'Welcome Home.' The return of Tony Mowbray, the story of a football romantic and survivor.

“Wise men ne'er sit and wail their loss, but cheerily seek how to redress their harms."

Napoleon Bonaparte certainly knew something about victory and defeat, but his quote from over two hundred years ago fits in perfectly with the life of Anthony Mark Mowbray, who has faced more adversity in life than most of us will ever encounter.

But Mowbray is a man who is never beaten.

A man to be reckoned with.

The man whose return to The Hawthorns is as romantic as the football vision he has created in his teams for the past twenty five years.

A quote from Napoleon fits well into the Mowbray narrative, as the original Mowbray famille came to the area of England now known as Northumberland back in 1066, and the times of William the Conqueror.

Here, an early onset of immigration with the arrival of The French.

And the Northumberland area in close proximity to Saltburn-by the Sea or Redcar, clearly shows almost Nine Centuries of Mowbray’s and they are as solid a fixture in this region as Saltburn Pier..

Salt of the earth…

Immovable.

In keeping with the domineering centre half and natural leader on the pitch who eased into the role of charismatic, inspirational manager, we are welcoming back to the Hawthorns in our hour of need.

Just as Mowbray got a six month all clear from his battle with bowel cancer..

A battle he never saw coming..

Tony Mowbray was born on November 22nd 1963 in Saltburn, a day that tragically would be mostly be remembered as day of infamy in history.

It was the  day John F Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

A day never to be forgotten..

Closer to home, at the Globe Theatre in Stockton-on-Tees, The Beatles played two concerts that night, the rumours of Kennedy’s assassination only starting to break out.

News broke slowly back then..

http://ctlhs.co.uk/golden-jubilee/fifty-interesting-events/the-beatles-at-the-globe-stockton-on-tees-1963/

Stockton-on-Tees is located twenty miles from the Redcar council estate Tony grew up in and just twenty two years later he would captain his beloved local team, nearby Middlesbrough to success and battle through huge adversity.

Always leading from the front, for leaders are natural, as Tony surmises, 

"You are what you are".

This locality is still where Tony resides, 61 years later.

He still considers himself, "A proud Redcar lad" and has never moved from his home area.

"I grew up here born and bred, I like the people", are his rationale for staying.

Loyal people, loyal town.

Also it’s an area ideal for dog walking.

To this day, Tony spends an early hour every morning walking his dog, by the beach, often wearing a scarf and hat.

Is it to acquire warmth or to conceal his identity, it’s hard to tell?

On a daily basis on this quiet absorption of escapism and exercise, usually about 20 people still recognize and shout out some comment or question to their beloved ‘Mogga’.

Although humbled by the recognition, Tony decries his lack of blending into the background by stating, 

"I’ve such an ugly face, they all still recognize me!"

Self depreciation is part of who Mogga is and also part of his charm..

Tony’s love for ‘Boro’ started early, he recalls during the Miners Strikes in the Seventies,

"My dad would take me out of school and sneak me through the Ayresome Park turnstile to see games.."

"The noise of the crowds, the oasis of green in the middle of the greyness. It sticks with you. It was a magnificent moment’"

Love at first sight…

You can see how the sensory intoxication of that seminal moment fueled Mogga’s passion for playing and later managing.

I’m sure Tony felt that similar emotion in his return to the Hawthorns yesterday, and is bound to occur this Tuesday, against of all teams, Middlesbrough.

Not many managers go home twice in four days?

Most of Tony’s Boro heroes as a local kid were attacking players, the likes of John Hickton, Alan Foggon and yes..

David Mills..

"I loved David Mills' flowing blond hair" was part of Mogga’s reasoning…

I wonder if Tony felt the same about Millsy’s ill-advised perm at West Brom??

Ironically, Mills was to become a team mate of Tony only a few years later, in 1984 on the Half Million hero’s return to Boro.

