Middlesbrough manager Gareth Southgate is hoping to copy the template of Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson.
Boro boss following Fergie template
Middlesbrough manager Gareth Southgate is hoping to copy the template of Sir Alex Ferguson as he plans for the future at the Riverside.
Southgate was thought to be facing the sack earlier in the season as Boro sat in the Premier League relegation zone, but a run of one defeat in six games has guided the Teessiders away from immediate danger.
Boro, who travel to Liverpool on Saturday, will also find themselves in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup if they defeat Sheffield United in a fifth round replay on Wednesday.
And Southgate, who took over at Boro in 2006, is pointing to the gradual success of Manchester United manager Ferguson as an example of what he is trying to achieve at the Riverside.
Take time
"I use the quote of Alex Ferguson a long time ago that it took him 18 months to move on the players he did not see as part of the future, another 18 to get the ones in he wanted and then a further 18 to coach them in the way he wanted to play," said Southgate.
"People can see what we are trying to do. The players can see what we are trying to do and the way we are trying to play.
"We are a much fitter team than we were last year, which is one of the things we set out to be.
"The style in which we are playing has at times been what we want and at other times, we have not quite attained it.
"It is going to continue to take time. We are having a good spell at the moment and we have got to enjoy that."
Quiet
And Southgate also insists he is happy to be one of the top flight's unsung sides as Boro quietly go about their business.
"We are quite happy to be the last game in the highlights programme and to be the team nobody talks about because we are trying to build quietly," Southgate added.
"There is still enormous work to be done, but people are starting to see what we are trying to do and how we are trying to do it. The focus can be everywhere else. We don't mind that at all."
Meanwhile, Boro midfielder Gary O'Neil - who moved to the Riverside from Portsmouth in the summer - believes strong away form has been the secret to success.
"We have been really solid away from home, and that has been the base for turning around our season," O'Neil concluded.
