Editing Jack Charlton (section)

===Middlesbrough===
Charlton was offered the job as manager of [[Football League Second Division|Second Division]] club [[Middlesbrough F.C.|Middlesbrough]] on his 38th birthday in 1973. He declined to be interviewed for the position and instead handed the club a list of responsibilities he expected to take, which, if agreed to, would give him total control of the running of the club.<ref>{{harvnb|Charlton|1996|p=136}}</ref> He refused a contract and would never sign a contract throughout his managerial career.<ref>{{harvnb|Charlton|1996|p=137}}</ref> He took a salary of £10,000 a year despite the chairman being willing to pay a lot more; his only stipulations were a gentleman's agreement that he would not be sacked, assurances that he would have no interference from the board in team affairs, and three days off a week for fishing and shooting.<ref>{{cite book |last=Phillips |first=Neil |title=Doctor To The World Champions: My Autobiography |year=2010 |publisher=Trafford |isbn=978-1-4251-6429-4 |page=493 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hky42XmoBZcC&q=%22Jack+Charlton%22&pg=PA489}}</ref> He decided first to repaint [[Ayresome Park]] and to publicise the upcoming league campaign to generate higher attendance figures.<ref>{{harvnb|Charlton|1996|p=142}}</ref>

Charlton took advice from Celtic manager [[Jock Stein]], who allowed him to sign right-sided midfielder [[Bobby Murdoch]] on a free transfer.<ref>{{harvnb|Charlton|1996|p=139}}</ref> Besides Murdoch the club already had ten players who Charlton moulded into a championship-winning side: [[Jim Platt]] (goalkeeper), [[John Craggs (footballer)|John Craggs]] (right-back), [[Stuart Boam]] and [[Willie Maddren]] (centre-backs), [[Frank Spraggon]] (left-back), [[David Armstrong (footballer, born 1954)|David Armstrong]] (left midfield), [[Graeme Souness]] (central midfield), [[Alan Foggon]] (attacking midfield), [[John Hickton]] and [[David Mills (footballer)|David Mills]] (forwards). Some of these players were already settled at the club and in their positions, whilst Charlton had to work with some of the other players. He moved Souness from left midfield to central midfield to compensate for his lack of pace and coached him to play the ball forward rather than side to side as was his instinct.<ref>{{harvnb|Charlton|1996|p=144}}</ref> Foggon was played in a new role which Charlton created to break the offside trap set by opposition defenders, an extremely fast player he was instructed to run behind defenders and latch on to the long ball to find himself one-on-one with the goalkeeper.<ref>{{harvnb|Charlton|1996|p=146}}</ref>

Middlesbrough secured promotion with seven games still to play of the [[1973–74 Football League|1973–74]] season, and Charlton told his team to settle for a point away at [[Luton Town F.C.|Luton Town]] so they could win the title at home but his players ignored his instruction to concede a goal and the title was secured with a 1–0 win at [[Kenilworth Road]].<ref name=":4">{{harvnb|Charlton|1996|p=147}}</ref> They won the title by a 15-point margin (at the time only two points were awarded for a win); in contrast promoted [[Carlisle United F.C.|Carlisle United]] (3rd) finished only 15 points ahead of [[Crystal Palace F.C.|Crystal Palace]] (20th), who were relegated. He was named Manager of the Year, the first time that a manager outside of the top-flight had been given such an honour.<ref name="page 148">{{harvnb|Charlton|1996|p=148}}</ref>

He continued to manage and change every aspect of the club. He decided to disassemble the club's scouting network to instead focus on local talent in [[Northumberland]] and [[County Durham|Durham]].<ref name="page 150">{{harvnb|Charlton|1996|p=150}}</ref> His only major new signing of the [[1974–75 Football League|1974–75]] season was [[Terry Cooper (footballer, born 1944)|Terry Cooper]], a former Leeds United teammate.<ref name="page 150"/> They adapted well to the [[Football League First Division|First Division]], finishing in seventh place, but would have finished fourth and qualified for Europe had [[Derby County F.C.|Derby County]] not scored a last-second goal against them on the last day of the season.<ref name="page 151">{{harvnb|Charlton|1996|p=151}}</ref>

Building for the [[1975–76 Football League|1975–76]] campaign, he signed [[Phil Boersma]] from [[Liverpool F.C.|Liverpool]] to replace Murdoch, but Boersma never settled at the club and was frequently injured.<ref name="page 151"/> They finished in 13th place, and went on to win the [[Anglo-Scottish Cup]] with a 1–0 win over [[Fulham F.C.|Fulham]].<ref name="page 151"/> They also reached the semi-finals of the [[Football League Cup|League Cup]], and took a 1–0 lead over [[Manchester City F.C.|Manchester City]] into the second leg at [[Maine Road]], where they were soundly beaten 4–0.<ref name="page 151"/> Teams had begun to learn how to combat Charlton's attack strategy. They left their centre-backs outside of the penalty box to neutralise Foggon's threat.<ref>{{harvnb|Charlton|1996|p=152}}</ref> Despite the team's steady progress, the club's board voted to sack Charlton in July 1976 after becoming increasingly concerned that he was overstepping his authority in negotiating business deals on behalf of the club and choosing the club's strip.<ref name="stripp">{{cite book |last=Phillips |first=Neil |title=Doctor To The World Champions: My Autobiography |year=2010 |publisher=Trafford |isbn=978-1-4251-6429-4 |pages=560–1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hky42XmoBZcC&q=%22Jack+Charlton%22&pg=PA489}}</ref> The club chairman overruled the decision and Charlton remained in charge.<ref name="stripp"/>

With Hickton coming to the end of his career, Charlton tried to sign [[David Cross (footballer, born 1950)|David Cross]] as a replacement but refused to go above £80,000, and Cross instead went to [[West Ham United F.C.|West Ham United]] for £120,000.<ref name="page 153">{{harvnb|Charlton|1996|p=153}}</ref> Middlesbrough finished the [[1976–77 Football League|1976–77]] campaign in 12th place, and Charlton left the club at the end of the season on the belief that four years was an optimum time with one group of players and that he had reached his peak with them – he later regretted his decision. He stated that he could have led the club to a league title if he had stayed and signed two more top-quality players.<ref name="page 153"/> He applied for the job of [[England national football team|England]] manager after [[Don Revie]] quit the role and [[Brian Clough]] was ruled out by [[the Football Association]]. Charlton did not receive a reply to his application and vowed never to apply for another job again, instead waiting until he was approached.<ref>{{harvnb|Charlton|1996|p=156}}</ref>