The weather outside was grey, damp and windy but, inside the double security doors marking the entrance to Middlesbrough’s training ground, it felt as if brilliant sunshine had flooded back into Aitor Karanka’s life.
After weeks spent in intensely “uptight” mode, Boro’s suddenly uber‑relaxed manager smiled benignly before elegantly pouring scorn on a suggestion that his recent fierce criticisms of the club’s fans and board were delivered with the intention of securing a pay-off.
“I’m a man who, if I want to be sacked, I don’t need to be sacked,” he said. “I will just say goodbye and go. I don’t need the money and I don’t need to take training every day. I’m here because I want to be here and the day I’m not pleased in one place, I’ll leave. Don’t worry about that.”
A chameleon character, Karanka is capable of segueing seamlessly from one mood to another in much the same way that multilingual people sometimes switch languages mid-sentence during telephone conversations.
At one point on Thursday he used the term “bed of roses” to describe his life on Teesside but, as recently as Monday he was almost monosyllabic while making plain his displeasure at the failure of Steve Gibson, Boro’s owner, and Neil Bausor, the chief executive, to secure any of his top three January transfer targets, Robert Snodgrass, Bojan Krkic and Jesé.
Indeed, before Tuesday night’s Premier League draw at home against West Bromwich Albion, José Mourinho’s former Real Madrid sidekick muttered “I don’t care” in relation to inquiries regarding his unsettled playmaker Gastón Ramírez.
Earlier in January there had been complaints that the atmosphere at the Riverside was “awful” and managerial fury with fans for chanting “attack, attack, attack,” something the Basque interpreted as a demand for long‑ball football, but now Karanka talked enthusiastically about reaching a rapprochement with Ramírez and his existing squad’s potential.
Moreover he portrayed himself as a voice of reason and a natural leader making legitimate attempts to raise Boro’s collective bar. “As a coach when you have three or four targets and nobody is coming you’re frustrated – it’s impossible to be happy,” he said. “I could go looking for excuses but I’m not a man who likes excuses so, yesterday, I looked at the board in my office and the 25 players on it and decided that my players are the best in the world. They’re showing me that I can trust them. I’m pleased with their performance and attitude.”
And Gibson and Bausor? “I didn’t criticise the board,” said the former Real Madrid defender, who did sign Adlène Guedioura, Patrick Bamford and Rudy Gestede in January. “Everything I say seems to be a ‘criticism’. But it wasn’t a criticism of the crowd; I was urging respect for the players. I didn’t criticise the board; it was just showing my frustration. I can’t say I’m pleased when I lost three targets. I’m not that kind of person. If I have frustrations I can’t hide them.
“But my relationship with Steve Gibson is strong. He gave me the chance to be a Premier League coach and both of us know the only way for us to be successful is by working together. We need to be together.
“Today it looks like a bed of roses but sometimes it’s a problem when you’re so demanding. I’m trying my best and I want the people who are on board to do the same. I want the best for this club. I’m showing that every day and I always want more.”
This can involve provoking an atmosphere of creative tension. “Everyone needs to do their best,” Karanka said. “My fitness coach, my assistant, my goalkeeping coach, the players, they all have to do their best and so do the crowd. I can’t allow the crowd to criticise or boo the players when they’re giving everything.”
The 43-year-old affected bafflement with the notion that this philosophy had loosened the ties that once bound him so tightly to Boro’s supporters, players and board, hinting, perhaps, that things had been lost in translation. “How on Tuesday were 27,000 people singing my name?” he inquired. “I need to make it clear that the things that have come out are just rumours. There’s always something negative about me, my relationship with the players – although everybody can see their commitment on the pitch – or that I wanted to leave last season or I’d been sacked this season.”
The reality is apparently infinitely rosier. “The reason I’m here is because my players are facing the best teams in the world and competing in every single game,” Karanka said. “We have an amazing challenge to stay up but I’m sure we’ll be in the Premier League next season.”
