STEWY DOWNING COMING HOME!

When the news broke about Stewy coming back to the club, I thought na, can’t see it being possible he’s had a fine season at West Ham last season playing under Sam Alladyce in the no10 role. On big premier league wages, if we had got promoted I thought Stewy would sign no problem. So I ruled it out and have tried to dismiss it every time I have seen news on it.

2-3 weeks later and he is on the verge of returning to the club after leaving the club 6 years ago. What can I say? I am excited to see the best player out of the Boro academy in my opinion return and play for the club again. I can only praise Steve Gibson yet again for pulling this deal off and making it possible. What a signing the signing of the summer! After the disappointment of the playoff final back in May, I think the timing of this is spot and has created a great buzz on Teesside ahead of the new campaign. 

I have always been a big Stewy Downing fan since watching him break through into the first team at Boro. The UEFA Cup game v Steaua Bucharest been his best game for us, having followed his progress since leaving us in 2009. I never really understood the criticism he receives, he gets a lot of unnecessary stick. Stewy has a lot of quality, he’s going be a massive player for us. Creating chances, scoring goals and plenty of experience to help our younger players, it can only help players like Adam Reach’s game. 

It’s a win win situation. Stewy wanted to come back home, he always said the day that he left the club he had unfinished business, it be a fitting return to take the club back to the premier league. We are getting a hell of a player for a good price in today’s market, he could have easily walked in to most premier league clubs. Get promoted and we will still see a good few years of him at the top level. It really is massive capture from Steve Gibson. It is a real state of intent, ambition to get out of the Championship and back to the Premier League.

I can’t wait to see the first images of Stewy back in a Boro shirt! Exciting times ahead! Nothing beats seeing a local player pull on the shirt of the team you support. Stewy Coming Home! Maybe he can be the DJ at the promotion party! UTB! 

Sad Day For Middlesbrough Football Club

Last night the news broke about Tony Mowbray leaving the club after 3 years in charge. When Mogga was appointed he was the fans choice and it was a dream partnership with our chairman Steve Gibson both fans with club at heart in charge of our club. Sadly it has not ended that way and has left me personally gutted at the news.

After the previous manager we had who tried to rip everything Middlesbrough out of it. It was great to have appointed Tony Mowbray as our manager, he lived and breathed the club he was one of us. Telling us how he use to go the Holgate with his dad and could smell the Bovril, talking about the steel works, he understood what Teesside meant to people and the football club is a big part of people lives in this area. It’s sad that Mogga will not be the one to take us back to the Premier League. He wanted that more than anyone, no one can question his commitment to the cause.

He is one of the nicest guys in football. He always tried to play the game the right way, always spoke to the media after games he never hid and should be respected for that. A lot of other managers would have refused. When Tony took over from Gordon Strachan he was left with a big mess to sort as the team looked like heading for League One. Plus a big wage bill to reduce and no transfer funds as the previous manager had used it up. Mogga gave us a team to be proud of again as we finished 12^th in the league.

The next two seasons would see Boro have a good first half and a poor 2^nd half sliding down the table. We finished 7^th and 16^th after promising starts. It was always important after last season’s dreadful end of season to start this campaign well. Looking back at the games we had 3 shockers away at Ipswich, QPR and Barnsley. We should have had more points on the board in games at home v Sheff Wed, Bournemouth, Huddersfield and away at Wigan and Nottingham Forest.

I have been very critical of Dean Whitehead so far as I don’t think he offers much in games. He is not very mobile apart from putting two good balls through that resulted in goals I don’t think he has done much for a player with so much experience. One of his best games was at Wigan where he must been near to 100% pass rate til late on when he conceded a sloppy freekick which resulted in us getting a point instead of three. He is not the only one through there have been plenty of individual mistakes and basic errors have proved costly this season.

One thing for sure is Mogga has left the club in a much better shape than when he took over reducing the wage bill massively. Plenty of work has been done behind the scenes getting a scouting system in place. He has left a decent squad of players that should be able to compete for a place in the top 6. Watching us this season we didn’t look far away from cracking it and  getting the balance right but sadly we leaked too many goals. Results were not taking us anywhere.

It’s a sad way for a Boro legend to depart from the club. It’s painful. The same can be said for Liverpool with Kenny Dalglish that didn’t work and he’s now rejoined the club as part of the board room. Maybe one day Tony Mowbray can return to the club in some capacity. For now I like to thank him for his efforts and give him the respect he deserves. There’s Only One Tony Mowbray!

(FMTTM Column Doncaster 25-10-13)