STEVE COOPER tops the list of managerial targets Middlesbrough want to replace Michael Carrick.
The Championship side announced on Wednesday that the ex-Manchester United and England midfielder had been axed.
Carrick, 43, and his assistants Jonathan Woodgate and Graeme Carrick – his younger brother – have also departed the club.
That decision was made by chairman Steve Gibson following a four-week end-of-season review by the club’s hierarchy after their dismal second half of the campaign.
Carrick, who was the division’s longest-serving manager, led Boro from the 21st in the table in October 2022 to the play-offs.
That was followed by an eighth-placed finish and a run to the League Cup semi-finals but, despite a positive first half of this season, they eventually ended a disappointing tenth.
That has been enough to convince the club to look elsewhere.
SunSport understands that Cooper, out of work since he was sacked following a brief and ill-fated stint at Leicester in November, is among the top candidates Boro want to speak with.
He shone in the Championship at Swansea City by leading them to consecutive play-off finishes.
And he surpassed that at Nottingham Forest, achieving legendary status by guiding them back to the Premier League via the play-offs in 2022.
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Cooper was axed in December 2023 and replaced by Nuno Espirito Santo.
Ex-Bournemouth and Wolves manager Gary O’Neil, who spent four years as a player at the Riverside, is another name among the favourites along with former Luton man Rob Edwards.
Expert's view
BY GARY STONEHOUSE (North East Football Reporter and Boro season ticket holder)
FINALLY the inevitable has happened – but what took Middlesbrough so long?
The decision to sack Michael Carrick now – four weeks after the season finished – does feel a bit too little, too late.
The ex-Manchester United man’s time at the Riverside should have been done back in February after a dire run of six defeats in seven games.
At that point the prospect of going up through the play-offs was still a real possibility.
Instead, Steve Gibson kept faith and, despite a brief little false dawn of results, we’ve allowed rivals Sunderland to take advantage of what was probably the best chance of achieving promotion out of this league that there will be for a while.
For all of those pointing to the fact that he lost “his best player” Emmanuel Latte Lath in January – the striker’s exit was supposed to be last summer.
That’s why they got Tommy Conway in early and, fair play, when Boro failed to get the money they wanted for Latte Lath they held on to him until the window.
The loss of Ben Doak was also critical, and that coupled with the above sale meant all the pace was taken out of Carrick’s team.
But that was his biggest problem, his stubbornness to have a Plan B. Pretty, boring, pass, pass, tip, tip – Middlesbrough became far too easy to play against.
The panic stations started to ring when the Riverside was empty long before the final whistle in several home games – fans were seemingly even past the point of caring enough to boo at the final whistle following several disappointing displays and results.
This is a move best for everybody – especially Carrick himself.
He has done well, and the loss of experienced Aaron Danks as coach to Bayern Munich has maybe had a bigger impact than any of us thought.
But once rumours of fall-outs over transfer targets etc began to surface in January there was only going to be one-way this ended if promotion wasn’t achieved.
He can still leave with his reputation intact and will be in the running for plenty of other jobs – hopefully after a PR class or two.
You always got the impression he didn’t think much of the media – except until the pressure was on in his final weeks and we finally got to see a little of his funny and warm character.
But the place, and Carrick himself probably, needed something new.
And for my money, the man to provide that lift that the whole club needs would be Steve Cooper.
