Yer Joking Aren't Ya?

Tom Flight

Description

Yer Jokin' Aren't Ya? is the bizarre and gripping story behind Middlesbrough's epic 1996/97 season. When the Premier League ushered in a bright new era of English Football, a Middlesbrough businessman named Steve Gibson asked a daring question. Why couldn't an untrendy team from a bleak North-East town join the elite of world football? With Bryan Robson at the helm, Gibson set out to prove it could be done. Gibson built a state-of-the-art stadium on the banks of the River Tees, and spent millions so the pitch would be graced by superstars. Robson helped attract Fabrizio Ravanelli, Emerson and the Brazilian maestro Juninho. For an ephemeral moment Boro's breathtaking football captured the nation's imagination. But chaos followed as Boro's season spiralled out of control. The book begins in the summer of 1996 and traces month by month how Boro's season unravelled due to the egos and excesses of this crazy team. It ended in tragedy, but for those who took part - and for the fans who witnessed it - it was a truly unforgettable time.

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 13 avril 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781785316944
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2019
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Tom Flight, 2020
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 9781785316319 eBook ISBN 9781785316944
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Contents
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Introduction
1. Middlesbrough v Liverpool, 17 August 1996
2. August
3. Middlesbrough v West Ham United, 4, September 1996
4. September
5. Sunderland v Middlesbrough, 14 October 1996
6. October
7. November
8. Middlesbrough v Newcastle, 27 November 1996
9. December
10. Middlesbrough v Everton, 26 December 1996
11. January
12. Middlesbrough v Sheffield Wednesday, 18 January 1997
13. February
14. Stockport County v Middlesbrough, 26 February 1997
15. Middlesbrough v Derby County, 5 March 1997
16. March
17. Leicester City v Middlesbrough, 6 April 1997
18. April
19. May
20. Chelsea v Middlesbrough, 17 May 1997
Epilogue
Bibliography
Middlesbrough 1996/97 Results
For my parents, Nick and Diana Flight
Acknowledgements
Primarily I need to thank my wife Elizabeth. I love you and could not not have written this without your support. Hailing from Fort Worth, Texas, Elizabeth s knowledge of Middlesbrough Football Club basically matched Fabrizio Ravanelli s prior to the summer of 1996. Her level of football interest continues to hover around minimal to non-existent, but she has always been a dutiful reader of all my football writing, whether it is a tactical analysis of a Boro 1-0 loss away to Watford, or an opinion piece on the philosophy of Tony Pulis.
The idea for this book was formed in an article I wrote for a football magazine about Boro s 1996/97 season. The magazine rejected the article, but Elizabeth saw something in it where she thought it was worth pitching as a book, which I did to Pitch Publishing.
This leads me to Jane at Pitch Publishing. I will always be grateful for this opportunity to fulfil my dream of writing a book about football. I had zero expectations when I sent in the pitch, and was overjoyed when Jane said she was interested. The process has been incredibly smooth and relatively devoid of any major stress (at least on my part).
I realised very quickly that it is impossible to write a book like this on your own. Ian Smith, Ste Wallace and Anthony AKA Smog on the Tees were incredibly helpful and generous with their time in introducing me to key people for this book. Ian also provided some great insight on his memories of the season. Most Boro fans are surely aware of his blog by now, but if not, check it out.
I was thrilled (and more than a little awestruck) to have Craig Hignett, Andy Campbell and Ben Roberts contribute to this book. They all took a significant amount of time to talk to me about their experience of the 1996/97 season, and their insight into events behind the scenes, as well as their thoughts and emotions on the pitch, really helped bring the book to life.
Thanks to Pete Gentry for a brilliant copy-edit and saving me a lot of embarrassment. Thanks also to Duncan Olner for the fantastic cover design.
Whoever is responsible for the Middlesbrough FC Video Vault on YouTube, please know that I don t know how I could have written this book without all the footage available on the channel.
Thanks to Anthony Vickers for taking the time to write a fantastic foreword. It s hard to imagine anyone could contain more knowledge of the club than Anthony and his writing for the Gazette over the years has been a big influence.
Sometimes I think I enjoy reading about football more than watching it. I feel I should highlight the following writers who have written a lot about Middlesbrough Football Club: Phil Tallentire, Dom Shaw, Eric Paylor, Daniel Gray, Harry Pearson, Simon Fallaha and Rob Fletcher, some of whom produced work that I used directly for research, but all have been a big influence on me and helped me develop my own craft.