The ‘Mills perm’, advisedly, was long gone…

When Mogga was eleven, he joined his beloved Boro and not as you’d expect as a budding centre half, but to be like his heroes, an ‘attacking, scoring player’.

It’s fascinating in my mind, right up until this day, Tony Mowbray uses the simple psychology of the joy of football at a young age for his players to look inwardly at themselves to rediscover enjoyment of the game and re-examine what their strengths are.

"Find the player inside of you? 

You were the best player at school, in your team in your county. You attacked, always.."

This Mowbray doctrine is, to become again the player who was a positive, confident influence in games, the type that thrived in the stress free environment of younger, carefree days, and didn’t have their abilities compromised by tactics or positional play.

After quickly working his way through the Boro Youth Team system at just 19 years old, on 8th September 1982, Tony made his Boro debut against local rivals Newcastle Utd.

It was to be a baptism of fire for the tall rangy Redcar teen, facing a triple forward threat from Chris Waddle in his second full NUFC season, a fellow debutant and scorer in a 1-1 draw, Mick Channon, and the legend who Mogga was marking on his debut, Kevin Keegan.

Talk about the ‘deep end’.

And this was Division 2 football!

Mowbray’s selection was not down to his ability, but in his humble words, was purely circumstantial,

"My debut was down to adversity, we were in financial trouble and we were actually training in local parks’"

The Boro financial trouble was sparked by relegation from Division 1, [the season before Mowbray’s debut], an inevitability when you sell your best players such as Craig Johnston and the inevitable outcome of plummeting attendances at Ayresome Park.

The future nadir being a lowly 4,000 fans.

In Mowbray’s first season, Boro finished 16th in the old Division Two, decrying the decision making of manager Malcolm Allison who had Mowbray playing left back for some of the season.

Sounds similar to the Tony Pulis plan with Jonny Evans, three decades later..

The struggles continued, but there was comparative consistency in performance the following season, finishing just one position lower in 17th place.

Remarkably, 10 places above Middlesbrough was Shrewsbury Town..

By far the worst season in Boro's history became in reality an inevitability, seeing the direction the club was moving in.

Relegation to Division 3 and a club hurtling towards the abyss of financial ruin.

It wasn’t just on the Ayresome Park terraces where the locals known as ‘Smoggies’ vented about the travails of being a Boro fan, but seemingly all over the locality, to the degree of Tony Mowbray actually not wanting to go out and socialize locally, 

"I’d never go out in Saltburn for two or three years, people were forever telling me how crap the football was."

As a player, during those difficult years Tony saw, "Every game as a slog’"

This relegation season was paradoxically one of enormous pride in a personal sense for Tony Mowbray.

At just 22 years old Mogga became club captain, due essentially through Boro selling their better players and the consequential dependence on their own Youth Team.

The fact was, at aged 22 years and having played 120 League games, Tony was literally a veritable Boro veteran..

The foreboding challenge for Boro at this stage was the very real prospect of liquidation and for sure it didn’t help that dire prospect coming true, Malclom Allison in 1982 suggesting ,

"It is better for the club to die than for it to linger on its deathbed".

The inevitable fear of not getting paid, with a club 1.6 Million Pounds in debt, resulted in players going to the local Town Hall to collect wages in brown envelopes, a depressing chord that has stuck with Mowbray ever since.

Middlesbrough were hours from liquidation, and Mogga gives full credit to the one person saving his beloved club from collapse, the newly appointed and by far the youngest director ever at Boro at just 26 years old, Steve Gibson.

"If it wasn’t for Steve Gibson we wouldn’t be where we are now. 

People don’t realize we were minutes from liquidation".

In adversity strength can be found and for Mowbray, the appointment of Bruce Rioch, [taking over from ex Boro defensive legend, Willie Maddren], was too late to stop relegation, but it did open Mogga’s eyes to a vital word he needed at this time?

Possibility.

Almost forty years after Bruce Rioch’s appointment in 1986, his coaching methodology and ethos influenced Mowbray from that day to this.

