It was a massive surprise to see Higgy leave Boro this week. What surprised me most was the quickness of the decision.
I’ve obviously read everything that’s since come out in the paper but it was only the week before that Aitor and Higgy were praising each other.
But between them they’ve decided a parting of the ways is best for the club - and that’s a big call.
It looks like it’s the manager who has made the final decisiion and if things start going wrong on the pitch as a result it lands on his shoulders.
Boro are sitting fifth in the league and going along nicely, but if things now start to go pear-shaped then it will be the manager under pressure.
But I’m sure Aitor is well aware of that. The relationship between the manager and an assistant is so important - it’s probably the most important relationship in football.
I think it’s even more important than that between the manager and chairman.
The manager and his assistant need to be totally comfortable with each other, share the same football philosophy and understand how each other works.
The communication between the two is vital and they rely on each other at any given time.
But also the assistant is someone who the players can come up to and talk to and ask for his advice before going to the manager.
Aitor obviously thinks he has made the right decision for Boro, and time will tell.
It’s clear to see that Aitor is a very focused manager who is in his first managerial job. He’s meticulous in his planning and he’s had the courage to make that big call.
A backroom staff has to be together as one. They are all singing from the same hymn sheet but all the people can have different personalities.
I was very different to Mark Venus and I think I was probably the balance between Mark and Tony (Mowbray).
I’m not sure exactly what the personalities are in terms of Aitor’s backroom staff, but it’s always good to have a difference in personality to balance the group.
For Higgy himself I think it must have been difficult for him returning to Boro.
When he was appointed as Aitor’s assistant the manager had already been in the job for four months and brought in his own staff.
In that sense the wheels were already in motion and the philosophy set out. I’m not saying Higgy was an after-thought, but he came into an environment where things were already moving.
I suppose that difficulty was probably heightened by he and Aitor coming from different cultures and things can easily get lost in translation.
But looking at his time at Boro and certainly the way the team performed on the pitch, it appeared that Higgy and Aitor worked well together and they jumped over the initialy hurdles.
The reason Higgy was brought to Boro by Aitor was because he was familiar with Boro and the league.
He had all that inside knowledge of English football, and he’s been in that domain for 20 years.
The interesting thing now will be who will replace Higgy as assistant. I know Aitor said he wants someone who knows the league and what Boro is all about, but he’s been here for a year now so has learned a lot himself.
He is more clued up than he was when he first arrived, so it will be interesting to see who he chooses.
Middlesbrough Football Club is a massive part of the community. If the club is doing well then the town is doing well.
I think Aitor knows that and he understands the Boro crowd. He is incredibly receptive to the fans, and they are responding to that.
He has done a great job at Boro and it’s going to be interesting what happens next.
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It’s been a difficult week for Aitor Karanka and I’m sure he’ll be delighted to have the attention turned back onto the pitch today.
But it’s no easy game for Boro as they head to the New Den to face Millwall.
It’s a really volatile place to go, the crowd can be vociferous and they can be intimidating to the opposition players.
I played Millwall on a number of occasions and I was always up against some real hard men in midfield.
They always had tough reputations - the likes of Terry Hurlock - and you had to stand up to that physicality and overcome that intimidation.
But that’s nothing new to Boro, and they’ve played at Millwall before and come away with the three points.
Boro go into the game on the back of three straight draws and I’m sure everyone at the club will be keen to get back to winning ways.
Getting that one win then means you can put a run of victories together, and especially at this time of year, that could be massive in the Championship.
If you’re still in that top six after the New Year then you have a good chance of launching a promotion push in the second half of the season.
And a positive result for Boro at Millwall today could be the start of that.
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ON Monday Boro will find out their opponents in the FA Cup third round.
It’s always a day full of anticipation and the smaller teams will be hoping for the plum draw against one of the big boys, which will be very lucrative.
It’s always great to see lower league players pitting themselves against Premier League regulars for one week only.
I remember when I was at Boro in 2011 and we were beaten 2-1 at Burton Albion in the third round of the FA Cup.
They were in League Two at the time and I remember we absolutely annihilated them - it could have been double figures, yet we still lost the match.
You get those freak results all the time. The underdogs always raise their game and play above themselves, and if the bigger team has an off day or isn’t focused then you can become unstuck.
It’s difficult to say what Boro fans hope for in Monday’s draw.
On the one hand you want an exciting tie, maybe a tie against the likes of Newcastle and Sunderland, or one of the Premier League giants.
But equally if you do get one of those teams then it’s a much more difficult tie and you could find yourself being knocked out early doors.
Some people would want to see Boro go as far as they can in the competition, so a nice home draw against lower opposition would be good in their eyes.
We’ll all be watching with great excitement - let’s hope for a good draw.
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