HAVING spent five years at Middlesbrough as a player, Gareth Southgate was handed his first managerial job when he replaced Steve McClaren at the Riverside Stadium in 2006.

He almost wasn’t allowed to take the job on as he had not completed his UEFA Pro Licence, but the Premier League offered him a grace period and he spent the next three years as Boro boss.

There were high points along the way, most notably when he guided Boro to 12th place in the Premier League and presided over an 8-1 thrashing of a Sven Goran Eriksson-led Manchester City, but there was also the crushing disappointment of relegation in the 2008-09 season.

In October 2009, in the wake of a 2-0 win over Derby County, Southgate was dismissed despite Boro sitting in fourth position in the Championship table.

The England boss regards his first managerial role as a crucial part in his development as a coach. Echo Sport examines his time on Teesside through the words of those who were there.

GARETH SOUTHGATE:

“It came out of the blue. I was on holiday with my family, trying to shake off the end of the previous season before I started to think about the next one, when I got a phone call from the Middlesbrough chairman.

“Would I consider taking on the role of manager? Maybe I shouldn’t have been that surprised. I’d already made a start on my coaching qualifications. And when Steve McClaren had moved on to take the England job, I’d spoken to the chairman about the possibility of learning from whoever was coming in to the club as manager next.

“Maybe I could be part of their team, or even just sit in on some of their meetings. It was something I was keen to do alongside playing.

“I still had another year left on my playing contract at Middlesbrough. And given I’d played around 30 games the previous season, there was no real reason to think I wouldn’t see that through. Except, of course, for this one.

“It turned out that the chairman hadn’t been able to get who he really wanted to replace Steve. So he called me.

“I knew it was a brilliant opportunity, and one that might not come my way again. But it was a stressful one. All of a sudden, I was on a fast track of learning. Every meeting I was in and every experience was brand new to me. Nothing I’d done up to that point in my life had really prepared me for any of it.

“I couldn’t hide from that. I think everybody knew I wasn’t completely ready, but I was fortunate to have some good, experienced coaches around me that really helped enormously – people like Steve Harrison and Malcolm Crosby. Without their support initially, it would have been really difficult.

“One of the hardest things as a new coach is that you don’t have any evidence of what works. You have an idea in your mind of how you think things should be run, but you don’t actually have evidence of the results until you’ve lived through it.

“You’re constantly being challenged by everybody. Your every decision is questioned. Alongside all of that, you have questions in your own mind. Should we be training like this? Should we be training as intensely? Should we be signing this player?

“Until you can build up those experiences, it’s very difficult as a manager to be convincing to everybody else. That’s why it’s a much better pathway to work with young players first, so that you get an understanding of how people learn, how you need to coach, how you want to play and what that looks like on the training pitch.

“That’s all before you start adding things in like recruiting players, operating in the transfer market, how to deal with the media and with running a club. Sometimes I ask myself, was it a good decision to take it on? There’s certainly better pathways than the one I took, that’s for sure.

“But in my first two seasons we finished 12th and 13th in the Premier League. If you look at Middlesbrough’s history, they’ve only had a couple of seasons where they’ve finished higher than that – one with Steve and one with Bryan Robson.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that it was the biggest achievement of my life to keep the team in the Premier League for two years. All while everything was so new to me and, as a consequence, very stressful. It was a miracle, really.

“When we got relegated, it was heart-breaking. To live with the fact that the club weren’t in the Premier League any more – and to end my time there on such a low – was tough. I left feeling that, in the end, that was how a lot of people would remember my time at Middlesbrough.”

(Southgate was speaking as part of an interview on The Coaches’ Voice website. The full interview can be viewed at www.coachesvoice.com/fast-track/)

KEITH LAMB:

“Gareth is very intelligent, articulate, some would even say posh. He may look as if butter would not melt but he’s tough. You don’t have the playing career he had, without being tough. In many respects, Gareth’s a wolf dressed in sheep’s clothing.

“His greatest strength is that he’s a natural leader. Players look up to him and he commands respect wherever he goes without even trying. He was very much the manager-in-waiting at Boro before we actually appointed him.

