The Future's Bright, The Future's Mowbray
By Steve Goldby
January 18 2005
There's a very bright young manager making a big name for himself in Scotland at the moment and it would be well worth us Boro fans keeping an eye on this guy's progress.
If the pundits are correct and if popular opinion turns out to be
right, then Steve McClaren will take up the England post when the
truly awful Erikksson returns home defeated at the end of the 2006
World Cup.
I have previously stated my total opposition to this alleged course
of events but lately, I have come to realise that we could probably
live with the situation. If we had to. One look at the Scottish
Premier League table tells you exactly why.
Hibs fans are currently enjoying what is without doubt some of
the best football produced at Easter Road for many years' is what
The Scotsman newspaper said recently and record sales of season
tickets this season at Easter Road appear to back that up.
The manager only joined the club in the Summer, succeeding Bobby
Williamson who defected to Plymouth. After the success that has
been brought to the club by the new man in the hot seat, I doubt
very much whether Williamson is being missed by anyone at the club,
despite his reasonable achievements.
Tony Mowbray was one of the group of outstanding young players who
Malcolm Allison had in his squad when he was Boro boss. Despite
instructions from the boardroom, Big Mal refused to sell any of
them and was subsequently sacked.
Mogga went on to earn the moniker of Mr Middlesbrough and played
a total of 345 league games for us between 1981 and 1991 and became
one of our most distinguished and revered club captains.
Mogga was the man who led us out at Hartlepool in 1986 as the club
was reborn and was also a mainstay during the successive promotions
of 1987 and 1988. Somehow, we always felt safer when Tony was present
in the back four.
Tony left the Boro for Celtic in 1991 for a milllion pounds, a reasonably
high figure for a defender in those days and has since become a
legendary figure in Glasgow, Ipswich and now Edinburgh.
He is the man credited with starting the famous 'Celtic huddle'
and deserves much praise for his role in Ipswich Town's promotion
to the Premier League not so long ago.
Bruce Rioch's famous quote will live on in Teesside folklore forever:
"If you were on a rocket ship flying to the moon, the man you
would want sitting next to you would be Tony Mowbray."
It is little wonder that he beat off some vastly experienced competition
for the Hibs job and it is a testamant to his great work there that
the directors are already publicly talking about an extension to
the two year contract that he signed a mere six months ago.
So will the story turn full circle for Tony Mowbray and is his career
path leading straight back home to Middlesbrough? Only time will
tell and as a club who have no tradition of making sentimental appointments
of managers with local pedigree, there is no guarantee that Tony
will be Steve McClaren's successor.
However, after the impact that Mogga has made in Edinburgh and the
fact that his heart always was and hopefully always will be rooted
firmly in the streets of Middlesbrough, what better bet could there
be than a famous return home for an old favourite who is proving
that he can mix it at the top level.
Apparently, Keith Lamb recently stated that the club are 'monitoring
the situation'...
There is a rumour doing the rounds at the moment that Boro are trying
to sign Hibernian captain Ian Miller. We'll probably never know
if any promises or 'incentives' are to be built into any deal that
may transpire but perhaps these transfer negotiations will have
some bearing on what may or may not happen in the future where Tony
Mowbray is concerned.
I wonder how Tony would handle himself in front of the FA's disciplinary
committee? After the old farts' recent summoning of Steve McClaren
for his pitch incursion at White Hart Lane, Boro must now appear
again, this time to answer charges relating to Sunday's goalmouth
fight with Everton.
We're up in front of the committee in early February and whatever
is said behind those closed doors, we will probably get a fine that
will be in the region of around £20,000, which is equivalent
to the admission fee paid by around 650 supporters at Sunday's game.
If my estimation is correct, then it will also be around half of
the figure that the Spanish authorities were fined for the racist
abuse inflicted on the England team by their animal supporters.
In other words, it will be an injustice, whatever happens.
Middlesbrough Football Club take around £800,000 to £1,000,000
pounds from ticket sales every home game and then there is merchandise
and refreshments on top of that.
So if the FA think that a fine of roughly 2% of a match gate, or
half of Mark Viduka's weekly wage if you prefer, is going to go
any way towards stopping any team defending one of their comrades
when required to do so, then they are proving themselves to be the
deluded and out of touch incompetent fools that I always believed
them to be.
What happens to the money when a club is fined by these stupid amounts?
Are any figures ever released? Are there any accounts available
to show what good use they put these proceeds to? Probably not.
And are the FA within their moral bounds to censure a club financially
for breaking rules that these self appointed 'guardian angels of
football law and order' have inflicted upon the game?
I'm not saying that fighting during a match should be allowed, although
I wouldn't protest too loudly if the rules were altered to include
the odd barney here and there.
What I'm saying is that the FA like to portray themselves as a moralistic
organisation who frown upon any wrongdoing that takes place within
the game.
Yet it is morally wrong to be fining clubs or players because they
were involved in a situation that the FA would struggle to understand
the dynamics of.
The game would easily be able to continue and thrive without the
FA but the FA would die overnight if the clubs suddenly refused
to accept their authority. Boro and Everton have got a great opportunity
here to make a stand and undermime the FA by not accepting any punishment
given to them.
If all the clubs were to support the two mutineers, the FA would
be finished and a governing organisation made up of real football
people could take it's place. Maybe if this unlikely scenario were
to happen, there would be a future for English football at a national
level?
But at least the future of Boro is secure. We have Tony Mowbray
waiting in the wings...
Until next week.
Steve