What Middlesbrough FC's stance on Steven Gerrard or Marti Cifuentes succeeding Michael Carrick is | OneFootball

Both Gerrard and Cifuentes have been linked with the vacant manager's job at Middlesbrough after Michael Carrick's departure.

Middlesbrough are sounding out a host of potential candidates to succeed Michael Carrick at the Riverside Stadium.

Northern Echo journalist Scott Wilson has confirmed that Boro are preparing to strike for their chosen candidate, with interviews taking place regarding their managerial vacancy this week.

It's said that the club have received a high volume of applications to become Middlesbrough's new manager, with Boro also believed to be considering some quality applications from coaches overseas too.

As such, it appears to be a fairly wide open race for the Riverside hotseat, with runners and riders from both home and foreign soil seemingly holding big chances.

Middlesbrough's stance on Marti Cifuentes and Steven Gerrard revealed

Among a large number of names to be linked with the Middlesbrough job have been those of Marti Cifuentes, and Steven Gerrard.

Starting with the former, Cifuentes has been effectively out of work since being placed on gardening leave by QPR in late April, just before their final game of the 2024/25 season.

At the time, the Spaniard was strongly linked with replacing Tony Mowbray at West Brom, but he was eventually revealed to have not been on the Baggies shortlist, and they have since appointed former Tottenham coach Ryan Mason.

As for Gerrard, the 45-year-old has been out of work since leaving Saudi Arabian side Al-Ettifaq in late January after 18 months in charge.

The Liverpool and England legend was installed as the new bookies' favourite to become the new Boro boss early this week, however, a recent revelation will see both his and Cifuentes' odds tumble.

That's because according to a report from The Northern Echo on Monday 9 June, neither Gerrard or Cifuentes are under consideration to become Middlesbrough's new head coach.

Despite spending the last eight seasons as a Championship club, Middlesbrough's ambitions of winning Premier League promotion once again have never wavered.

Thanks to some excellent recruitment over recent windows, and through the emergence of some quality academy talents such as Hayden Hackney and Sol Brynn, Boro's squad is laden with talented players at highly saleable assets.

With huge profits banked through the recent sales of Morgan Rogers and Emmanuel Latte Lath, the Teessiders appear to be in perhaps their strongest financial position since their relegation from the top flight in 2017.

However, club owner and chairman Steve Gibson will know all about handing the keys to the war chest to the wrong person, as was the case back in the summer of 2017 when Garry Monk splashed the cash on players that largely didn't live up to their transfer fees.

Therefore, with Boro set for another summer transfer window of significant investment into the playing squad, Gibson needs to install a manager that he can fully trust to invest transfer funds wisely, and maybe even have experience of winning promotion from the Championship.

Candidates such as Steve Cooper and Rob Edwards would tick a lot of those boxes, whilst Gerrard and Cifuentes perhaps wouldn't.

Whilst Gerrard can boast a Scottish Premiership title with Rangers, and has experience as a Premier League boss with Aston Villa, it's fair to say that he hasn't yet been able to replicate his early managerial successes in Glasgow since departing Ibrox in 2021.

Under the circumstances at Loftus Road, Cifuentes has done a solid enough job since becoming QPR manager in October 2023, but he has no experience in English football of competing for promotion.

Therefore, both Cifuentes and Gerrard's appointments would have some obvious major risk factors attached to them, and as such, Middlesbrough could surely find some more proven, safer and experienced candidates to hand the keys to this summer.