Ex-Sunderland boss on relationship with Sir Gareth Southgate — and how he nearly took SAFC job

Yesterday at 05:41 PM

Speaking to Haway The Podcast, former Sunderland boss Malcolm Crosby spoke about his close relationship with Sir Gareth Southgate — and how his flirtation with a return to Wearside cost him his job at Boro.

Former Sunderland manager Malcolm Crosby will be our next guest on the Haway The Podcast, which will be available tomorrow morning wherever you get your Podcasts.

During the wide-ranging chat, Malcolm discusses all things Sunderland and his career in general and during the discussion, he is asked whether he knew former England manager Sir Gareth Southgate would go on to do as well as he did at international level.

Crosby revealed that he may have actually got sacked by Southgate during his time with Middlesbrough, due to Ricky Sbragia wanting him to take him back to Sunderland!

He also mentioned a bit of advice that Gareth took up during England's run to the Euros final:

When I worked with Steve McClaren I was reserve coach at Middlesbrough, he took me in and I had a group of players - under 18, under 19 - fantastic reserves.

Attitude, everything, personality, they were winners and Steve McClaren did a great job there and he used quite a lot of the young players.

Then he got the England job and the chairman brought in Gareth.

I loved working with Gareth, he made me assistant manager, which was out of the blue and I was not expecting that, I thought he was coming in and I would stick with the reserves.

He was fantastic to work with, great person but tough, could be stubborn.

To this day, when we got relegated, I think he sacked me [laughs]. I'll never know to this day as I never found out who actually sacked me.

I asked the Keith Lamb who was vice chairman, he said 'Gareth sacked you, not us.' and then I spoke to Gareth and he said they sacked me, but to this day I still think he's a fantastic fella.

Sunderland comes into the equation because Ricky Sbragia had taken Sunderland's team on a caretaker basis, Ricky had been told that if he kept them up, he was getting the job. He said "Would you come with us?" and I said "I'll have a think about it" and I thought I'd tell Gareth in case he finds out from another source that Sunderland were interested and I said to him "Look, I'm not saying I'm going but they want to take me" but I said "I want to stay here" but then I got told I had been sacked when we got relegated on the last day at West Ham away.

So that was possibly my fault but he's a great fella and I think the reason he's a good manager is he's not frightened to make tough decisions, he doesn't shy away from them at all. He can shock you with some of them and you're like 'wow' but I have a lot of time for him.

I suppose I have to call him 'Sir' now.

When the Euros were on, I sent him a message saying "you not fancy giving Watkins a run out?". I still think like a coach, I still think I can give good advice. I didn't hear anything from him and then we won and Watkins scored and I got a message off Gareth saying "your mate did well when he came on!".

That's what I love about him, a great sense of humour and he's tough.

The Malcolm Crosby edition of the Haway The Podcast will be available tomorrow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and on your favourite podcast app, just search "Haway The Podcast"!