Consider other clubs who were in similar situations to Middelsbrough throughout the season - Blackburn, Sunderland, Portsmouth to name just three, and they all changed their manager when things got tough - lo and behold they all stayed up. Yes, of course it isn't a given that Boro would have stayed up had a new manager come in, but if it was Palace in that position, I would have wanted a change - it did seem the players weren't playing for him, and the fans weren't, and aren't, behind him very much at all.
Ok, so he didn't have that much to spend, but two crucial mistakes were made. Firstly, why oh why didn't he replaced Schwarzer with an experienced keeper? Jones and Turnbull are ok, but not good enough for the premiership, so it was always going to be huge risk not replacing such a fantastic keeper, and with an already very inexperienced squad, it's something that a more wise manager probably wouldn't have done. Secondly, the signing of Alfonso Alves has proved to be a complete disaster. For me, signing foreign players is a big risk, especially when it completely blows your transfer budget. People can say that Wenger spends similar amounts on foreign players and nearly gets it right, but he's the best manager in the world, something that Southgate, unfortunatley, isn't right now.
However, with such a young squad, perhaps it was his first two seasons where Southgate overachieved, rather than an underachieving season this time around. Is it true to say that after such a long extended run in the premiership, a lot of their fans had forgotten that they are effectively a championship club with championship size fanbase?
They are probably best placed (along with West Brom), to mount a promotion challange this season out of the relegated teams, and although they will lose a couple of players (Tuncay and Downing being the most important) they will still keep hold of a lot, and will have the squad that should have the ability to go up if they make a couple of sensible signings
In a way I applaud Gibson for sticking with his man in the current "sack culture", but is he being too loyal? Several other chairman would've sacked Southgate, and possibly got someone in to keep Middlesbrough up. Despite sticking with their man, they have payed the ultimate price - and although they do have a good structure in place with their academy etc, they don't have the fanbase or facilities, or even finances of other teams and it will be by no means a walk in the park for them to go back up next season for them. They have everything in place to do so, but there are so many promotion contenders next year, that it'll take a very settled team and fantastic tactics from a couple of sides to win automatic promotion.
Southgate was a legend as a player for Palace, but can he cut it as a manger? I'm not convinced, but the first 3-4 months of next season are absolutely crucial for him, and for Middelsbrough football club.
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