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Former Middlesbrough boss Chris Wilder was sacked by Head of Football Kieran Scott with the 55-year-old not seeing owner Steve Gibson in person, according to an update from The Sun.
The Teesside outfit decided to relieve the former Sheffield United boss of his duties earlier this week following a poor start to the season, with the club winning just two of their opening 11 league games and sitting in the relegation zone at the time of his dismissal.
They may have climbed out of the drop zone since then – but are still much further down the table than many people expected considering the players they recruited during the summer transfer window.
However, there was tension behind the scenes at the Riverside when Wilder initially failed to dismiss reports linking him to the Burnley job earlier this year and that reportedly damaged multiple relationships at the club.
According to the Daily Mail, there were even differences this summer with Gibson and Wilder holding contrasting opinions on the club’s recruitment strategy.
The two didn’t come face to face at the time of his dismissal, even though that’s what the latter would have wished for. Instead, he was sacked by Scott, though Wilder isn’t expected to come out and publicly criticise the club at this point.
The Verdict:
Ideally, Gibson should have been there in person considering it was him that was making the decision – but you can’t make too much of a judgement considering we don’t know exactly what happened behind the scenes.
In the end, the right decision was probably taken to dismiss him even with his glittering CV, because something wasn’t quite right at the Riverside and this tension probably didn’t help matters.
And if this tension is as bad as it sounds, then it wouldn’t have been sustainable for the long term despite the initial success he enjoyed on Teesside, with another famous night at Old Trafford providing him with a positive memory of his former club.
Boro and Wilder seemed the dream pairing considering both parties’ ambitions and the resources the former had to match – but in the end – it looks as though they were going in different directions.
That’s a recipe for disaster in their quest for promotion – and with a return to the top flight still possible at this early stage of the campaign – they were probably right to sack him now.
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A 22-year-old Reading FC fan and writer who graduated from the University for the Creative Arts this summer, with a degree in Journalism and Media Production. Other topics written about include politics, mental health and education.
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