Ignore the speculation, in-demand Boro boss Steve McClaren was going nowhere.
After guiding Boro to Carling Cup success at Cardiff, McClaren was the flavour of the month with the national press.
In the week following the history-making 90 minutes at the Millennium Stadium, McClaren had been linked with everything from the England job to the role of Sven’s No.2 at Chelsea - and the national boss hadn’t even been appointed at Stamford Bridge.
The fact McClaren was the first English manager to lift a domestic trophy since 1996 saw his stock rise.
For the man himself, the compliments were pleasant, but he insisted his mind remained on the job at hand at Boro on this day in 2004.
“It’s nice to be liked, it’s nice to be successful, but if you do win something you will be speculated about,” McClaren told the Gazette.
“At the start of the season people were wondering whether I was capable of managing here after taking one point from five games. All I can do is concentrate on the job at Boro.”
He added: “Me and Sam (Allardyce) were the flavour of the week before Cardiff and whoever won the cup final was going to be the flavour of this week.
“You’ve got to take it all with a pinch of salt. The media will speculate and it just happens that I’m the focus of this speculation.”
McClaren was the first to admit the cup win had come earlier in his reign than he had expected. But equally, he wasn’t going to take all the plaudits for the silverware, pointing to the fact he was “very fortunate” to work below Steve Gibson and Keith Lamb.
“It has happened very quickly and if you had asked ‘Would the first trophy come in the first two and a half years?’ You would have said no. It takes quite a while to build a club,” said the boss.
“We’ve now got our house in order.
“We’ve changed things around and created something that won us the Carling Cup.
“We want to move on from this and become more consistent and move up the table. Once you get success, you want more. Who knows what we can achieve?”
No comments:
Post a Comment