In 2006 when McClaren left, who would have been perfect to take over?

I think its a moot point really, given that the brief involved significant cost-cutting and I suspect that this context put off a few candidates and made Southgates appointment more likely.

I still think GS should have been given more time.
 
Hitzfeld was the German.
Maybe but I'm not convinced.

At the time of Gibson's "Middlesbrough-on-Rhine" comment I was mates with a German who was a Bayern fan & said the rumour was the German manager was Hitzfeld and he totally discounted it, said he was on a career break and had turned down the German national team in the summer of 2006 and would only come back for Bayern. Which he did when Magath was sacked in 2007.

Klinsmann was available having left Germany in the summer of 2006.

I think its a moot point really, given that the brief involved significant cost-cutting and I suspect that this context put off a few candidates and made Southgates appointment more likely.
Not again with the cost cutting.

Maybe in the relegation year but the year before we offered Viduka "the most lucrative contract the club had ever offered" & were outbid by Newcastle.
 
Maybe but I'm not convinced.

At the time of Gibson's "Middlesbrough-on-Rhine" comment I was mates with a German who was a Bayern fan & said the rumour was the German manager was Hitzfeld and he totally discounted it, said he was on a career break and had turned down the German national team in the summer of 2006 and would only come back for Bayern. Which he did when Magath was sacked in 2007.

Klinsmann was available having been sacked by Germany in the summer of 2006.


Not again with the cost cutting.

Maybe in the relegation year but the year before we offered Viduka "the most lucrative contract the club had ever offered" & were outbid by Newcastle.
The cost cutting coincided with relegation, GS did ok in his first few years - the two things were closely connected.
 
I think its a moot point really, given that the brief involved significant cost-cutting and I suspect that this context put off a few candidates and made Southgates appointment more likely.

The cost cutting coincided with relegation, GS did ok in his first few years - the two things were closely connected.

So Gibson's pitch to managers was carry on spending for 2 years but in Y3 we'll need to cost cut & that put off decent managers?
 
So Gibson's pitch to managers was carry on spending for 2 years but in Y3 we'll need to cost cut & that put off decent managers?
The first two seasons under GS saw a neutral net spend on players and accounting for salaries the club was likely in tbe black.

To contrast that, McLarens last season saw us around £8m in the red.

His third year saw a much harder task.

Regardless of that I still think the decision to sack Southgate was one that took us a while to recover from
 
The cost cutting coincided with relegation, GS did ok in his first few years - the two things were closely connected.
I seem to recall that the cost cutting coincided with the financial crash (2008)? As the debts the banks had happily let Gibson service at favourable rates for the previous 10 years had to be refinanced
 
I always thought the German was Hitzfield.
It may not have been him but it certainly won’t have been Magath, as stated before he’s meant to be a lunatic but even a lunatic wouldn’t have left a back to back double winning Bayern team for Boro.
 
“Big Nose”?

Congratulations on the most fecking stupid name calling of the day. Time to grow up, son.
You may recall Southgate had some trouble gaining respect from some of the senior players when he stepped upi to the mangers position. As for stupid name calling. Have a read of this:

 
I always thought the German that we were close to appointing was Ottmar Hitzfeld, but that could have just been spurious local rumour at the time.

To back up Erimus, I'm sure Gibson is on record as offering it to Venables, who turned it down but came out with the infamous line "the answer might be right under your nose". Which ultimately led to the Southgate appointment.

Exactly that. Gibson has said that previously.
 
Wow Magath would have been bad, he’s proper loony tunes. Always though it was Hitzfeld!

It’s a really good question and hard to answer. But, looking at our profile and squad then, coming off the back of domestic cups wins, two years of European football, manager leaving for the England job and of course the UEFA final, you’d have to say we would be one of the, what, top 20-30 most desirable jobs in European football?

What would be today’s equivalent, someone like Sevilla or Dortmund or Leicester maybe? Or a small step below?

Gibson could have had his pick of world managers. I think that’s why it was so disappointing, the way it ended with the easiest appointment of an internal rookie manager and slow cost-cutting. That moment was our chance to be properly ambitious but the dream sort of died in slow motion really.
 
Magath was the one mentioned by SG in the supporters meeting
I believe you, in that that is what he said at the meeting, but I don't believe SG.
In his public statements there are times he uses "alternative facts" to support his previous decisions.

Wow Magath would have been bad, he’s proper loony tunes. Always though it was Hitzfeld!

It’s a really good question and hard to answer. But, looking at our profile and squad then, coming off the back of domestic cups wins, two years of European football, manager leaving for the England job and of course the UEFA final, you’d have to say we would be one of the, what, top 20-30 most desirable jobs in European football?

What would be today’s equivalent, someone like Sevilla or Dortmund or Leicester maybe? Or a small step below?

Gibson could have had his pick of world managers. I think that’s why it was so disappointing, the way it ended with the easiest appointment of an internal rookie manager and slow cost-cutting. That moment was our chance to be properly ambitious but the dream sort of died in slow motion really.
I thought that at the time but with the benefit of hindsight, we were a small club with no history of success, the team had been incredibly lucky to reach a final at which we were completely found out, our performances in the league were poor & attendances reducing, the squad was small & ageing, we had a punchers chance in a one off game but lacked the quality & depth to sustain a league campaign. It was the high water mark for the club and would've taken a lot more money to make it a regular occurence rather than a once in a lifetime run.
 
Very fair comment, especially about the ageing squad and attendances going down despite us living the dream.

It was definitely the high water mark for ambition and finances and I think Gibson knew it, not sure we all realised at the time though. I didn't.

Remember that interview Gibson gave when he talked about how we lost money overall on the UEFA Cup final run. Must have been so disappointing for him, seeing 10,000 empty seats at a European quarter final. Guess the inevitable consequence of that is Zenden and Viduka and Schwarzer out, Shawky and Aliadiere and Brad Jones in.
 
Back
Top