The attack philosophy according to Gareth

As England fans will soon come to appreciate, not only is Stevie Second-Choice-Mac not a particularly good football manager, he is also one of the most negative managers in football.

As the FA announced that Mac was to take up the position as England manager, the collective sigh of relief emanated all the way from Middlesbrough, over the North Sea, across the Low Countries, hovered around the Rühr Gebiet in northwestern German to take a breath, before taking a last leap towards the Bavarian Alps to me in Munich.

Season tickets had been given up, thrown away and forgotten about on Teesside ever since Steve arrived. Gareth Southgate’s transformation into new Boro manager didn’t exactly set the famous Teesside skyline alight either, but at least he didn’t tell us that he “didn’t know the meaning of excitement”. Instead, he told us that the long dark nights would soon be over. And of course, he was wrong. Shortly before Christmas, not only were we playing rubbish football, but were locked in a relegation battle – or would have been if things didn’t soon change.

What did Gareth do? He sacked/released loyal Mac-man Steve Round, appointed Boro boy Colin Cooper, who wears footie shorts in the midst of a Boro winter to show how hard he is, and told everyone who wanted to listen that from now on it would be attack and excitement. Now he had said this before, when appointed (but who wouldn’t after Mac?)

But just as importantly, he gave the players their five-penneth-worth and, it seems, asked them if they were happy with the football they were playing. They replied something along the lines of: “Don’t be daft! It’s rubbish! And while you're at it Garath, it was you who verbally laid into boring Steve last year.”

Southgate has most noticeably succeeded in freeing winger Stewart Downing from his seemingly eternal promise to Mac to never to cross the half way line. And Downing even promised to take on his full back and deliver great crosses – he’s been as good as his word. Just as importantly, he's got Viduka and Yakubu scaring the pants off Premiership defenders.

There’s a long way to go but things are on the up at the Boro. Long may it continue. But it’s going to be a long hard time for England fans before Mac gets sacked after Euro 2008.