Middlesbrough's new Michael Carrick agreement opens door on Steve Gibson relationship

Michael Carrick has already broken into the top ten of Middlesbrough’s longest serving managers in the last 40 years - despite his relatively brief tenure. In fact Carrick is currently ninth in the list of the time served by the last 20 managers to sit in the club’s hot seat.

Currently, with his immediate future on Teesside already assured, Carrick is poised to leap over eighth placed Willie Maddren’s Boro stay during the next couple of weeks. Carrick, who has just signed a new three-year contract, has so far served around one year and eight months as Boro boss.

If he was to see out the next three years he would become the third longest serving manager among the last 20 appointed by the club. The fact that the terms of so many managers have been relatively short lived at the Boro rather sinks the theory that Steve Gibson is a little more patient than most chairmen.

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During his time in complete control of the club, Gibson has waved goodbye to 13 managers and appointed another 13 in their place. The last five Boro bosses before Carrick all survived less than 18 months. Of these Tony Pulis enjoyed the longest spell with one year and 143 days at the helm.

The fact that Carrick has been offered a long deal - and signed it - is a clear indication that there is a strong affinity between chairman and manager. It’s easy to see why. Carrick has turned things around at the club and has done things the right way with his dealings on and off the pitch.

He made an immediate impact during his first six months, transforming the team and going close to winning promotion through the play-offs. With the possibility of achieving continuity very unlikely following his first season, Carrick has gone on to build new foundations virtually from scratch.

He’s also done it without breaking the bank. This has enabled Boro to be very competitive in a league in which those moneybags clubs with parachute payments hold a significant advantage. The plan now is to take the club further forward next season. Gibson clearly believes that Carrick is the man to do the job.

If Boro can keep their best players and add to the squad this summer, then Carrick could yet lead a promotion charge. However he will need to generate several successful seasons and stay at the Boro for quite some time to come anywhere close to matching the longest serving boss from the last 20.

That was, of course, Bryan Robson, whose links to Carrick are that he was also North-east born and came here from Manchester United. Robson lasted seven seasons in the job, though his title of manager maybe should have been downgraded to coach in the final six months.

Gibson brought in Terry Venables for the final six months of the 2000-01 campaign to successfully avoid the threat of relegation. Venables was officially titled head coach, but still had authority over Robson to make the crucial decisions. However it was Robson who inaugurated what has become known as the Golden Era at the club.

He won promotion in his first season in charge, taking Boro into the Premier League at the same time that they switched to the newly completed Riverside Stadium. Robson suffered the ignominy of having to deal with the spectre of relegation as a result of the three-points controversy, but brought Boro back up again at the first attempt.

He took Boro to one of the major domestic cup finals for the first time in 1996 when reaching the League Cup Final, and went on to return to Wembley in the FA Cup Final and a second League Cup. Robson also brought some of the game’s greats to the club, including Juninho, Emerson, Fabrizio Ravanelli, Paul Merson and Alen Boksic.

When Robson was eventually asked to give way to allow Venables to take over the helm, the pair worked together and there was a good feel about the club again. The fans might have hoped that Venables and Robson would be given the chance to carry on for another year or so.

Gibson decided on change and went back to Manchester United for their assistant head coach Steve McClaren, who took over in the summer of 2001. McClaren not only continued the good work but famously built on it, winning the club’s first domestic trophy when Boro won the Carling Cup on that glorious day at the Millennium Stadium.

Not only that, but he rook the Boro into Europe for two consecutive seasons, in addition to reaching the final of the UEFA Cup. We saw a further influx of some of the game’s greats, including Gareth Southgate, Mark Viduka, Gaizka Mendieta and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink,

McClaren continued in the role for five seasons before leaving to take over the England hot seat. He sits in second place in the long service list of Boro’s last 20 managers.

Third on the list is Bruce Rioch, who controlled the team for just over four years, taking the club from the ashes of liquidation to the top flight. Rioch is the last of the managers that Carrick will overtake if he sees out the full extent of his new contract.

We fans loved Rioch to bits for what he achieved and the passion he exuded about the club. There were many who could not come to terms with his sacking in March 1990, even though Boro were in dire danger of ending up back in the Third Division. In recent years Aitor Karanka is the longest serving manager, stamping his impression on the team from the start and going on to serve for three years and five months.

As with that of many other managers, Karanka’s reign ended up in tears. It did not work out for him in the Premier League and he departed at a time when Boro were in grave danger of relegation. This time they did not survive. Gibson’s determination to try to go straight back up is fully reflected in the list of Boro managers who have since come and gone in quick succession.

Garry Monk was entrusted with the task of launching an immediate promotion assault but lasted just six and a half months, while Pulis, Jonathan Woodgate, Neil Warnock and Chris Wilder followed in relatively quick succession. The fact that Carrick has already not only outlasted this quintet, but signed a new deal to boot, speaks volumes for the esteem in which he is held.

If Carrick can not only take Boro up, then keep them up, then we fans will be hoping that another Golden Era is about to begin – allied to a bit of managerial longevity. For the record the club’s longest serving manager of all time was Preston-born Wilf Gillow, who occupied the hot seat for fully ten years between 1934 and 1944.

Gillow replaced Peter McWilliam, who had won two promotions to Division One but eventually resigned in March 1934 with Boro not having won a game since early January. Gillow, who had taken Grimsby Town to the First Division for the first time in 26 years earlier in his career, managed to avoid relegation in the few weeks that still remained of the season after arriving at Ayresome Park.

Then he built gradually over every season and took Boro into fourth place at the end of the 1938-39 season. When the next season started, Boro were one of the favourites to win the title. Unfortunately the Second World War intervened and Gillow spent the last few years of his tenure operating on a part-time basis. Hopefully no wars will intervene in preventing Carrick from fulfilling the task in hand!