Source: SKY_Sports
Southgate - Strachan lined up
Former Middlesbrough manager Gareth Southgate has revealed Gordon Strachan was lined up as his successor well before his departure.
Southgate was sacked by Boro chairman Steve Gibson last Tuesday, despite guiding his team to a 2-0 victory over Derby hours before, and was told that Strachan had been interviewed for his job two weeks before.
The Teessiders were one point off the top of the Championship table when Southgate was dismissed, and when he went into the training ground to say his farewells on Wednesday, he was informed that a successor had already been lined up.
"(Chief executive) Keith (Lamb) was quite open in telling me he had interviewed Gordon Strachan in London for my job more than two weeks earlier, on the night before we beat Reading (3rd October)," he said.
"Apparently, I was going to get the sack then but we'd played so well that Steve decided he couldn't do it.
"I found it bizarre that Keith should tell me all that. I didn't know whether I should applaud him for being so honest or get angry for taking the mickey."
