Mendieta Magic: Middlesbrough v Manchester United 2005/06
30 years/30 games
Words: Rob Fletcher
I am from the Robson Riverside Revolution. 1994 was my year zero. Aged 9. A few brief visits to Ayresome Park in 92/93 followed a brief dalliance as a Manchester United fan. Then it was all Boro. Once Robbo arrived that was it.
In 1994, we bought Neil ‘The Million Pound Man’ Cox. It felt like a massive transfer moment. There really should have been a documentary following his life because that nickname lent it self to a reality TV show before they were even a thing.
It was still quite incredible in 1994 that a team in the First Division spent £1m on a player. Yes, other teams had spent money (hello Derby and Wolves), but this was rare. It was definitely rare for Boro.
The next nine years were a blur.
Fjortoft. Barmby. Juninho. Emerson. Ravanelli. Schwarzer. Merson. Gazza. Branca. Ricard. Ziege. Ince. Boksic. Ehiogu. Southgate. Boateng. Maccarone. Zenden.
Millions of Steve Gibson’s pocket money spent on players.
A plethora of stars. Massive transfer fees, exorbitant wages and Merson’s chauffeur from London. It became normal practice for Boro. We expected the papers to be flush with transfer rumours. I even wrote a piece for Boro Mag about it right here. CLICK THIS LINK HERE AND HAVE A LOOK.
But there was one that arguably superseded them all.
Gaizka Mendieta. Valencia captain. A star on the small screen as ITV showed us Valencia reach (and lose) two consecutive Champions League finals. He went to Euro 2000 and the World Cup in 2002. He was a megastar. So much so that when Lazio spent £29m on him, there was barely a flinch. Of course he would cost that. He was a leader and incredible talent.
Lazio spent money in the late 90s like it was going out of fashion. In the summer of 2001, things were different. There was fan unrest with owner Sergio Cragnotti and there were high-profile departures. Over €100m of talent (Pavel Nedved, Juan Sebastian Veron and Marcelo Salas) sold and a similar amount spent on Mendieta, Jaap Stam and Darko Kovacevic.
Mendieta’s preference was a £37m move to Real Madrid, but Valencia did not want him to leave for a rival. Florentino Perez had already spent over £45m on bringing Zinedine Zidane to the Spanish capital so it was a non-starter really. A move to the Italian capital should have meant an even bigger stage for his talent. But it didn’t work out that way.
Mendieta flopped. He did not settle in at all, amidst a 6th place league finish, early elimination from the Champions League and two managers. A season later he landed at Barcelona on loan and did not make an impression there as three managers and poor league form meant the lowest finish in 15 years.
Interestingly, the next season at Barcelona saw Frank Rijkaard take his place in the dugout and Ronaldinho become the club’s focal point. Second place in the league started a new period of domination for the Spanish club.
Anyway, after two years of stunted development, Mendieta ended up on loan at Middlesbrough Football Club.
Whatever we think about Keith Lamb’s fax machine, he clearly knew a good deal.
Here are the details:
Boro picked up the majority of Mendieta’s £50,000 wages
The deal would be a one year loan
Lazio wanted a three-year loan agreement with Boro
Lazio’s deal would have cost Boro £8m in wages alone
Potential for the deal to convert into a permanent four-year deal
Boro beat off competition from Atletico Madrid and Athletic Bilbao for his signature.
So, Mendieta is a Boro player on a one-year loan deal and is announced on the pitch at the Riverside alongside Danny Mills. Boro’s transfer dealings in a nutshell. From Cox and Juninho to Mills and Mendi.
In his first season he performed well and made a strong impression on the pitch. He was an intergral member of the team that lifted the club’s first major honour. For that alone, his name will be remembered on Teesside forever.
During Boro’s best ever season in the Premier League, Mendieta was sidelined due to injury and barely featured. His start to 2005/06 stuttered too. Niggling injuries got in the way of regular football.
However, he did manage a run of games across October and November with the peak coming at the Riverside Stadium on the 29th October 2005.
Now, I did say that I had a brief dalliance as a Manchester United ‘fan’ back in the early 90s. They were winning games. The kits looked good and they were on the tele. Forgive me. But, I did really enjoy it when we beat them. One thing I never liked about those games was the sheer amount of Manchester United fans that ended up in the home crowd for those games.
We sat in the West Stand lower (block 2), right by the corner flag and the away fans. This was back when teams brought away fans to the Riverside (don’t worry that’ll change when we are back in the Premier League…). So, anyway, this game we had a dad and his two lads with him. I’m there, age 20, prime university age and my dad is with me too.
Now, it was quite clear from the start that these were not the classiest of United fans. And the performances that unfolded on that Riverside pitch showed their true colours. More on that bit later.