Prior to Rioch, a tough taskmaster to many, particularly Garry Pallister, but who took such a shine to Mowbray that his teammates dubbed Mogga, the ‘Son of Bruce’. 

Rioch’s coaching created for Mowbray almost a metamorphosis for he was a defender who in his own words, "Regularly scythed down attackers".

Mowbray was constantly encouraged to hit long balls by the likes of Jack Charlton, but through Rioch’s words had his eyes fully opened to player development and the accent on the beautiful game..

"Rioch simply flicked the light in my brain", is Mowbray’s way of describing the influence of his new, invigorating, forward thinking boss. 

"He saw the bigger picture as a coach, we’d be training and he’d scream ‘stop, stand still!’ And clearly explain his points."

This bigger picture coaching rhetoric was manna from heaven to Mowbray, whether through personal development or from team shape.

Rather than play the regimented 4-4-2 of the time?

 "We had a midfield who were flexible, whose shape could change in game"

On reflection Rioch and his assistant manager Colin Todd were of course disciples of the greatest football visionary and as fate would have it, another ex ‘Boro legend, born and bred, just like Mogga.

The one and only Brian Clough, the influence on Rioch and Todd, forged from their glory days at Derby County.

With Steve Gibson saving Boro off the pitch by forming a successful local consortium and the tactical acumen of Rioch, Boro were instantly promoted in their only season in Division 3.

And have simply never looked back..

Rioch was to stay at Boro for an eventful four seasons, back to back promotions but instant relegation in their first season in Division 1, with of course the almost ever present team leader, Mowbray as captain..

Such was the respect Rioch had for his captain over the four seasons, Bruce paid the ultimate compliment stating, 

"If I had to fly to the moon the one man I’d take with me is Tony Mowbray. He is a magnificent man."

In order to truly see the respect Tony Mowbray had at Middlebrough, I was lucky enough to be able to ask one of his former team mates at the time, Robbie Mustoe, his impressions of the 'Mogga 'affect. on his fellow team mates.

Robbie Mustoe had just signed to Middlesbrough from Oxford Utd for 375,000 Pounds, and was to embark on a diamond of a career at Boro, playing over 450 games for the club over twelve impressive seasons with the club.

Here are the words Robbie told me, regarding Mowbray.

"Mogga was right up there as one of the best captains I played under. He heloped me so much as a young player making the big move. He loved and cared about his club so much.......

A quiet thoughtful leader that will inspire that will inspire many at West Brom just like he did at all his other clubs. Top man'"..

Robbie's testimony says it all about the empathy and understanding that are a hallmark of Mowbray's career as a player and later a manager.

Mowbray’s tenth season in the first team at Boro was to be his last, and although they were promoted back at their first attempt to the newly formed Premier League, for Mowbray it was time for a new start, north of the border with Celtic.

The scenario of signing for a Million Pounds to The Bhoys’ in mid season was atypical of the manager and player dynamic of transfers at the time. 

Celtic boss Liam Brady met Mowbray at a Glasgow hotel and literally stumbled into a transfer deal minus the influence of anyone from the profession that has proliferated in the game over future decades.

A football agent.

For Tony it was a tricky start to a career in Scotland that coincided with the most tragic of personal experience.

When joining a new club, the desire to impress and set a standard is obvious, but for Tony it became a disaster, in his second game enduring a serious ankle injury.

For Mowbray, a player who was very rarely injured, this time of rehabilitation led to introspection and the conclusion that for his initial Celtic games he was,

"to ‘uptight’ with the adrenaline pumping through my veins at the time"’

This early damaging impact with a new club has led to Tony adopting a hard and fast but simple rule as a manager.

In all of  the Mowbray teams he’s managed, NEW signings NEVER start for any of his teams..

In order to fit into a team from the off, new players are,

"Eased in and encouraged to relax and not be too tense.."

Prevention is better than cure..

