McClaren keeps it country

The benefit of the doubt is an underrated factor in the career of a football manager. As Steve McClaren reflects on Middlesbrough's position this morning, one place off the bottom of the Premiership with no points gained and no goals scored, he may reflect that the only manager below him, Peter Taylor at Leicester City, appears to have had his benefit rescinded.

They are two England men in a hole, but their circumstances contrast. Lose today against Ipswich Town at Filbert Street and Taylor is likely to lose his job. Lose today to Newcastle United at the Riverside and McClaren will certainly retain his.

A large part of this is time-related. McClaren might have overseen three defeats to Arsenal, Bolton Wanderers and Everton in his three games, but it is only three games since he succeeded another man who saw his benefit eroded after seven years, Bryan Robson.

Besides, in McClaren's brief Boro time he has also been an essential part of the most famous England football victory since 1966, last Saturday's 5-1 win in Munich. His reputation as a coach is still intact.

As he sat down at the windswept Riverside stadium to face the media yesterday McClaren was well aware of the club versus country agenda. He is tied to both.

Boro have given him a five-year contract in recognition of the scale of the task he has there. Sven-Goran Eriksson and the Football Association are understood not to be willing to accept McClaren's withdrawal from the England staff, unless in extremity.

For his part, McClaren has his first club managerial role, something he has always wanted. But he has also mentioned the England positives - the contacts, the profile. At yesterday's press conference the duality became known as "the situation".

Did he have a chat with Eriksson about his situation, McClaren was asked. "What situation?" was his initial reply.

Well, the England-Middlesbrough situation. "It was never discussed." Are you happy with the situation? "I am happy with the situation." Has it crossed your mind not to do both? "No."

He was a little more expansive after that. McClaren said he had found "slipping back into things very, very easy", and that he got the impression Boro were "fed up with his pestering" while he has been on the road with England. It is a journey that has taken him back to the club on several occasions - once to sign Allan Johnston from Rangers and then to conduct the ongoing negotiations with Celta Vigo's Benni McCarthy.

The latter deal has reached an advanced stage and a one-year loan deal, with a first-option £6m-purchase clause, should be completed today.

"As far as I'm aware they're behind me," McClaren said of the Middlesbrough board. Of that there is no doubt; his chairman Steve Gibson has a long-term schedule. A McClaren failure would have to be immense for him to be sacked.

"They have no problems with it and I don't," McClaren said of Boro's attitude to the "situation". "I would be the man to decide if there was a decision to be made. But I know what I can and can't do and how it would affect my job here.

"I said at the beginning that, if I couldn't fulfil my commitments 100 per cent, then I would not do it. But I have no problems at all, my thoughts never really left Middlesbrough.

"I knew from the moment I accepted the job here and took on the role with England that I would be open to criticism if things did not go well on either side.

"With England we got an absolutely fantastic result and of course I enjoyed working with England. Sven is one of the top managers in the world and you are always at an advantage working with the best people. I had that at Manchester United with Sir Alex."

McClaren does have a problem, however. Managers are now perceived as the embodiment of their clubs and, while Gareth Southgate said yesterday he and McClaren had talked about Middlesbrough while on England duty, about how the "culture" of the club had to be overhauled, another player who knows McClaren from Middlesbrough and England, Ugo Ehiogu, said that "results are the bottom line and we must get something out of the Newcastle game."

Ehiogu was being realistic rather than controversial; in fact he said McClaren's England participation "helped Middlesbrough as a whole. If you're not in Europe, then it's difficult to attract quality players, especially if you're not in the capital.

"Plus, Steve has gone on record as saying this is not just about one-year survival or one-year consolidation. It's larger than that, it's about the club's future. And you always need to keep your eye on the long term."

Comparing McClaren's two jobs, Ehiogu said: "He has quite an important task for the international team in terms of coaching and putting the manager's point across. But he's more involved here. The international thing is a limited period; here he is always stopping things, always stamping his authority."

McClaren has another month now before England meet again. During that time Middlesbrough host West Ham and Southampton and travel to Chelsea and Leicester.

"I don't think we're far away," he said. "There is no panic or despondency, more a determination to go out and prove people wrong. There is a thin dividing line and unfortunately, we are just underneath it."

Until Middlesbrough rise above it Steve McClaren is living on the benefit of the doubt.