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A year since Mogga left


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It a year today that Mogga left and I thought it would be a good time to consider his legacy as Boro Manager. I read somewhere last week that he will perhaps be thought of as our "Stan Anderson" in that he created the groundwork for big Jack but to me he is more our Willie Maddren - A legend of a player , loved the club and brought in some great signings (Slaven , Pears , Laws et al) but managed us at one of most difficult times in our history and ultimately left.

 

Mogga came in at a difficult time and had to clear our Krankie's mess with very little money to spend and a town desperate to get back to former glories. Ultimately it all went sour and whilst I was gutted at the time I think we can all see that it was for the best and that AK is the real deal

 

As for Mogg'as legacy though .. Well half the current team were bought by him (Dimi, George, Grant , Muzzy , Ledesma , Albert). Not all his signings were a roaring success but that lot combined would turn a very healthy profit if sold. In my opinion he was a good manager (maybe not great but good) who wanted to play football the right way and I think he deserves a job somehwere to prove it (Now his rolling contract will be up , perhaps Birmingham?)

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Mowbray did really well under the circumstances and I think we were Lucky to get him after Strachans mess. He pulled us out of the relegation zone, made us a top half team, moved big earners on and reduced the wage bill. Sadly he just couldn't finish the job for various reasons. He certainly had his flaws but all in all I'm quite happy with his tenure when looking back. It can't have been easy for him.

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Oh come on, one thing Mogga can not be compared to is Stan Anderson. Only captain of the big three, should have taken the team up to the first division if he'd had a decent chairman behind him.

Jack Charlton came in and added one player, Bobby Murdoch, a free signing too.

As Napoleon once said, "Give me lucky generals".

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I agree Mowbray did a lot of the dirty work and gave us the foundation for Karanka to build on. It seems his down fall was his reluctance to really develop a plan b and in his later career began to show some unprofessionalism if VBs snippets were to be believed. I will always respect Mogga as he halted a sinking ship. Unfortunately not being able to get Mcdonald out of the squad hampered his transfer activity but he also had a reluctance to blood youth and bring some distinctly average players in.

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I agree Mowbray did a lot of the dirty work and gave us the foundation for Karanka to build on. It seems his down fall was his reluctance to really develop a plan b and in his later career began to show some unprofessionalism if VBs snippets were to be believed. I will always respect Mogga as he halted a sinking ship. Unfortunately not being able to get Mcdonald out of the squad hampered his transfer activity but he also had a reluctance to blood youth and bring some distinctly average players in.

 

Smogster I agree with much of this but to be fair the only youngsters as such coming through now are Reach (who he gave his debut) and Gibson who he loaned out to get experience. Both would I am sure have featured regularly now under Mogga. Not sure any of the other youth were really up to the task , Luke Williams was the great hope but just doesn't seemed to have stepped up to the plate despite a fair few chances.

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Thats true I just feel some of the signings he made didnt improve the team and perhaps hampered opportunities for younger players to get a chance the likes of Pilatos even Smallwood could have perhaps got more game time rather than some of his square peg round hole formations/team selections.

Having said that it may have been due to my buying into the "spirit of 86" local lads local team mentality. I just feel some of the players were not significantly better than what the academy could have offered.

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He plucked players like Zemmama and Haroun out of nowhere for very little money and not only kept us up but also had us involved the playoff mix for most of his full seasons.

 

I thought his first season (when he took over) was nothing short of a miracle, with what was going on at the time...one of my lowest points as a Boro fan was a game at Pride park under Strachan and I thought it couldn't get any worse, thankfully he was gone shortly after.

 

He also made us some money on players like Bennett for example, that we wouldn't have made otherwise.

 

The negatives

 

- I don't think he was very media savvy and kept reverting back to his own feelings about the club, which was fine a couple of times, not every week and not using 'it is what it is'.

 

- I think that because of the local links to the club for most of the staff, we were more leaky than Sunderland's back 4 - information was coming out of the club that really shouldn't have

 

(that is not a swipe at any ITK posters on here because as a Boro fan i'd want to know and share too).

 

So I think professionalism was at bit a low, which links into my final point about man management;

 

- I think he had some problematic characters such as Bailey, McDonald, Lita (presumably) and then players like Emnes - all need managing differently and I don't mean problematic as in disruptive, more needy etc. Mogga didn't cope well with that aspect at all.

 

Overall being there at Barnsley last year, there was no way back for Mowbray and I think he literally had taken us as far as he could.

 

I think that day at Barnsley is significant for so many reasons, mainly for Gibson. Gibson realised that we could be here for eternity doing the same thing every 3 years unless something else drastically - ENTER KARANKA and our current position, it was very sad but the writing was on the wall from about August last year really.

