Former Boro favourite Mark Burke has agreed to write a regular column for miniboro.com giving his views on the wider stories surrounding football. This feature will appear as and when Mark has the time to contribute but we hope it will become a mainstay of the site going forward.

To kick us off this month Burkey reflects on the recent departure of former Boro and Forest boss Steve McClaren.

BORROWED TIME – WRITTEN BY MARK BURKE

I was quite sad that Steve McClaren had left Nottingham Forest, not because I know him or have had contact with him but because again it just shows the beast that is football, how it chews people up and spits them out.

I thought I’d better be quick if I want to write about it because if I leave it a few days then no-one will read it because it will be old news, then I thought well that’s the point isn’t it? How quick football moves on, forgets, on to the next ‘hot’ topic.

A day on the back page, a line on the news, a few forums full of comment and then “what, Man City want to sign Messi? See you, whoosh, the football factory has switched its attention and focus elsewhere.

Steve McClaren was under pressure from day one at Forest but we know this because he was ‘tagged’ by the media, you know what I mean, a tag attached that will follow him wherever he goes, forever, it happened to Graham Taylor, Kevin Keegan and others, experienced, knowledgeable, real football people, tagged and burdened, so that wherever they went after that they faced an extra hurdle to convince the doubters that they still had the magic because their image was so tarnished.

Having watched many managers come and go over the years at different clubs in different countries I think being a manager is like walking into a pit of snakes, thousands of pairs of eyes, glaring, staring eyes all looking in the managers direction but averting their gaze when confronted, a whispering, plotting, scheming mass. Exaggerated deference and sycophancy out of fear for their own positions, when he’s gone, discussing every decision, every detail but just making sure he doesn’t hear.

Every manager knows this, as soon as he takes a job there are thousands who think he doesn’t deserve it, cant do it and believe they could do it better. Could they? No, of course they couldn’t, what is it about football that makes people who are not remotely qualified believe they could do a job better than a man who has lived it at the highest levels for 15-20 years?

Steve McClaren leaving Nottingham Forest is in someway indicative of this crazy new modern football, Internet, twitter, radio, television, NOW, NOW, NOW, everybody wants it now culture.

When the latest ’saviour’ arrives he had better do it quick or the momentum will build. Firstly the local radio show, a few callers question the manager, they question his tactical naivety (I love that one, excuse me sir, can you REALLY explain that? You said that the manager is tactically naive, explain it “err I don’t know he just shows tactical naivety, you know what I mean, he’s lost the plot, lost the dressing room, taken us as far as he can, all the standard stock phrases used to ‘hang’ the manager.

The media talking about the media that talks about the media.

You have the media showing a game, the media commentating on the game, the media commenting on the commentators who are commenting on the game, the fans on the forums commenting on the other fans in the forum who are commenting on the game. etc etc!

On and on it goes, round and round and back again.

I find it incredible, all of this, this a mad, mad carousel that goes around and around and has a real effect on the people in the game by some form of osmosis, it seeps into the consciousness, even reaching the chairman who begin to sense it, react to it, worry about it and sometimes act on it.

I think that on one hand its great that the fans can interact but I think sometimes it goes too far I even know one chairman who employs a person specifically to monitor fan websites from their club.

I find this all relevant to Steve McClaren’s sacking because it shows the power of the media. Even before Steve McClaren took the job he was interviewed for other jobs but apparently turned down to fan pressure, these fans didn’t want him at their club due to his spell as England manager and the tag he picked up and will maybe never shake off.

A nice headline, a rhyming headline, dreamed up by a young writer spending the last 20 minutes of the game thinking of a headline to go with the defeat, what can we use? what can we say? I know, I’ve got it!

I find it incredibly disrespectful to be honest and what is probably an office competition to come up with the best line hangs around a professional persons neck for the next 20 years. Buts that’s the game and everybody knows it, so accept it or stay out of it.

Pages: 1 2