As befits a man with an apparently inbuilt resistance to compromise and suspicion of delegation, Aitor Karanka does not really do shades of grey. His horribly goal-shy Middlesbrough side are preparing for an FA Cup quarter-final at home to Manchester City at a moment when they have dropped into the Premier League’s bottom three and gone 10 league games without a win.
As awkward questions about his job security intensify and the postponement of Saturday’s scheduled relegation six-pointer against Sunderland at the Riverside threatens to leave Boro playing league catch up, Karanka might have been expected to view the Cup as something of a poisoned chalice.
Instead he opts to emulate one of his Teesside predecessors and “take the positives”. “It can be amazing to realise how good a moment we’re living,” says the Basque. “When someone tells me we’re in an awful situation I think that to be in the Premier League and the FA Cup quarter-finals is an amazing situation. We’re in the relegation positions but it’s for the first time this season. Now we have to show everybody we’re in a really good moment.”
Given the tensions behind the scenes at Rockliffe Park, Boro’s training ground set amidst attractive, undulating, countryside south of Darlington, it is unlikely that even Steve McClaren would have applied such audacious spin.
A core problem revolves around Karanka’s innate tactical caution. Tellingly Ben Gibson – the nephew of the club’s owner, Steve Gibson, and Boro’s key centre-half – hinted at a flawed managerial philosophy following last Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Stoke. “We might have a very good defensive record but it’s hard to defend for as long as we defend sometimes,” he said. “It takes 11 people to be working their socks off.”
If that partly constituted a dig at Gastón Ramírez, the team’s gifted but currently unsettled and nonperforming playmaker, Gibson was clearly advocating more of a front-foot approach. Encouragingly, Karanka does not appear to have taken offence. “I’m starting my career, every situation is new,” says the former Real Madrid defender who later became José Mourinho’s assistant at the Bernabéu. “I have to learn, to modify and know there are things I can improve.”
His customary mask of defiance having briefly slipped and indicated a shift to a more conciliatory stance, he also revealed he had spoken to Steve Gibson and received his support before organising a players and staff lunch on Wednesday. Significantly, it appears to have been something of a “clear the air” forum.
Many fans expected Gibson to sack Karanka following the Stoke defeat but Boro’s owner is famously loyal to managers and will have sought counsel from not just Neil Bausor, his chief executive, but his friend Peter Kenyon, the former Manchester United and Chelsea chief executive turned unofficial Boro club consultant who, along with the agent Jorge Mendes helped hire Karanka three years ago.
While the possibility that Gibson is discreetly lining up an alternative cannot be discounted, the presence of a largely Spanish backroom team make regime change now complicated. Few on Teesside would be surprised if Boro replaced their manager this summer but, with obvious candidates currently thin on the ground, Gibson – who regularly dines out with Karanka and their partners – may have deemed an immediate switch overly high risk.
Whatever the reason, Boro’s coach is free to renew old acquaintance with Pep Guardiola, a man he regularly crossed swords with during their respective days at Real Madrid and Barcelona. The pair are not friends – Guardiola neglected to invite Karanka for a post‑match drink when Boro drew 1-1 at the Etihad in November, although they did share a cordial exchange at a Premier League managers’ meeting in August – and neither would relish defeat at the other’s hand.
With City not playing Monaco in the second leg of their Champions League tie until Wednesday, their coach is expected to field a strong side but must subdue his former Barcelona prodigy Adama Traoré. If Gibson owes Karanka for presiding over last spring’s promotion, the dramatic improvement in a gifted yet often tactically wayward winger is testament to the 43-year-old’s undeniably stellar coaching skills.
Sometimes though, his extreme micromanagement – he produces 80-page dossiers on opponents and invariably insists Traoré switches flanks at half-time so the winger remains within technical area earshot – prove stiflingly self destructive, possibly explaining why Boro have won only four league games this season, scoring just 19 times in the process.
Almost exactly a year ago Karanka was temporarily suspended by Gibson, missing a defeat at Charlton following an acrimonious dressing-room altercation. Although harmony swiftly returned, recent managerial criticisms of fans, the board and medical staff have raised red flags so this week’s reflections on the need to “learn” and “modify” were welcome and suggest a necessary watershed may just have been reached.
A motivational slogan on a wall at Rockliffe reads: “Tough situations don’t last; tough people do.” If Karanka is to survive, he must surely start accepting that every rule has exceptions and life is largely comprised of shades of grey.