Tony’s playing career was mixed in his three and a half seasons at Celtic, only 77 games played, but his time in Scotland was blighted by the worst of personal tragedies, the death of his wife, Bernadette at just 26 years old.

From an original diagnosis of breast cancer, something eventually Bernadette overcame, her condition quickly spread to her lungs, liver and hips quickly becoming terminal.

Tony and Bernadette moved their wedding forward and she died eight months later on New Years Day 1995, in the arms of her beloved Tony.

Tony’s reflection of this ultimate tragedy, "my wife died in my arms surrounded by her family, the way she wanted it"

Sad beyond words..

 On New Year's Day, regardless of where Tony’s team was playing, he’d find some way to fly to Glasgow, to be in the city on the anniversary Bernadette passed away.

This commitment was halted out of respect for his changing family dynamic,

"I don’t do that now. I have to respect my second wife Amber, our children and our life together".

The last port of call in Tony’s playing career was a five year sojourn where again he inevitably was selccted as captain of Ipswich Town.

Once a leader, always a leader.

Mogga’s final game as a player was the most perfect of timing, 37 years old and making his first ever appearance at Wembley, in a 4-2 League One Playoff win against Barnsley.

With the most perfect timing, Mogga scored with a towering header.

A photo of the goal is still framed at his home.

6ft 1 inch of north eastern granite, frozen in time, in mid air, clear blue sky behind him, unleashing an unstoppable header.

Or when you think about it, having that photo on display makes sense on many levels?

You end your playing career a winner, and in Tony’s mind he’s back to that goal scoring kid, he always saw himself as?

Maybe emulating a John Hickton header at the back post at Ayresome Park all those years ago?

Also on the Mowbray home wall is the iconic one armed lift of the Championship Trophy won with The Baggies eighteen years later.

This moment, Tony still describes as the best of his forty-three seasons of football.

The Premier League of 2000/01 didn’t have too many centre halves of Mogga’s vintage and time as we all know awaits for no man.  

A gruelling pre-season at Ipswich informed Tony that this was one season too many for him as a player.

With some trepidation, just prior to an opening day game away to Spurs, the Tractor Boys captain nervously knocked on the door of manager George Burley’s office.

With a sense of guilt Tony broke this seemingly ‘bad news’.

Burley’s wry, unpredictable response was,

"Thank God you told me that!!"

The mutual synopsis was Mogga’s legs had ‘gone’, but Burley still ‘liked my voice on the pitch’.

So after 553 games, Mowbray finally called it a day in his career, but a voice and a presence last a lot longer than ‘legs’.

This led to a natural progression for Mogga to coach and eventually become caretaker manager from George Burley, becoming the final two seasons narrative of Mowbray’s time in Suffolk.

With awful irony, in 2024, Burley and Mowbray both faced an adversary far more dangerous and relentless than anything either faced in their respective careers..

Cancer.

Both are fortunately doing well after chemotherapy and operations to recover from this horrific condition.

Mowbray’s first, full time official management post was a return, north of the border with Hibernian.

It was to be an incredible two seasons for Hibs under Mogga, back to back top four finishes in Scotland’s top division [the first time Hibs had achieved this since the 1950’s], two European qualifications and some epic battles with fellow Edinburgh club and bitterest rival, Hearts.

Coached by?

George Burley..

You simply cannot write the script??

A few common themes throughout Mowbray’s career in coaching were established at Hibs. 

The commitment to entertaining football, the development of players who were to become cult heroes over time, and the goodwill fans have towards Tony from all of his former clubs.

Tony’s assertion of how best to get performances and commitment out of the maverick type of characters is simply,

"All I had to do was provide direction"’

Maybe the turning point of that psychology was recently listening to Tony reflections, on Sir Alex Ferguson’s guidance, with empathy, forgiveness and framework to the greatest of all mavericks, Eric Cantona?

At Hibs that character was a 17 year old lad with a red mohican haircut, someone Tony described as a ‘mad guy’, but given responsibility, "he thrived."

The player's name?

Scott Brown.

