Positive Gareth targets triumph

Aug 25 2007 The Journal

Their best defenders injured, their best strikers gone, Boro’s support could be forgiven for thinking this is not the best time to face Newcastle. Gareth Southgate does not agree.

MIDDLESBROUGH’s shirt sponsor might be a leading satellite navigation system manufacturer but doubts have been expressed in recent weeks about the direction in which the club is heading.

Having begun the season with successive defeats, Ayegbeni Yakubu’s impending sale to Everton has prompted fears the Football League could be Boro’s final destination. Gareth Southgate does not see it as such.

Yakubu might have followed Mark Viduka through the Riverside exits but, although the club’s four finest defenders remain on the treatment table, Southgate is adamant his side are still on course for a successful season.

An eternal optimist, the Boro boss last night preferred the positives as he contemplated a campaign that has started in a frenetic fashion. Mido’s move from Tottenham and his side’s fine fortune at Fulham ensured Southgate was in high spirits as he prepared for the North-East season’s first defining fixture. Should Middlesbrough beat Newcastle this weekend, all on Teesside will be well again.

“So we’ve lost our two centre-forwards and our defenders are injured,” said Southgate, who has yet to select Jonathan Woodgate, Emanuel Pogatetz, Luke Young or Robert Huth this season.

“We can either pack up, go home and sulk or we can roll up our sleeves and get on with it. We’ve got Newcastle coming at the weekend, a fantastic game. So come on, into the breach lads. Lets go out there and win it.” Southgate is nothing if not inspirational and, although it remains to be seen whether fighting talk alone will be sufficient to subject Sam Allardyce to his first defeat as Newcastle manager, the Boro boss will at least focus Middlesbrough minds.

“I’ve told the lads that this is a chance for them to go out and be heroes,” he explained. “We’ve got a nucleus of lads who are from the town and these lads know what it means to the fans because they’re fans themselves – they have been since childhood. The one thing we can guarantee this weekend is effort and commitment. Sometimes desire and passion carries you through.”

What carried Boro through when the fixture was last staged on Teesside 10 months ago was Yakubu’s 85th-minute winner. It will not be the case this weekend – with the Nigerian’s £11.25m transfer to Everton complete.

The messy manner of the striker’s departure has been unfortunate, although suggestions that the 24-year-old was involved in an altercation with team-mates prior to his record-breaking move have been rejected. Southgate might have lost his main match-winner, but he last night considered the matter in pragmatic terms.

“Yak’s head was turned by the possibility of moving on,” said a manager who has been credited with an interest in Villarreal’s Juan Roman Riquelme – an interest he has denied, although club officials are understood to have spent recent days in Spain. “He’s a young lad, he wants to experience different things and I can understand that.

“In the end, we had to decide whether – emotionally – he was too far down the line for us to keep him. I’ve got a lot of time for Yak, he’s a lovely lad, and I took him to one side and told him that no matter what happened, we wouldn’t fall out. He was a big player for us and his goals won us lots of games, but in the end his head was turned.”

Recent times have been turbulent – although there are some who feel that the striker’s presence in the dressing room was proving more disruptive than his departure will prove. Perhaps the worst thing about Yakubu’s sale is its timing.

“If you’re going to lose a player, you would prefer that it wasn’t two weeks into the season, a week before the transfer deadline,” admitted a manager who doubts a replacement of comparable quality can be found before August 31 – although not reassuring, his realism refreshing.

“But that’s just football, you don’t get ideal scenarios.” Little has been ideal for Southgate this summer, with Viduka deciding to exercise his right to quit the club as a free agent before Woodgate, Pogatetz, Young and Huth all suffered injuries during an abortive pre-season campaign.

“You could say that from the end of last season, going into this week, we’ve lost our two centre-halves (Woodgate and Pogatetz) and our two centre-forwards (Yakubu and Viduka),” said a manager who last night refused to rule Woodgate and Young out for tomorrow’s match, although it would be a major surprise were either to be involved.

With Viduka preparing to make his first return to Teesside since joining Newcastle, Boro will have to be at their defensive best. But although the Australian will be determined to prove a point to his countless Riverside critics, Viduka has been warned to expect a testing afternoon.

“Mark Viduka’s an outstanding player who was terrific for us, especially at the end of last season,” said Southgate, who will also renew acquaintances with Geremi, the Magpies captain and former Teesside team-mate this weekend. “Mark was excellent for me as a player and a character, I enjoyed working with him. But he knows he’ll get nothing but a hard time this weekend.”

Like Yakubu, Viduka made it clear to Southgate that he didn’t see his future on Boro and although Middlesbrough are undeniably weaker as a team for the pair’s respective exits, the positive-thinking 36-year-old has drawn strength from both situations.

“We know where we want to go and if people don’t want to be a part of that, it’s pointless trying to drag them along,” said a manager adamant sights have not been lowered or ambitions altered, despite recent developments.

“It doesn’t get me down. You can be as negative as you like about losing people but we’ve got a squad that will work hard together and, outside the top four, that’s what brings you success in this league.

“I would still like to make improvements but I’m not going to panic and bring someone in just because we’ve lost a player, that’s for sure. We’re a different team with different attributes and different strengths.”

The immediate challenge is to win the season’s first fight for North-East pride this weekend, and Southgate will use David Wheater as the example for those stepping into the breach to follow.

The 20-year-old would not have played a Premier League minute had Woodgate, Pogatetz and Huth not been injured, but having impressed in Boro colours, he this week won his first England Under-21 cap as a result. It is something Southgate hopes underlines what it is he is talking about. “It’s up to everyone to step up,” added the manager. “When we had Mark and Yak last season, there was a big danger that everyone else assumed they would win the games for us. But if you want to win matches, different people have to step forward and grasp the nettle. But we have enough talented players to do that. The hero will be a different person every weekend.”

Who the hero will be this weekend remains to be seen. Like all on Teesside, Southgate will just hope he is wearing a red shirt.

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Flash Facts

• Boro have only managed to win three of the 22 fixtures against Newcastle in the Premier League.

• Four of the last six matches between the two sides have ended in a draw.

• Boro have only failed to score in two of the eleven matches between the two sides at home.

• Middlesbrough have lost six of their last ten home matches in the Premier League.

• Newcastle have not managed to keep a clean sheet away from home in 14 games.

• All of Boro’s Premier League games this season have been decided by a one-goal margin.

• Newcastle have converted 23% of their shots this season, a record only Portsmouth can match in 2007-08. But the Magpies have hit fewer shots than any other side this season, just 13.

• Mark Viduka scored four goals in his final three Premier League games against Middlesbrough before joining the club.