The fates of West Bromwich Albion and Middlesbrough almost appeared to be intertwined at the start of this season.
By late-October, both clubs found themselves on the lookout for a new head coach following disastrous starts to the Championship campaign. Boro were mired in the relegation zone when they sacked the vastly experienced Chris Wilder.
So too were West Brom when Steve Bruce, another so-called Championship specialist, bit the bullet. And, for a little while, Boro and The Baggies appeared to be going head-to-head for the same man, looking to replace a grizzled second-tier veteran with a recently-retired 41-year-old awaitng his first ever senior managerial role.
According to the Northern Echo, Michael Carrick found himself at the centre of a Championship tug-of-war; Middlesbrough holding one end of the rope, West Brom on the other. In the end, it was the former who won out, the latter hiring the similarly youthful Carlos Corberan just 24 hours later.
Middlesbrough flying high under Michael Carrick
Both Carrick and Corberan started with rather inauspiciously too. Carrick’s Boro lost 2-1 at Preston North End on October 29th. The same night in which West Brom went down 2-0 at home to Sheffield United. Anyone know the opposite of ‘false start’?
Such is the remarkable turnaround both coaches have presided over since then, relegation – for Middlesbrough and West Brom – has not been an active concern now since the other side of Christmas.
Only three managers in the whole of the Championship have accumulated more points than Corberan’s West Brom (25) over the last 12 games. Paul Heckingbottom’s Blades, Vincent Kompany’s runaway league-leaders Burnley and, ironically enough, the man who chose the Riverside over the Hawthorns before transforming Middlesbrough from relegation candidates into automatic promotion challengers (Soccerstats).
While West Brom’s surge up the table stumbled of late – reports linking Corberan with Leeds United perhaps an unwelcome distraction – Middlesbrough continue to rack up the wins like they are going out of fashion.
Carrick’s first season could end in promotion
A battle for second place seemed fanciful only a few weeks ago. Middlesbrough’s statement 3-1 win at Bramall Lane on Wednesday night, however, has Sheffield United glancing nervously over their own shoulders for the first time in recent memory.
“What a great job Michael Carrick is doing at Middlesbrough,” former England team-mate John Terry tweeted, Aston Villa loanee Cameron Archer scoring two supremely well-taken goals in South Yorkshire.
The sample size is still small of course. But, with 14 wins from 17 games, Carrick currently has the greatest win percentage (70) of any manager in Middlesbrough’s history.
How many times, over the years, have we seen a team in trouble panic and parachute in one of those old firefighters? The Bruces’, the Pulis’, the Pardew’s, the McCarthy’s, the Warnocks’? Some still do, of course. Yes, we are looking at you Blackpool and Huddersfield Town.
But, in replacing Wilder and Bruce with two highly-rated young coaches right at the opposite end of their managerial journeys, Middlesbrough and West Brom might just have broken the mould.
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