"Scott became a leader. Became a leader because he was given licence to."

Working with and not against these mavericks defined in some ways Mowbray’s coaching career, but clearly Tony does not suffer fools gladly..

Or in his own words,

"Wrong uns".

From Hibs the next move was to be where Mowbray now resumes his career, nineteen years later.

West Brom.

The wonder of the Great Escape season of Bryan Robson’s team in 2004/5 was a distant mirage the following season with woeful relegation, winning just seven games and missing safety by eight points.

In the Championship, Robson left after just eight games, and after short term caretakership roles by Nigel Pearson and Craig Shakespeare, on October 13th, 2006 the first reign of Tony Mowbray at the Baggies was to begin.

First impressions are always so important in how Mowbray views a dressing room dynamic, and despite a first game 5-1 win away to Ipswich with that cleanest of Baggies finishers, Kevin Phillips getting a hattrick, changes were needed.

Fast.

The portents of the dressing room Bryan Robson created, were not great for a manager who, 

"Lives with good values, integrity, hard working and respect’".

Hugely important personal qualities Mogga learned as a kid from his dad.

The only word to describe Mowbrey’s initial impression of the Albion dressing room was one of shock..

The wrong un’s were running the show..

Tony describes such type of character’s influence as, 

"The guys that drain the energy out of a dressing room".

Rather than find ways to work with the policy of team first, self first flourished,

 “As five of six of these wrong un’s saw their role!”

Rather than find ways to develop team unity, and cohesion, instead excuses to avoid team commitments proliferated.

Requests to avoid meetings, to suggest they had to be at certain places at certain times, complaining when asked to watch footage of games just played.

It was always a why or a whine..

As Tony reflected, about this toxic environment,

“The manager was expected to pander to them”.

Things needed changing, but with such a relatively large core group of dilettantes, it was always going to take time to create the healthy, respectful, cohesive environment where Mowbray's teams thrive.

It took over a season to drain the swamp.

The key to rebuilding of course is the character and players you buy, and even this week, when asked about the most important factor to success as a manager, Mowbray instantly replied, 

"Recruitment".

From a joint outlay of 4.5 Million Pounds, the signings of Chris Brunt from Sheffield Wednesday and James Morrison from Mogga’s beloved ‘Boro’ were masterstrokes in bringing the average age of the team down, but improving the quality and character.

Just under 700 WBA appearances between those two legendary Baggies midfielders says everything about longevity and commitment and the fact three years ago Mowbray returned to their joint testimonial says it all about loyalty.

In essence, loyalty is earned and is a two way thing.

And in yet another of so many seemingly fateful moments of  Mowbray’s life, the irony of returning now to the Baggies, is so fitting with the caretaker manager being a person of such admirable character, and is so close to Mowbray, Chris Brunt.

West Brom’s two seasons in The Championship under Mowbray saw some of the most exhilarating, fun football seen at The Hawthorns for decades, and arguably not seen quite at that level since.

As Mowbray reflected last week, 

“How can you fail when you have Zoltan Gera down the right wing, Chris Brunt down the left and Kevin Phillips in the middle?”

Mowbray’s first season of “Moving on the wrong uns”, was rewarded with a League finish of 4th, a play off win for the ages v Wolves, but losing to Derby County in the final at Wembley.

The following season, there was only one way to go, when playing football with such panache and expression.

FA Cup Semi Finalists.

Promotion as champions.

The self confessed football romantic narrowly finishing above the deeply pragmatic.

We were to know the pragmatic, even better, six years later.

Tony Pulis.

It was the nearest we’ll probably ever get to emulating the 1930/31 Baggies team, who gained promotion and FA Cup glory in the same season, achieved for the one and only time in football history.

The gap between the Premier League and The Championship is wide, and even wider when you lose players of the quality of Zoltan Gera and the much discussed and controversial decision not to offer a new contract to Kevin Phillips.

I still don’t get that one?

