October 19, 2010

#16: Sacked Strachan Cracks

0:00

Episode sixteen was recorded the day Gordon Strachan was sacked from Middlesbrough â news that arrived hot enough to shape much of the programme alongside three matches to review, with Dan Moylan, Michael Normanton, Daniel Chapman (Moscowhite), and Paul O’Dowd (Oddy) reassembled after Normanton returned from a holiday in Spain.

White Watching had a great deal to cover. Leeds lost 6-4 at Preston in a game that defied rational analysis: Becchio (15′), Alex Bruce (20′), and Somma twice (27′, 39′) for Leeds; Parkin three times (5′, 40′, 64′), Treacy (54′), Davidson from the spot (58′), and Hume (79′) for Preston. Leeds then lost 2-1 at Ipswich â Snodgrass reducing the deficit on 72 minutes after Scotland and Smith had put the hosts in front, with Alex Bruce sent off on 79 to leave Leeds a man short for the closing stages. The result that rescued the fortnight came away at Middlesbrough: a 2-1 win, Somma on 12 minutes and Becchio on 63 settling it after Boyd had brought Boro level. The Middlesbrough win was Simon Grayson’s hundredth game in charge â win percentage around 56%, loss percentage around 24%. Amdy Faye’s disciplined performance in a holding role at the Riverside drew specific praise. Jonny Howson’s improving form across recent weeks was also noted.

Becchio’s Middlesbrough goal generated an additional talking point: his unguarded celebration produced a live television moment when a profanity was broadcast before the cameras cut away.

Strachan’s dismissal gave the episode’s title and its other main subject. The panel traced his significance to Leeds United: signed aged 32 for Â£300,000, he had played 156 of Wilkinson’s 170 games across the golden era. The question being posed â with evident respect but supported by evidence â was whether wanting Strachan as a manager had once seemed self-evidently right in a way that Middlesbrough was now complicating.

Simon Rix of the Kaiser Chiefs, whose opinion piece for the Square Ball had been expected for some time, finally contributed to issue three of the magazine. The Leeds United Americas chapter meetup had taken place in Atlanta, with Albert Johanneson’s daughter among those who attended.