Gareth: A class act on the pitch; Contribution as a player should not be forgotten.

GARETH Southgate's sacking this week ended an eight-year association with Boro that included five magnificent years as a player. Gazette sports editor PHILIP TALLENTIRE looks back at the former skipper's on-field career and concludes he could well be pound-for-pound the club's best modern day player.

SIGNIFICANT forests have been pulped this week to provide the newsprint that carried details of Gareth Southgate's sacking.

In the many features and columns that have attempted to analyse Southgate's time at Boro, almost all have exclusively dealt with his 40 months as manager.

But what has been widely under-reported, is his massive impact on the pitch in the preceding five years.

Steve McClaren didn't always get things right when delving into the transfer market, but the pounds 6m capture of Southgate from Aston Villa in July 2001 was a masterstroke.

Too often, Boro paid over the odds for players entering their twilight years only to find they had little resale value when they failed to deliver but, while Southgate was two months short of his 31st birthday, he proved to be a bargain.

He was one of those players who was so good, he went almost unnoticed. His positional sense and reading of the game was second to none, that's why he so rarely had to make the last-ditch lunges that look so spectacular.

That's why he was so rarely suspended - he stayed on his feet.

As a converted midfielder, he was excellent on the deck and had a sweet left foot, allowing him to set attacking moves in motion from deep in his own half.

And his standards rarely slipped. It's almost impossible to recall a game where he endured a stinker, even at the tail end of his career, when he was in his mid-30s.

His captaincy was outstanding. While he could rant when required, he largely led by example, providing calm, reassuring presence after inheriting the armband from Paul Ince in 2002.

Off the field, he was an eloquent and respected spokesman for the club.

Four full-time England managers - Terry Venables, Glenn Hoddle, Kevin Keegan and Sven Goran Eriksson - all capped Southgate, who was a key member of the national squad during the early years of his Boro career.

It's ironic that one of his major problems as a rookie Boro boss was finding someone to take his place as an inspirational captain and as a leader of the backline.

There have been players who have made a bigger initial impact on their arrival on Teesside but none have made such a crucial long term contribution.

Nothing will match the aftershock that followed Juninho's sensational capture in 1995. And it can certainly be argued that in terms of pure skill on the ball, the Little Fella is Boro's most talented player of all time.

But while his impact was huge, it was over a relatively short period of 19 months. He energised the crowd, played in two Wembley cup finals and gave Boro international credibility but also played in a relegated team. Even his most fanatical supporters couldn't claim he was quite the same player when he returned for two further spells.

Alen Boksic and Mark Viduka also boasted breath-taking skills but only delivered in alltoo-brief bursts.

Southgate performed at the top of his game week in, week out. His calm-headed captaincy was crucial in Cardiff, when Boro withstood a late Bolton fightback to win the Carling Cup. He was equally inspirational on those unforgettable nights in Ostrava, Rome, Athens, Graz, Zurich, Xanthi and Stuttgart.

And few will forget him returning to the pitch at Newcastle bloodied but standing tall despite a massive head bandage following a clash with Alan Shearer in 2005.

Boro held on for a priceless point and less than two weeks later Southgate's Boro qualified for Europe for the second successive season.

His final game came in the UEFA Cup final defeat at Eindhoven but, had he not taken the manager's job a month later, he would surely have been capable of playing well into his 37th year.

He may ultimately be viewed as a managerial failure, but as a player he goes down as an all-time great.

CAPTION(S):

NEW BOY: Gareth Southgate at Hurworth after his pounds 6m move from Villa BLOODIED BUT UNBOWED: Gareth Southgate shows the scars of his battle with Alan Shearer CUP FINAL JOY: Gareth Southgate celebrates with team-mate Ugo Ehiogu after leading Boro to Carling Cup glory at the Millennium Stadium in 2004