Technical excellence always informs and motivates Mowbray, so the somewhat exotic signing at the time of Borja Valero, fitted perfectly with the DNA of the football romantic who Mowbray will always be.

Mogga’s dogged philosophy to never conform from his ideals, may have led to some defeats, and certainly, led to questions being asked by Match of the Day analyst, Alan Hansen, asking rhetorically, 

“Why doesn’t he change?”

But that’s Mogga.

Principles come first..

But so did relegation…

32 Points is unlikely to grant you a second season in any division.

Transfers could be hit and miss, the arrival of Jonas Olsson and also on loan, Yousouf Mulumbu, were to be the building blocks for the future.

The Baggies faithful, if we are honest, are mutually romantic in our appreciation of attractive football at whatever the cost.

We still backed Mowbray.

The final game of the season, the Blackburn faithful got a sneak preview of the man they were to welcome as their manager a decade later, in the form of a 'Mowbray army'.

The away end, in a brilliant and moving show of support, organized by the original Baggies Ultra’, Dean Walton, at 2.59pm, donned hundreds of Tony Mowbray masks..

Tony’s consideration of so many masks of him created the usual deadpan response, 

“Masks of me? That’ll be scary”,

An uneventful 0-0 draw turned out to be the last game of the first Mowbray era..

You can easily tell that final game of the season the love and respect, Mogga had for the Baggies faithful, 

“I’m not trying to be sycophantic, but it’s quite humbling to have such support for a team that's at the bottom of the division”.

When Mowbray considers the reason he left West Brom a few weeks later to join Celtic in June 2009, he reflects on the simple question he said was so often asked in later years by WBA fans,

‘Why?’

Often relegated managers are sacked, but Mowbray’s talents were still appreciated, and after an initial approach from Celtic, a week later West Brom gained Two Million Pounds, and Mogga was gone and missed.

Mowbray reflects, “The Baggies fans were SO supportive of me.”

And any sense of deep disappointment is diluted in Mowbray’s mind by the players he left behind, and the platform for development.

“ It would be nice to be a Premier League manager with that team we built; Brunty, Mozza, Teixiera, Koren”.

An artist will always reflect on the ‘artists’..

Atypical Mowbray.

Celtic’s modus operandi was, as Baggies Chairman, Jeremy Peace at the time stated, 

‘Tony has a compensation clause in his contract that Celtic have fully met’, and Mowbray took over from Gordon Strachan bringing his loyal coaching staff including his No.2 Mark Venus, who is Mogga's loyal and capable assistant manager to this day..

But life the second time at Celtic, was to be a 9 month nightmare, winning just seventeen of thirty league games, never close enough to be deemed a success for the Glasgow giants.

The pressure of living in a city as intense with such football emotion, wasn’t easy for Mowbray, but the interaction with the media was even worse..

“You would have thought I was the devil incarnate. The fit wasn’t right.”

Mowbray was not out of work for long. 

Home was calling and it was a struggling Boro side that needed the stoic presence of Mowbray again, this time in the Rioch role of manager.

Mowbray replaced, ironically again, Gordon Strachan, and being home felt perfect..

“I came back to a safe environment for my openness, and my aim is to build my teams to play exciting, attractive football.”

It was to be a case of deja vu and cost cutting.

Mowbray hated telling players, he had to tout them to save wages and as in his playing days in the mid 1980’s, it was again a time of blooding youngsters to save costs..

Mowbray’s first season with Boro was similar in some ways to Carlos Corberan’s first year at West Brom, stabilizing a team facing the abyss.

Boro were 22nd when Mowbray arrived and finished 12th, the second season was consolidation and improving on that finish, just missing the Play Offs and 7th.

Mowbray’s final Boro season was short lived, winning just one of his previous twelve games, when a playoff spot was the minimum Steve Gibson required.

This sparked the longest time of Mowbray’s career out of management with an 18 Months gap between the Boro sacking and the appointment in March 2015 for a desperately struggling Coventry City, who looked likely to be relegated to the Fourth tier of English football.

