Source: Northern_Echo
Chairman still convinced change was for the better
AS Middlesbrough approach what could be the defining four weeks of their season chairman Steve Gibson still insists he was correct to make a managerial change with only a third of the campaign gone.[LNB] Boro host Queens Park Rangers, Championship leaders Newcastle, Reading and Preston, while trips to Cardiff, Derby and Preston are all on the agenda before the end of March.[LNB] Middlesbrough arguably need to get a result in every game otherwise they can wave goodbye to whatever aspirations they have of playing in the top-flight next term.[LNB] But after two consecutive defeats restless supporters are again beginning to have doubts despite a recent good run, and are questioning the logic behind the club's recent restructuring programme.[LNB] Gibson dismissed former team boss Gareth Southgate with only three months of the season gone with the club sitting a point behind the league leaders.[LNB] Many supporters wanted a change in management last summer after relegation from the top flight was confirmed, and the appointment of Strachan has so far failed to remedy the club's inconsistency.[LNB] Some fans are wondering whether the change has actually been for the greater good but Gibson stood firm when the question was put to him and maintained he was right to make the change.[LNB] The Middlebrough entrepreneur admitted he had lost confidence in the former regime and believed the club were occupying a false league position.[LNB] You have to find a balance and be fair to the people you have worked with around you, said Gibson, whose Boro side are ninth, five points off the final play-off place.[LNB] I let my feelings known to everyone where I thought the problems were at the end of the season. I hoped we would learn from it and change things.[LNB] Once your faith has gone and your confidence has gone in a situation and in a bunch of people and then you have to act.[LNB] And on the timing of Southgate's sacking the chairman added: I felt they deserved another chance here because what happened here was not just down to the manager, it was the club.[LNB] There were a lot of different reasons why we were relegated.[LNB] But we had the inquest and our findings were in house. We give Gareth another chance but we lost confidence in that and we changed it.[LNB] Sometimes results don't reflect performances and sometimes you get more than you deserve and sometimes you get less than you deserve.[LNB] Last season I think we got less than we deserved and this season I think we were getting more than we deserved, but it evens out.[LNB] My fear was when it evened out we would fall like a stone. It is also about leadership and the ultimate authority at this football club is mine and I felt at the time was right to make a change.[LNB]
