Tony Mowbray Slams Middlesbrough Infrastructure, Vows To Improve Things

At an official Middlesbrough supporters club meeting, manager Tony Mowbray slammed the way things have been run at the club, but has vowed to improve them if he's given enough time.

Mowbray was his usual brutally-honest self about the finances at the club, talking about the wage bill:

"It's like we have a massive bush in the garden. Before I can do anything, before I can start to rebuild, I have to start pruning this bush back. You know, the bush is huge at the moment. Massive. It's blocking out all the light from the window and we can't see anything. I have to take everything back to ground zero before I can turn things around."

This suggests that the end could be near for the high earners such as Arca, Hoyte, Boyd, Digard, Taylor and Thomson in his desire to get a more controlled wage structure.

"When I was at West Brom we had a strict wage-structure," he said. "If the club went up, then the players' wages were doubled. If they came back down, which they invariably did and may do again this year, then their salary is halved and we start again. That's how you maintain a football club."

Mowbray also went into detail about non-playing issues that the club face

"Look," he said, "there is no sports scientist at our club. We don't have one. The training facilities are great, but we don't have any specialists in place...

"There is no scouting system in place at our football club," he added. "We don't have a scouting network. It's as simple as that, really."

It's a scary prospect that a club which spent 11 years in the top flight can have allowed its infrastructure to fall apart that badly in such a short amount of time.

However, far from this being a pessimistic article, I would like to end on a more positive note. These issues have been identified, and are being addressed.

This will take a lot of time, but with a Middlesbrough fan as passionate and honest as Mowbray in charge of the club he loves, provided he is given time, Boro will get back to their more successful times once again.