Source: Northern_Echo
MALCOLM ALLISON 1927 - 2010
MIDDLESBROUGH will hold a period of applause ahead of this afternoon's home game with Leeds United in celebration of former manager Malcolm Allison, who died yesterday aged 83.[LNB] Allison was Boro manager from September 1982 to March 1984, one of the most difficult periods in the club's history.[LNB] The colourful and flamboyant boss, who will forever be associated with his vintage cigars and fedora hats, led the Teessiders following their relegation from Division One.[LNB] With finances in a delicate state and attendances dwindling, Allison was forced to sell a number of the club's senior players before he was eventually dismissed towards the end of his second season at Ayresome Park.[LNB] His greatest successes came alongside Joe Mercer at Manchester City, where he helped the club win the First Division, Second Division, FA Cup, League Cup and European Cup Winners' Cup.[LNB] Boro chief executive Keith Lamb said: Malcolm Allison was a remarkably knowledge football man, who was way ahead of his time in terms of football coaching and thinking.[LNB] Long before the age of superstar footballers, he was one of the game's most charismatic figures.[LNB] Allison, who also spent time in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a manager at nonleague team Willington and a co-commentator at Century Radio, had suffered from dementia for a number of years.[LNB] Flags at the Riverside will fly at half-mast today, and Middlesbrough's players will also wear black armbands as a mark of respect.[LNB]
