Former Celtic manager Gordon Strachan said he didn’t need to be the boss of Middlesbrough, he wanted to be, after being named as the new manager of the English Championship side.
Strachan replaced Gareth Southgate, sacked last week following Boro’s relegation from the English Premier League last season.
“I don’t need to be here, I don’t have to be here. I’m here because I want to be here,” Strachan told a news conference at Middlesbrough’s Riverside ground.
The 52-year-old Scot, a former player at Aberdeen, Manchester United and Leeds United, has been linked with various jobs since he resigned as Celtic manager after the end of last season.
Asked why he’d chosen Middlesbrough, Strachan said: “When I left Celtic I told everyone close to me that it would be very difficult for me to retrace my steps in terms of the excitement there. I felt I had to do something different. I have a chance of something different here.”
His arrival at the club on a four-year contract saw Strachan return to English soccer having started his managerial career at Coventry before moving on to Southampton, which he led to the FA Cup final in 2003.
Strachan became Celtic’s manager in 2005 and led the Glasgow giants to three consecutive Scottish Premier League titles before being pipped by arch-rivals Rangers last term after which he stepped down.
Southgate’s dismissal came as a shock to those outside Middlesbrough, coming as it did just hours after last Tuesday’s 2-0 win over Derby County left them just a point behind leaders West Brom.
However, he could not prevent the club sliding out of the Premier League last season, and Middlesbrough chairman Steve Gibson revealed it was his fear the side would not bounce back at the first attempt which led him to sack Southgate, previously the club’s captain and a former England defender.
Clearly there is an expectation that Boro will go straight back up but talk of “pressure” was relative for Strachan.
“If you have been Celtic manager for four years you can be prime minister of Great Britain,” he said.
Two people died on Thursday after fans and police clashed outside the Estadio Monumental in Santiago ahead of a game in South America’s Copa Libertadores, Chilean authorities said. The fatalities happened shortly before the match between Chile’s Colo-Colo and Brazilian club Fortaleza, when police blocked about 100 fans when they attempted to enter the stadium. There were conflicting accounts of how the fatalities occurred, with local media reporting that one of the dead was a 13-year-old boy. The other victim was an 18-year-old woman, according to a relative at the hospital where she was treated. The fans died after being caught underneath a
College basketballer Kaitlyn Chen has become the first female player of Taiwanese descent to be drafted by a WNBA team, after the Golden State Valkyries selected her in the third and final round of the league’s draft on Monday. Chen, a point guard who played her first three seasons in college for Princeton University, transferred to the University of Connecticut (UConn) for her final season, which culminated in a national championship earlier this month. While at Princeton, Chen was named the Ivy League tournament’s most outstanding player three times from 2022 to last year. Prior to the draft, ESPN described Chen as
College basketballer Kaitlyn Chen (陳凱玲) has become the first player of Taiwanese descent to be drafted by a WNBA team, after being selected by the Golden State Valkyries in the third and final round of the league's draft yesterday. Chen, a point guard who played her first three seasons in college for Princeton University, transferred to the University of Connecticut (UConn) for her final season, which culminated in a national championship on April 6. While at Princeton, Chen was named the Ivy League tournament's most outstanding player three times from 2022 to last year. Prior to the draft, ESPN described Chen as a
Japan yesterday secured a second consecutive Billie Jean King Cup finals appearance with a 2-1 win over 2023 champions Canada, thanks to Ena Shibahara and Shuko Aoyama’s 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 win over Kayla Cross and Rebecca Marino in the qualifying doubles decider. Shibahara and Aoyama powered through the opening set 6-3, breaking twice for a quick 3-0 lead. Cross and Marino hit back in the second, edging it 7-5 to level the match, before the Japanese pair regained control in the third. Canada’s 18-year-old Victoria Mboko edged Shibahara 6-4, 6-7 (8/10), 7-5 in a marathon opening clash. Mboko fired eight aces to
RSS