They’re both good potential candidates, Carrick has a wealth of experience here already and is more likely to have respect in the dressing room because of his ability as a player, hence why he might be better suited for the move. Plus Carrick’s turn around last year was impressive in its own right. It’s a bit of a stalemate.
Michael Carrick - Middlesbrough Manager
- Thread starter Stobzilla
- Start date
What? That's nonsense.
If things go badly, he'll easily get a job in the Championship again. Moyes failed at United and is currently very happy at West Ham.
I don't think he would. They haven't respected any manager no matter their reputation.
McKenna is just a better manager thus far. With a game in hand, he's on 14 pts above Carrick and with +15 gd (Carrick is at -1 right now). That's while just having been promoted. McKenna was a talented youth coach that United snapped up.
He would probably still be our best midfielder 
I'm honestly at the point where i say feck it, just give him the job, i don't care about rational or anything, it doesn't seem to matter anyways for this club. He is a legend to me, and i would love to see him in the position.
I'm honestly at the point where i say feck it, just give him the job, i don't care about rational or anything, it doesn't seem to matter anyways for this club. He is a legend to me, and i would love to see him in the position.
Carrick can probably still ping a ball better than any of them, that’ll earn respect in the dressing room.
Middlesbrough were in the relegation zone after 11 games last season then Carrick took them to 3rd, lost their star player in the summer without a worthy replacement, and is now guiding Middlesbrough back to good form after a shaky start. It’s not as objective as you make it sound. We also looked a great side tactically in the very short period of time Carrick was interim. He’s no Zidane but I trust him to be good enough short term whilst we sort a new DOF and CEO. To add I think McKenna would be too, but Carrick’s appointment would have a much better chance boosting spirits within the club and fan base imo.
3-3 thriller in the pouring rain of Plymouth.
Boro had the better chances, but was wasteful and defensively a bit suspect. Plymouth scored a wonder goal and a freak freekick as well tbf. Fantastic game for the neutrals though.
Boro had the better chances, but was wasteful and defensively a bit suspect. Plymouth scored a wonder goal and a freak freekick as well tbf. Fantastic game for the neutrals though.
Last edited:
Came back from two down. Definitely some characters there.
Nah, you're confusing him with McKenna who came back from 2 down against Rooney. Boro scored first.
2-1 down not two.
A good game though between two teams looking to play football.
A good game though between two teams looking to play football.
Aha. I cross check both scores at the same time. Yeah, you are right.
1-0 home win over league leaders Leicester, who have actually won every away game this season till today.
They did win it with a wonder freekick but it wasn't a lucky win. Defended well (bar a few sloppy playing out of the back moments) and actually had better chances to score in the first half.
They did win it with a wonder freekick but it wasn't a lucky win. Defended well (bar a few sloppy playing out of the back moments) and actually had better chances to score in the first half.
Last edited:
Some turn around from the early season form.
Is doing wonders with that team.
Is doing wonders with that team.
Another example of not rushing into sacking managers. Started the season very poorly, now on good form and beat the league leaders. At least with ETH we are winning by not playing good. Once we start actually playing good we’ll be flying.
There's been next to nothing since the final whistle of the League Cup final to suggest we're going to start actually playing good though.
Hard to believe we're going to start playing well when we haven't had 1 single good performance in 8 months.
You had to bring ETH into it..
Every mention of his name brings the whiney gowls out, so they can spew the same shite.
Wouldn't read too much into Carricks at Boro yet this season. The Championship is a mental league at this time of year. A run of a few bad games and you could be looking at relegation bother (look at Rooney). Or a few good wins and all of a sudden you're chasing a play off spot. Only 10 points separate 6th and 20th.
But we’re getting results no? Think at the minute the board will take results over style of play. I know us as fans want to see amazing football being played. Arteta at Arsenal was losing games and finishing 8th place. Now they play decent and challenging kind of.
Won’t know will we until we can field a fully strength team. How can ETH work on patterns of play when we have to change the line ups every game? The 1st season we played some beautiful football quite a lot.
That Rooney decision was awful. They was 5th in the league until they hired him
He’s an awful manager and some of our lot wanted him to manage us.Exactly my thought
I get you can only play the opposition in front of you but barely scraping results against Sheffield United, Burnley and Luton when they're probably favourites to go down this year adds context to those results we've been getting. When beating Brentford is a happy bonus and we got an expected pathetic loss against our nearest and dearest it kinda shows where we're at don't you think?