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He plucked players like Zemmama and Haroun out of nowhere for very little money and not only kept us up but also had us involved the playoff mix for most of his full seasons.

 

I thought his first season (when he took over) was nothing short of a miracle, with what was going on at the time...one of my lowest points as a Boro fan was a game at Pride park under Strachan and I thought it couldn't get any worse, thankfully he was gone shortly after.

 

He also made us some money on players like Bennett for example, that we wouldn't have made otherwise.

 

The negatives

 

- I don't think he was very media savvy and kept reverting back to his own feelings about the club, which was fine a couple of times, not every week and not using 'it is what it is'.

 

- I think that because of the local links to the club for most of the staff, we were more leaky than Sunderland's back 4 - information was coming out of the club that really shouldn't have

 

(that is not a swipe at any ITK posters on here because as a Boro fan i'd want to know and share too).

 

So I think professionalism was at bit a low, which links into my final point about man management;

 

- I think he had some problematic characters such as Bailey, McDonald, Lita (presumably) and then players like Emnes - all need managing differently and I don't mean problematic as in disruptive, more needy etc. Mogga didn't cope well with that aspect at all.

 

Overall being there at Barnsley last year, there was no way back for Mowbray and I think he literally had taken us as far as he could.

 

I think that day at Barnsley is significant for so many reasons, mainly for Gibson. Gibson realised that we could be here for eternity doing the same thing every 3 years unless something else drastically - ENTER KARANKA and our current position, it was very sad but the writing was on the wall from about August last year really.

 

Haroun and Zemmama? Haroun done ok but not Zemmama and how much did we sell them for and how are they doing now? he didn't make us money on players like Bennett, clubs like Villa offered stupid prices. if someone came in with a daft for anyone its not the manager who has made that money is it?

 

he done well to save us in that fiirst season b and up to tht echristmas period in the second. but once teams had worked us out we had no plan b and looked even worse than ordinary. Mowbray will always be remembered, and rightly so, for his playing days at boro but as a manager we should left this thread like the others in the archive section.

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Somerset; you could argue that it was Mogga who made the Club Money by developing Bennet. Strachan was ready to release him for peanuts before Mogga took over at played Bennet and made him look like a very decent Young full back with plenty of potential. You gotta give Mogga credit for that, and if it wasn't for Mogga we never would have had bids for Bennet. Also Friend for 100k and Muzzy for 200k. Those are monster deals in hindsight, (OK muzzy may not be a monster deal, but is certainly a good deal). Add to that Adomah, Dimi and Leadbitter and you have the backbone of our current starting 11!

 

Mogga did exceptionally well in the transfer market all Things considered.

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Yeah to tbf Zemmama possibly wasn't the best example out of the bunch with players like Friend cost Mowbray £100k.

 

And yeah exactly that, If it wasn't for Mowbray developing Bennett, a club (as stupid as they were) would even think about buying him.

 

If we decided to sell at their peaks, we would have made about £12m on Emnes and Rhys.

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so there is the other side of the coin as well though BD and BD :) 12 Million for two players who now are gone for a fraction of that and a long term injury? you can say he bought low bargains but he bought some absolute tripe as well. and he also didn't know when to cash in, imagine how much better we would be off with that 12 million. plus if you look at the start of that dismal run it was when rhys came back in the side? so yes he had some good moments but a lot of bad ones too.

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I think Mowbray is certainly a decent manager. He can spot talent (obviously not a 100% record, but then who does?) and get teams playing attractive football.

 

From some of the things Vector and others were saying, it seems his downfall at Boro was his man-management. His relationships with certain members of the squad broke down for whatever reasons and once injuries started to bite, he was unable (or unwilling) to play the teams and formations he would have preferred. As a consequence our results began to suffer.

 

Loss of form, led to loss of morale and the subsequent downward spiral where we could not win a game to save our lives.

 

Think he'd be an ideal candidate for Birmingham - provided he doesn't mind taking on another tough assignment.

 

 

 

Also, has anyone noticed Scotland aren't doing too badly of late? Shows even Strachan isn't completely useless. ;)

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the thing is with the run he had here and they way things fell apart is another championship side likely to take him on? maybe in a 6 month tenure but not long term. he is a lot like terry Venables, an impact manager but it soon fizzles out

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Just hope that this thread does not reopen some bad feelings previously stated when this subject was discussed and debated to death.

 

Agree with Boro 86 reminding us as to the anniversary of both the beginning and the end of 2 very different individuals in charge of Boro.

 

There is a lot of sense in the phrase "life moves on"

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