Initially in a caretaker role, five wins in twelve games left Mowbray’s Sky Blues future dependent on a win away to Crawley Town, which they duly gained.

A few days later, Mowbray signed a two year contract with the Sky Blues, using the same mantra as he spoke about almost a decade later at West Brom earlier this week.

“Recruitment is key”.

You can’t get more of an example of a football romantic than recruiting Joe Cole to the Third tier, but Mowbray duly did and over two spells and twenty two games, Cole’s influence must have been so beneficial to the youngsters in the squad.

This included a local midfielder who dovetailed extremely well with Cole.

James Maddison.

Coventry finished 7th, and no one could have predicted the disaster of the start of the following season.

Ten games.

Zero Wins.

Last place on six points..

Mowbray duly resigned..

It seems that if your team was in trouble would be the only way Tony Mowbray was finding work and after five months out of the game and with Blackburn Rovers [Premier League Champions a dozen years earlier], struggling horribly, Mogga signed a rolling, eighteen month contract.

Rovers, 200 Million Pounds in debt, were now 23rd in The Championship with just over three months left in the season.

The Mowbray effect was immediate, a six game unbeaten run, then a dip of three defeats, but the final five games of that season were literally playoff, not relegation form, five games, eleven points even winning their last crucial game away to Brentford. 

It wasn’t to be enough.

Mowbray and Blackburn were relegated by that cruelest of all margins.

Goal difference.

Mowbray felt he was building something at Rovers, despite relegation.

The more difficult part was building a relationship with the notorious ownership group, based in India, The Venky’s.

In his first three months, Mowbray had just two telephone calls with the elusive Asian owners.

Looking at Blackburn’s squad, it was obvious that under Mowbray, their stay in Division 1 would only be a short sojourn.

With the likes of David Raya starting in goal, a midfielder embedded in the Mowbray way, the technically excellent Bradley Dack pulling the strings and a joint strike force of Adam Armstrong and Danny Graham scoring for fun, it was zero surprise that Blackburn would gain promotion.

The best way to describe the two seasons of Mowbray back in The Championship was of easy on the eye football and consolidation.

Blackburn finished 15th and 11th respectively.

After five seasons, and oddly enough, EXACTLY the same winning ratio as Mowbray achieved both previously at West Brom and at his next post, Sunderland, a frankly superb 40% win rate, it was time to move on.

Mowbray summed his time at Rovers as, 

“It’s been a wonderful experience these past five years and I appreciate everyone on the journey”

Definitely a career pattern.

Notwithstanding Celtic, leaving a club in a better place than he found it, is part of the Mowbray DNA.

And of course developing technically excellent young players..

Harvey Elliott, the Young EFL Player of that Season, played 41 games in Mowbray’s final year at Rovers and indeed before he signed on loan from Liverpool studied the playing style of Blackburn before committing his short term future there.

On returning to Liverpool after such a successful loan spell, Mogga stated,

“We would never say we ‘made’ Harvey Elliott, but we integrated him into a group of men who learned to fight.”

At the same time, the talented Adam Wharton who was just 17 at the time, was making his way through the Blackburn Academy.

Another Mowbray pupil.

No doubt, Premier League clubs all over the country know with absolute clarity that few managers will develop their young, talented players with such attention to detail , empathy and care as Tony Mowbray.

That has to be wonderful news for WBA.

Sunderland was the next port of call for Mowbray, taking over in August 2022, after the 'Maccums' lost half of their opening six league games under Alex Neil.

Sunderland had only just been promoted but expectations were high.

As ever with Mowbray, age would not be a factor in selection and a vibrant young side entertained as well as won games.

I love this quote that’s so apt,

“They charmed themselves to the playoffs!”

The average age of that Sunderland team was 21 years and three months.

Young talent breathed and thrived, yet again under Mowbray.

