even his harshest critics conceded it was an area where he proved a considerable success.
And it was crucial he did. Few observers thought Bryan Robson's ageing, unbalanced squad would survive another brush with relegation. The club finances were just as unbalanced with the legacy of the crazy spending spree being a wage bill spiralling out of control and reserve players pocketing £20k a week. Balancing the books was as important as bringing in fresh blood to revitalise a stagnant club and Mac succeeded in that.
Does Southgate face a similar problem? Well, he may not have a Robsonesque forest of deadwood to deal with but there certainly are problem areas, the chief of which is the number of big money players on contracts that expire next summer, most of who are unlikley to be regular first teamers.
Ugo Ehiogu has one year left on wages that were big enough to scare West Brom out of a January move that all parties wanted to go through. Ray Parlour has a year left on equally big money. Club record signing Massimo Maccarone is in his final year. And the clock is also ticking on enigmatic Aussie hitman Mark Viduka.
Southgate, until recently a team-mate and friend, now finds himself having to think objectively and ruthlessly as a boss and has some very big decisions to make. If these players are to stay they will take up a big chunk of his wage bill and the first three can not realistically be seen as first team fixtures. In a harsh economic climate they are a luxury. "Teesside will get the team it can afford" said Keith Lamb - and it can't afford them.
Not only do they soak up wages they block the route to the team to the talented youngsters coming through. Assuming Southgate has in mind a central midfield pairing of Boateng and Rochemback most fans would surely see Super Lee Cattermole as the next in line rather than Parlour. And if the bid for Malbranque goes ahead it leaves Parlour down the pecking order on the right too, probably behind Morrison and even Parnaby.
And With Southgate after Huth and AN Other central defender, with Pogotetz able to cover and with Wheater and Bates both pressing for a place it leaves Ugo looking all but redundant, especially as the boss is registered as a player for emergency cover too.
And much maligned Massimo? His stock has never been higher. His UEFA Cup goals will make a superb video to hawk around the soon to be reinforced lower levels of Serie A. He has been on loan to Parma and Sienna and although neither would match his wages he did well enough and has added to his reputation with those last gasp Euro-strikes. Realistically he must be sold NOW if the club are to recoup any of the extravagant £8.1m fee they paid. If not, next summer he will leave on a free after a frustrating and very expensive four years.
Viduka presents a different problem. When fit and focussed he is a deadly striker and should his contract run out next year there will be no shortage of takers for him. But if he does not sign a new deal soon Boro must be ready to sell now to finance a replacement.
There are areas in the team that need to be improved but, unless Steve Gibson is willing to bankroll hefty transfers and a bloated wage bill, some big earners with no future must leave first. Engineering their departures will be Southgate's first real big test. He must act swiftly while he is in a position of unquestioned power.
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