Back to Mendi.
Not for a minute am I saying that the Spaniard had anything to prove to Boro fans. Not at all. We loved him. But there was always that niggling suspicion with someone coming off a bad injury that their impact would be limited. All we wanted to do was win games. And by that point in the season we had lost to Charlton 3-0 and Sunderland 2-0 at home. On the flip side, we beat Aston Villa 3-2 away from home and our ultimate bogey-team Arsenal 2-1.
Coming into the Manchester United game, there was always a chance we would turn it on and beat them. It felt like a very Boro thing to do.
We beat them:
19th December 1998: 3-2 in the ‘Bernie’s Arse’ game at Old Trafford when United won the treble
26th January 2002: 2-0 thanks to late goals from Noel Whelan and Andy Campbell in an FA Cup win at the Riverside
23rd March 2002: 1-0 thanks to Boksic and Benito Carbone
26th December 2002: A third win in a calendar year, this time a 3-1 victory at the Riverside. The one with the brilliant Boksic chip over Barthez after French Franck’s mazy run from left back. That was followed up by the squirming Nemeth and his blast past Barthez.
11th February 2004: Two Juninho headers. A two-goal lead thrown away. That Southgate block from O’Shea. Then Job finished it off and we won 3-2 at Old Trafford.
Then, there were three games without a win leading up to the game on that Saturday afternoon in October. It was pretty much Halloween, and United were about to be have a fright of their own (sorry).
The first thing to note was the line up. Steve McClaren switched to a back three with Matthew Bates in to play alongside Chris Riggott and Franck Queudrue , with Stuart Parnaby and Emmanuel Pogatez at wing back. Mendieta came in for James Morrison in central midfield to partner Fabio Rochemback and George Boateng. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was captain alongside Yakubu as Mark Viduka made way.
The first Mendieta moment came after 1 minute and 38 seconds.
Pogatez showed some nice footwork to step inside Darren Fletcher and found Mendieta who had picked up space centrally. It was actually acres of space. There was no one near him. Floating between the lines, he was difficult to pick up.
No one expected what came next.
One touch out of his feet. And he must have known what he was doing because his body swivels onto the ball as if to strike it without a moment to stop or think. So he does.
He hits it with his white boot. It dips and curls in the air. Edwin van der Sar is in the Manchester United goal. A top keeper. Completely done by the flight of the ball. Yes, it is poor goalkeeping. But what a strike.
It set the tone for a superb and dominating Boro performance. Genuinely one of the best I have ever seen at the Riverside.
The United fans perched on the edge of their seats next to us were not happy.
Mendieta turned creator in the 25th minute.
A pinpoint, diagonal ball towards the right-hand edge of the United box. How he saw it and executed it I do not know.
Hasselbaink is between Phil Bardsley and Rio Ferdinand. He seems to take double the amount of strides as the defenders. But he knows exactly where that ball is going to drop. And when it does, he nicks it past the United number six who is clueless as to what is happening. He is completely left behind. Jimmy nudges it again and then hits his finish hard at the body of Van der Sar who has no chance of keeping it out.
2-0.
Boro in dreamland.
The Riverside roared. Goosebumps.
Now the pathetic behaviour from the United fans next to us started. If you can’t take a dad and his lad jumping for joy at 2-0 then why are you sitting in the home end? They could not believe what they had watched. Neither could we really. But quickly they made an exit for the bar to drown their sorrows.
The third was a move started by Mendieta and finished with the coolest of penalties as always from Yakubu. You sort of knew he would score, but there was that nagging feeling at the back of your mind that just once he would mess it up. Not that day though.
Half time and Boro go in 3-0 up.
The final Mendi moment came after 78 minutes when he drilled the ball into the United net to make it 4-0. It was one of those goals that just settled everyone, even though we had been in control, you never knew if United could come back.
A standing ovation for Mendieta greeted his substitution and it showed the reason why Lazio had invested so much money in him. Why the Valencia fans adored him. And why Barcelona still believed there was a player in there despite his loss of form in Italy. His top-level career may have been over at that point, but he still thrilled Boro fans with that spectacular performance.
As the season went on, injuries continued to be an issue. It even resulted in Mendieta missing the UEFA Cup final, despite featuring in the epic home win over Roma and determined performance in the away leg.
Then, it all changed. McClaren gone. Southgate in the dugout and some pretty poor treatment of the midfielder by his former captain. But we will leave that for another day and just enjoy that superb performance against Manchester United one final time.
As for those Manchester United fans sitting next to us. They smeared their eaten chewing gum on our seats as the fourth goal went in. Classy behaviour. But not as classy as our Spanish maestro.
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