Rooney's not an awful manager (at least, based on his Derby work for instance) but that was never going to work.That Rooney decision was awful. They was 5th in the league until they hired him
The backroom staff, the fans and especially the players all seemed to be happy with the previous guy and it seems he was overachieving relative to quality of squad/budget so naturally him getting sacked won't go down well, even Pep would struggle in such a circumstance.
Seemed odd, even the reasoning behind it was odd. He's going to be the one paying for it though, unless he can turn it around.That Rooney decision was awful. They was 5th in the league until they hired him
Luton almost beat Liverpool. Who are one of the title challengers this year. I get what you’re saying and I know we can do much better, every single person knows that even the manager himself. But when you think about everything we’ve been through on and off the pitch, none of the other top teams in the league as had to go through the crap we have and the injuries we have. To think we’re only 7pts of the amazing Man City and only 5 pts of top 4 then all in all that isn’t bad… we’ve been getting slated by a lot of the media and pundits all season where as when spurs lose or Newcastle lose you never hear anything, they’ve only got a couple of injuries, we’ve got nearly halve a team out. Top 4 is well and truly on, once we get injuries back I’m sure we’ll see an improvement in the performances.
He’s probably the worse English manager though. Carrick who’s been managing less than him is doing a better job and even McKenna. The Birmingham owners are gonna look stupid, sacking a guy that was 5th.
Feel like Rooney is probably fine as a short-term, try-and-save-us hire, and not much else.That Rooney decision was awful. They was 5th in the league until they hired him
In fairness to Rooney I think it was insane to take a job like that right at the start of the season with no pre season replacing a manager who was doing well and attempting to completely overhaul the playing style. How was that ever going to go well? I'd say he'll be a decent manager some day.
He's not an intelligent lad though is our Wayne, and I can't imagine he was fielding many offers.
I can see him stepping into an assistant role somewhere. I'm not sure he's got many more shite win percentages left in him before he's looking at offers in the non-league.
Wow what a load of...
In fairness to Rooney I think it was insane to take a job like that right at the start of the season with no pre season replacing a manager who was doing well and attempting to completely overhaul the playing style. How was that ever going to go well? I'd say he'll be a decent manager some day, he's just taken two mental jobs that make it hard to actually judge him as a manager at Derby and Birmingham
We’re 6th and about to be eliminated by Galatasaray and Copenhagen?
I remember Jose getting castigated, and the defence was that he was getting results, and we were 2nd and pissed the Champions League group with 5 wins out of 5. Now I question why I was so harsh on him.
What about that exactly is a load of...?
Don't really know where you get that evidence wise though.
I know he looks and sounds like a stereotypical thick scouser but from all accounts he's very good at man management and has a good eye for the game. Intelligent footballer doesn't translate into intelligent manager of course but he was a very intelligent footballer and not many have said he's anything otherwise that have worked with him in management.
He just seems pretty shit at picking jobs, and at some point his stock will fall so low that he'd probably be better off staying at a higher level, but not as the head coach.
It's speculation on my part, obviously.
6th but only 5pts behind 4th. The way the media are going on about it, it’s like we’re near the relegation zone. Most inform team in the league apparently with 4 out of 5 wins. The CL games we’ve had have all been really unlucky. Should have and could have beat Bayern. Should have beat Galatasaray if it wasn’t for a sending of and same with Copenhagen. It feels like we’re winning games we’re playing rubbish in but losing games we’re playing good in.
its just a bunch of excuses similar to what any manager could say, made up on the spot. He took over a good team doing well, and has done very poorly with it so far.
I was going to argue that the “4 out of 5” thing needs some context, but then I saw the Bayern bit and now I doubt you’re being serious.
Doing a brilliant job with a weak boro squad, made even weaker in the summer
Did we not make like 3 mistakes leading to their goals? We could have been 1 up in the first minute if we scored that first attack we had.
No one actually wanted him to manage us.That Rooney decision was awful. They was 5th in the league until they hired him
Yeah, if only we were faultless…
We were outperformed on xG in 3 of our 4 CL games. Our only win came after a last minute penalty save where it’s very debatable that we deserved the win.
In the league, our xPTS have us sit at 11th, which is about right considering our on-pitch performances are of a bottom half team.
We are, objectively, lucky to be where we are which is very sad considering it’s nowhere near good enough.