Sunderland’s best two players were the teenager Jack Clarke and the extravagantly talented but painfully shy at the time, Amad Diallo, scoring fourteen goals on loan from Man Utd.

Diallo paid Mowbray the ultimate compliment describing how Tony developed his self confidence and technique during his season at The Stadium of Light,

“Tony is like my dad- He gave me the opportunity to develop my skills on the pitch.”

See a pattern here?

Prodigious young attacking talent, stating how massive an influence Mowbray is on their career?

Glowing testimonies, well earned..

As they say, 'You never forget a good teacher'..

Maybe, Tony sees young vibrant talent in the mould of what he was and wanted to be all those years ago as a kid back in Redcar?

The attacking player who could dribble and who could score.

Dreamers will always dream.

A physically imposing Luton Town, ended up beating the artisans from Sunderland in the Championship Playoffs over two legs.

I feel the Premier League was robbed..

Off the pitch at Sunderland it was at times challenging for Mogga, with 27 year old owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus ‘perhaps’ taking his ownership role too far?

Mowbray reflected that the owner, less than half his age, with no management in football experience would ‘advise’ Mowbray on the players he wanted to play?

Mogga's reaction, looking back,

“I had the responsibility to win games for 46,000 supporters”.

Mowbray’s rationale was “I watch every player every day”, over the owner’s take on who should play?

It was a dichotomy that wouldn’t create a long coach/owner dynamic, and Mowbray was dismissed when Sunderland were at the time 9th midway through that following 2023/24 season.

It was to become an added layer of an awful period in Mowbray’s life as his house was also burgled a few weeks before.

Mowbray was eternally grateful that the club paid every penny due on his contract, [that didn’t occur at every club he managed] and also maintained his private health insurance.

Something that was about to become beyond vital..

Mowbray’s last appointment was to replace the hapless Wayne Rooney to bring stability and hope back to Birmingham City.

It was to be a short, six game spell, and as we all know, health dictated Mowbray’s future..

Bill Shankly famously refers to “Football being life and death, I can assure you, it’s much more important than that!”

For Mowbray that life or death scenario became all too true..

An annual medical in early 2024, picked up through the League Managers Association revealed an advanced stage of colon cancer. 

The diagnosis?

Life saving, invasive surgery.

And as soon as possible.

Ten days later, Mowbray undertook a ten hour operation to take away the cancerous area of his colon, and a long, life changing recovery, interspersed with bouts of chemotherapy..

Simply put, the biggest challenge of Mowbray’s life.

Other articles have been written, graphically describing the ordeal and daily changes to the life of a very proud leader, reduced, by the evils of cancer.

Mogga would never be broken, never bowed.

Cancer has no filter…

A leader of the ilk and stature of Tony Mowbray means nothing.

But with prompt, expert and speedy treatment Tony is now cancer free, as a six month check up this week revealed an all clear diagnosis.

And an all clear to resume his life.

His job.

His love.

At his home.

The Hawthorns..

For Tony, despite the worst of times, he still felt guilty.

The medical insurance he had covered the private care he was so fortunate to get.

But close by, Tony saw those less fortunate.

Still waiting and hoping.

And there were many of them.

Also Tony uses the whole experience as a warning and a life saver.

“If there’s something not normal, don’t be afraid to see your doctor and get it checked out”

The silent, indiscriminate killer will get you..

And as Tony finally adds on this hideous theme.,

“It’s not only you, think about your family”.

And that in a nutshell that was really it, for me.

Family..

Seeing Tony Mowbray silently contemplating in the tunnel at the Albion on Saturday, to be reintroduced to the club's  fan base who truly loves him, what must he have been thinking of the journey that brought him here today?’

The genuine outpouring of support from across the spectrum of football, clubs he has both played for and coached and also beyond those is fully deserved.

As the statuesque, humble, personable and proud 63 year old walked back onto The Hawthorns pitch, to an emotional and deserved ovation, I hope he was thinking?

I'm back with my family.

I’m home.

Welcome back Tony, we’ve missed you...