Mowbray ponders an Easter getaway

WHEN the head is constantly being bashed off a glass ceiling, the headaches eventually become a permanent pain. It is a reality that seems to be biting for Tony Mowbray.

Ambitious and bright, the best we have in these shores, according to the Scottish Football Writers last year, and given the brouhaha that has been whipped up over this year's award it seems to be an accolade deemed worthy by the wider spectrum. He is a man who believes he is still punching above his weight and while that has earned him plaudits, it has also taken its toll. There is a limit, he says, to how long he will be willing or able to do so.

Today his team will, for the second year running, play out the bit-part role of chorus line as another team receive the Premierleague trophy. It's not a role those with a winning mentality enjoy. There have been signs of growing personal disquiet and the almost weary post-match stoicism displayed at Hampden in the wake of the Scottish Cup semi-final defeat simply fuelled the impression that the satisfaction of settling for the title of best of the rest is already beginning to wane.

The fact that particular title is now bestowed on the team that finishes fourth, courtesy of the Romanov-inspired rejuvenation of rivals Hearts, merely aggravates the situation.

As a hot-seat debutante, the challenge of his first managerial role was enough and the fact that they finished third, 11 points ahead of rivals Hearts last season, was reward for his labours, as was the obvious development of the youngsters in his charge. But times have changed. He may yet blood the next wave of kids vying for first-team experience, but don't expect him to man that conveyor belt indefinitely.

"I don't really want to get into my situation and where I am going but I'm an ambitious guy, I want to manage the best players, in the best leagues and I think all the top coaches want to work with the best players. So, whilst I'm working at Hibs I will give it everything I can and try to improve this football club and do what is right for it, but I don't envisage me being here in four or five or six years' time. I'm like all the young players here, I'm trying to move along the career path. If Tottenham come in and offer £5m for Kevin Thomson then we have to consider that and if Real Madrid come in and say they want Tony Mowbray for all he's done in Scottish football then it's something I've got to think about, eh?!"

Citing the Primera Liga side is an absurdity aimed to divert but while Spain may not be the next destination, there is no doubt that others have spied his potential and watched as his reputation has been enhanced. Punters down south may simply stick a pin in the Premierleague if asked to guess the standings outwith the top berths, but Mowbray has faith that those in the industry are still keeping tabs.

As far back as January, Middlesbrough were said to be watching with interest. And that was before Steve McClaren was being widely tipped as the next England gaffer. If the Teessiders do need to find a replacement this summer, there are plenty Riverside Stadium regulars who would welcome the return of a hero such as Mowbray.

The former Boro player himself remains coy on the subject but, tellingly, does not rule it out.

"I don't want to fill the Sunday papers with negativity from me, but I'm an Englishman who came up here, played for four years, wanted to get a chance on the managerial ladder and here I am working as hard as I can to be a success. I've been doing it two years and, yeah, what can you achieve here and what can you do? That's what I mean, I ain't going to be here in four years' time, maybe not in three years' time, just trying to finish fourth in a league, knowing that's the best we can do, putting up with the stuff that goes with the Scottish game which, for me, is suffocating at times, whether that be the officials on a matchday, even your own profession can be suffocating. The demands on you, my phone starts to ring at half past seven every morning and doesn't stop until I turn it off at home when I'm bathing the baby at half past six. I cant imagine I am going to keep doing it, I'm not going to be a career Scottish manager, moving from Hibs to manage Falkirk or Livingston, I ain't going to do it."

So, at a stage in the season when he admits that it is time to stand back and assess, to look at achievements and circumstance philosophically rather than emotionally, what about Middlesbrough? "Football is about circumstance and opportunity. I want to manage the best players in the best leagues and have the best opportunity of being successful. I have a head full of the way I want to play. I would love to go to Celtic Park and play like Barcelona did with their full-backs pushing right up high and leave the two centre backs and have a sitting midfielder you can bounce it off of and play, but you can only do that with the best players. You can't trust our centre-backs and our midfielders not to roll it just the wrong side and allow someone in to nick it and charge into the spaces.

"If you have better players you can put all your ideas and game plans into operation, as opposed to the scenario when we play and sometimes you think, 'Phew what a team', then other times you wonder what is going on. I go to Aberdeen and come back thinking it's the worst game I've ever seen, I'm not interested, it's rubbish, and that's maybe how I come across on the television when, two minutes after the game is finished, I'm stood in front of a camera saying 'This was a shit game, not interested, rubbish' because that's the way I feel because my team can't do what I want them to do.

"I know the situation because Beuzelin is not there in midfield, normally you can roll him the ball anywhere you want and he's brilliant at putting his body and his backside between the ball and people and gets it on his left foot, his right foot, inside and out, and he buys a yard to play the pass. No offence to whoever may be playing in there at the moment, but their first touch may go back into trouble and it's a tackle and we lose the ball and it's a fight and it's in behind the back four and it's a goal, so we stop playing through the midfield and play back to front like every other team and see what happens and then it's a crap game. That's my frustration.

"But, the Middlesbrough question I don't have to answer because it's not there for me. Is Steve McClaren going to get the [England] job? I don't know, but if he does, then they need to decide what to do. I think the chairman at Middlesbrough, knowing him, I think he won't go for the romantic choice but the choice that is best for the club because he has responsibilities to 20, 30, 40,000 fans. He wont just give it to Tony Mowbray because he's a good lad, and he used to play for Boro in '86 when they were on their arse. That won't happen. If Steve McClaren goes and their chairman thinks Tony Mowbray is the best man for the job then he will probably make the call to my chairman and ask the question and then we will have a decision to make, but at the moment we don't have that decision to make."

But, whether they like it or not, Hibs fans are still living on borrowed time. They have a manager they love and appreciate for his football philosophy, his ability to operate within a tight budget, and his honesty.

But those are the very qualities that will encourage bigger and better clubs to woo him and, given the constraints of Scottish football, this ambitious man seems increasingly open to suggestions.

Taken from the Scotsman