“A bit of context is required when you look back on his time in charge. Economic conditions had changed and he did not have the resources of his predecessors. As a club we were coming out of a golden era.

“It wasn’t easy for him to make the step up just as it wasn’t easy for us to tell him we were making changes. I think his anger at that decision was a feeling within him that he felt unfulfilled in management.

“Gareth did not want to be seen as a failure for the first time in his life and I believe he still thinks he has something to prove. I’m sure what he felt back then still drives him on in life.”

RAY PARLOUR:

“We were all in a big room, sitting in this room and Gareth had just got the Middlesbrough job. I know Gareth well — I’d got on so well with him and I still do. I’ve got a lot of respect for Gareth. Great player, great guy.

“We were all sitting in this room one day and we were having a bit of mischief, having a laugh and I’d got Steve Harrison next to me and he was such a laugh - he was a coach, very good coach - Lee Cattermole the other side.

“Gareth carried on saying, 'From now on, and I know it’s going to be awkward for you because you call me Gareth and you call me Gate - that was his nickname - but from now on, I want you to call me 'Gaffer' or 'Boss'.

“I was in the crowd, so I just shouted out, 'What about ‘Big Nose’’? It all went quiet, everybody went quiet. Steve Harrison was going, 'Oh no!’

“Instead of saying, ‘You’ve got a big nose as well’, he (Southgate) just didn’t say anything and went, 'You’re in the reserves today’. That was it. Within two months, I was going back down the A1 (to join Hull).”

MATTHEW BATES:

“Gareth was great, I made my debut alongside him and he was a top, top pro and a top, top fella too.

“I always remember my debut, it was away at Tottenham. Jermaine Defoe has kind of danced past him, faced up to me and got a shot away and I remember Gareth looking at me….

“I don’t know if it was my mistake or his mistake, I still don’t now, but being a young lad I certainly didn’t know at the time.

“It was the look, the eyes. But he knew I was making my debut, I was nervous and I needed him to help me out a bit and he was doing that. He wouldn’t call me out or blast me. Those look in in eyes… he commanded respect.

“As a pro he was first in, last out at the training ground.

“Becoming manager, he kind of got the job early, a bit similar to myself really.

“Perhaps he didn’t expect it, but he was great. He made some tough decisions with players he was friends with.

“You have probably heard the story about Ray Parlour and he got him out straight away. He wasn’t scared to make the big decisions and maybe he’s showed that too with the World Cup squad.

“He was personal too, I remember when he got the sack he sent hand-written letters to every player in the squad, all posted, not done on a computer, but it showed he cares.

“He went from being a player to manager and I was a young player at the time, someone who didn’t know him as well as the older pros, those who have been around the block a bit.

“We were relegated and he actually did well at Boro, there was a massive wage cut after relegation and we were top two when he got the sack. He got us mid-table in the Premier League. He was very tactical and trusted his coaches to do their job.

“I still see the personal touch with him now, enjoying a joke with his players and he seems close to them. I think he will have changed, but I’m sure he’s learned a lot with the FA. He’s done great, two games and we have been very positive. He’s made changes with the press and how they deal with the media.

“I read he had let the players out for a beer after beating Panama, and that wouldn’t have happened four years ago.

“I’ve never understood grown men being told what to do all the time and he’s treating them well.

“I look at all managers and he is one I look up to as inspiration. He started out as a player at Boro and maybe he’s been quite lucky along the way to get where he is now.

“He’s got the England job and that’s come after being sacked by Middlesbrough. But he’s been with the FA as part of the Under-21s and in their set-up and he deserves it and showed he’s the right man for the job.’’

MIDO:

“The way I see him talking now, I think that he’s changed a lot because at his first job at Middlesbrough he used to panic big-time during games and at half-time.

“For me as a player who had played for so many different managers, you could easily see it. If you look at this guy in the dressing room (you think), ‘That’s his first job’.

“But now I see the way that he’s handled (Raheem) Sterling and a lot of other things around the team - I think he learned a lot from working with the FA and working on his badges.

“He got rushed into the Middlesbrough job and I don’t think that worked in his favour. He wasn’t ready. And I’m sure if you asked Southgate, he would say the same. But I really like what he is doing now.”