McClaren: the panto season is behind you

The Riverside is now a business school of football

The programme for Curtis Fleming's testimonial against Athletic Bilbao last Sunday just happened to include a full-page advert for Timmy Mallett's appearance in the Yuletide production of Cinderella at the Billingham Forum. The last time Middlesbrough featured on the bill at the Riverside Stadium the pantomime was played out on the pitch. Terry Venables strode towards the centre-circle after the final game of last season to universal cheers. Bryan Robson followed him – to universal jeers.

Both the hero and the villain of Middlesbrough's scramble to avoid relegation – the manager and the head coach who was hired to do the managing for him – have gone now. So have the cheap laughs at the club's expense, it would seem.

Steve McClaren means serious business on his first managerial mission. What went before at the Boro holds no interest for him, he insists. So he won't be popping into the club shop to spend £12.99 on a copy of Robbo's Rollercoaster, a video which claims to tell "the inside story of how Bryan Robson turned Boro into one of England's highest profile football clubs".

"I have come here with my own thoughts," McClaren said. "I am trying to create a new era, a fresh start here for everybody." Had he looked sideways as he spoke – in the aftermath of the Bilbao match, his first home engagement – Middlesbrough's manager of eight and a half weeks would have seen framed photographs of Fabrizio Ravanelli, Emerson and Juninho. But McClaren remains steadfastly focused on the big picture ahead: on building a team of some substance, rather than a collection of big-name individuals.

His first investment was a clear statement. In spending £6.5m on Gareth Southgate, McClaren has acquired not just a central defender of international class but also, to use his own words, "a model professional – a tremendous leader on and off the field".

The new man at the helm at the Riverside is too much of a diplomat – too much of a professional, you could say – to pass any comment that could be construed as rubbishing the Robson regime. But it is unlikely that any player will leave during McClaren's tenure complaining of Middlesbrough being "an amateurish club", as Ravanelli did, or of the Boro dressing-room being packed with drunks and gamblers, as Paul Merson inferred.

Actually, what Merson said was that he "needed a more stable environment". He added that he had discussed the situation at length with an England colleague. "That helped to make up my mind," he said. The team-mate's name? Gareth Southgate.

The fact that Southgate was prepared to join a club with a high capacity for drama but a poor record for developing careers, let alone challenging for trophies, says much about McClaren's reputation. His predecessor arrived on Teesside from Old Trafford with a bigger name in the game, but based purely on a playing career as Captain Marvel. McClaren was a more modest than marvellous midfielder, with Hull City, Derby County, Bristol City and Oxford United. In contrast to Robson, though, he has brought with him a managerial nous gleaned from six years as a number two of considerable distinction.

Jim Smith was so impressed he recommended him to Sir Alex Ferguson. Sir Alex was so impressed he recommended him as his successor. And Sven Goran Eriksson has been so enamoured he has gone to great lengths to get him back into the England backroom team.

McClaren was renowned for his meticulousness at Old Trafford. He recorded and analysed the individual performances of players on computers and insisted on the players using special Prozone beds, which relax muscles and reduce the risk of injury. At Middlesbrough, he has installed Bill Beswick, a sports psychologist, as his number two and laid down the ground rules for a strictly professional regime.

"We have really just tried to be ultra-professional," McClaren said. "We have tried to bring a more professional attitude and some discipline to the job of being a footballer. I don't know what they have done before and I'm not interested in that, only in my way of working. And I believe my way works.

"Discipline is something we have touched on. It's not about being heavy-handed. It's about being what I call professional. The players have reacted very, very well."

The positive reaction was evident against Bilbao as Boro won 3-0. Next comes the Premiership test for McClaren and for Middlesbrough – starting with Arsenal at the Riverside on Saturday.