Goodbye Gordon.

“It’s been bloody awful”. Not my words, Steve Gibson’s words, as he summed up the last two or three years at Boro and particularly, the failure of Gordon Strachan. And failure it was. Complete failure. Underachievement on a grand scale. “We got it wrong” added Gibson. Yes Steve, yes you did. But you shouldn’t burn for that. The Middlesbrough Chairman’s heart was, is, and will always be located in the right place. Strachan SEEMED ideal. It all SEEMED like a good idea. It just didn’t work out and sometimes that’s the way it goes. The outgoing manager still had the support of the majority in the dressing room and some of his players, especially the ones he signed, will miss him. But many at the club will not miss Gordon Strachan. Nor will the media and crucially, nor will the fans. His parting gesture will come to be seen as the best thing about his reign. Waiving his right to compensation was a magnificent, magnanimous gesture from a strange and interesting man. It saved the club millions and it proves Strachan has great integrity. He held up his hands, admitted he couldn’t work out why it had gone wrong and decided he didn’t want to be rewarded for failure. That’s great. Well done. But it doesn’t solve any problems.

Cards on the table at this point. I witnessed first hand Strachan’s awkward, condescending and sometimes downright rude dealings with the media. I received some surly and unhelpful responses to questions that I considered reasonable. But I never really got both barrels. So I’ve got no axe to grind in that respect. I just felt he didn’t trust, or believe in, the whole process of press conferences. As a seasoned football man he’s entitled to his opinion. But it was naïve to think that it didn’t matter. Rightly or wrongly, fans nowadays form their opinions about a football manager based on what they see, hear and read in the media. That opinion, that relationship is important. But Strachan didn’t care. Or maybe he just didn’t get it.

It’s not the only relationship he got wrong. Steve Gibson praised Strachan for all the hard work he did behind the scenes during his year at the club. Fine. But with the benefit of hindsight he didn’t put much effort into original thought. His time at Celtic was constantly referenced. His playing staff was gradually transformed into a Park Head tribute band. He seemed to think that if it worked at Celtic, then of course it would work at Middlesbrough. The pressure of working for the Old Firm was a familiar theme, as if he was saying that Boro was a walk in the park after navigating the mean streets of Glasgow’s football culture. But Middlesbrough’s not Glasgow. Boro aren’t Celtic. The fans share a similar passion, but they support their teams and experience their football in a different way. What works in one place won’t necessarily work in another.

It didn’t work. I thought it would. But it didn’t. Strachan never connected with the fans. He never filled the Riverside with a sense of enthusiasm and he never assembled a team capable of winning on a regular basis. Now he’s just another footnote in Middlesbrough’s chapter of decline. From the high tide mark of Eindhoven and the UEFA Cup final, the fall has been painful and rapid. The appointment of Gareth Southgate was a leap of faith that, in the end, didn’t work out. The appointment of Strachan was supposed to rip out the problem pages and write a new manifesto. But it’s only made things worse. Your next appointment Mr Gibson, now that really is important.