Boro and Magpies for the drop

Setanta commentator Jon Champion runs his eye over the clubs fighting for salvation and sticks his neck on the line to predict bad news for Middlesbrough and Newcastle…

MIDDLESBROUGH

Boro have struggled in attack. They have obviously sold key players, they are a club that has always tried to live within the budget set by Steve Gibson who is, as people widely acknowledge, one of the best chairmen in The Premier League, and I think it is a sign of our times that when Steve Gibson joined the board in his early 20s, in the mid 1980s, his money was a very significant factor behind the rebirth of Middlesbrough and his fortune, such as it was, had a significant impact on the club. His fortune hasn’t diminished that much but so many other people with real money are now involved, he can’t have as much of an influence any more.

I think Southgate and the chairman work very closely together and I think that Steve Gibson has made it known that the budget was a fairly strict one in which he had to operate, to the extent that you look at the balance of the squad and there isn’t a proven goalscorer fit and available, maybe you ask questions of the manager, but I think that in the medium to long term Gareth Southgate could prove to be a very good manager. I think he is the right pick at the wrong time for Middlesbrough but he will continue to enjoy the patronage of Steve Gibson and, just like Bryan Robson 12 years ago, the last time that Boro went down, he will have the chance to right a few wrongs and try and bring them back up.

They are a very stable club. It is not like they could go and say to a proven, world-class manager, right come and manage us, firstly because they couldn’t afford him and secondly because the job wouldn’t seem very attractive because they would be in The Championship, so they might as well stick with continuity and the benefit of having one of the best academies in the country under Dave Parnaby.