Finally, my parents Nick and Diana and siblings Will, Olly and Liz. Thanks for indulging my obsession for Middlesbrough Football Club throughout my childhood. All those games we went to 24 years ago proved to be invaluable research.
Foreword
Australian aborigines have the concept of Dream Time : a swirling mist of distilled creation myths that explain the past, help interpret the confusing present and shape expectations for the future. For legions of Boro supporters, the crazy, draining, surreal emotional assault course of the 1996/97 season was Dream Time even though it turned into a nightmare - although one we have embraced, celebrated, nurtured and reimagined and repurposed as a powerful cultural fuel ever since. It was a super-charged season packed full of contradictions and one that still resonates and frames and permeates the entire experience of the Riverside era.
Even now, almost everything is measured against it. From the outside the entire campaign was an unmitigated disaster. The record buy moaned from the off and ended up being punched by a team-mate over the FA Cup Final breakfast table. Another star was left to rot in the reserves after going AWOL. The chaotic club were docked three points for a shambolic no-show and then became consumed by a long, acrimonious battle with the football establishment. Ultimately the record books will show the creaky team lost two cup finals and were relegated in a a very public and ignominious treble heartache. It doesn t sound like much of a touchstone moment. And, whatever Boro fans have persuaded themselves about the quality of the football, the reality is that for long spells an unbalanced and faction ridden Boro team were awful. Yet time and again, armies of Boro fans cite it as their favourite season, their most important season, the season that shaped their relationship with the club, one that can still stir glowing memories, quicken the pulse, swell the chest and bring a flush of excitement. A lot of that is to do with the sporadic outbreaks of swashbuckling football that fostered genuine optimism and excitement.
With Juninho sprinkling magic dust in his balletic wake, Emerson looking - briefly - the best midfielder in Europe and Ravanelli arrogantly unpicking defences Boro really did look fantastic at times. After the pulsating opening day draw with Liverpool they spanked West Ham and Coventry then hammered Hereford 7-0 in a brilliant, blistering opening spell of home games that shaped the mythology of cavalier football. A lot is to do with the draining but successful twin pronged assault on the Twin Towers. However you slice it, getting to two cup finals made it Boro s most successful season ever and generations of battle-scarred supporters were in raptures - and tears - at finally fulfilling their playground dreams. Boro were in the big time. In the record books. We didn t have to build a case that the Anglo Scottish and ZDS Cups were prestigious competitions anymore when goaded by rivals. We had made a mark. Tell yer mam, yer mam, put the champagne on ice, we re going to Wembley twice, tell yer mam. There s a lot going on in that little terrace ditty. It was a coming of age for the club. It was vindication of the Steve Gibson project.
It was a defiant two fingers to the FA, the Premier League and the world as a whole for the three points. It was amazing. It was invigorating. It was history unfolding around us. Boro fans who had endured long, grey barren decades of mediocrity saw their team first score at Wembley then play in an FA Cup final. It felt like a watershed moment. It felt like the beginning of an era. And in many ways it was. And then there is Juninho. The talisman. A prodigious talent who chose Boro, who anointed their ambition, a shimmering beacon of hope as the season fractured and at times a breathtaking force of nature driving Boro towards safety and silverware. He transcended football to become a cipher for an audacious and revolutionary moment.
It was Boro s Dream Time. A creation myth. It was a hectic and enthralling headlong rush towards a glorious failure that opened a new world of possibilities and new horizons, created a new sensibility and a very high new bar to measure not just performance but also emotional engagement against. For the first time ever it enticed a lot of hard-bitten old Chicken-runners to cast off the armour of cynicism that had protected them from decades of ingrained failure. It allowed them to open themselves and dip their toes in the water of optimism. It was a seismic season that made us dare to dream.
Anthony Vickers
Introduction
It all started at a dinner one night. It was the early summer of 1994. Steve Gibson, the new chairman of Middlesbrough Football Club, was trying to close the deal on his first managerial appointment. The club he had taken over was a mid-table side in the First Division. Attendances were slipping, and there was a general malaise within the club. But behind the scenes Gibson was plotting a revolution. And he knew for a revolution to ignite he needed a spark. He believed that spark was Bryan Robson.
Robbo , Captain Marvel , Captain Courageous . Captain of Manchester United and England. As a player he personified the way English football was supposed to be played. A leader who played the game like his life depended on it. The word legend is thrown around t