Gibson happy to keep his axe under wraps

Gibson remains steadfast in his support for his manager, whom he predicts will finally deliver the club's first major trophy within the next three years.

Robson, who has seen Boro lose in three cup finals in his six years in charge, last week warned that his friendship with Gibson wouldn't save him from the chop.

A section of Boro's support are calling for Gibson to swing the axe as Robson's side slide towards a potential relegation struggle.

And Gibson confirmed: "Bryan is not unsackable - but he's no quitter either and his future is with this football club.

"He needs to know that, the players need to know that and the fans need to know that. But everything at this club is now under review. We have a strategy and we're adding to that and reviewing it.

"We're asking difficult questions of each other and there's a lot of finger-pointing because we know we have to get things absolutely right.

"But I know Bryan's qualities and I think they are vital to this club, whether in the short-term or the long-term.''

In a disarmingly frank vein, multi-millionaire haulage tycoon Gibson - who controls almost 95 per cent of Boro's shares - also reaffirmed his own position.

Since Robson's reign began, Gibson has sanctioned gross spending of over £100m on transfers, the construction of the Riverside Stadium and a state-of-the-art training complex.

"I have a commitment to this club and I'll see it through,'' he insisted. "I'm not worried about the current situation but I'm concerned, and Bryan is concerned.

"We know this is our most challenging time but we talked for three hours this week and decided we should get a smile back on our faces and enjoy the challenge. We're both condident we can put things right.''

Boro crashed to a fourth successive defeat when they were knocked out of the Worthington Cup by Wimbledon on Tuesday.

And Gibson conceded: "Everybody at this club is very disappointed that we've got ten points from 11 games and are out of the Worthington Cup. It's not something we expected.

"We saw this season as the big push. We'd had two seasons in mid-table and we felt we had the squad in place that would move us up that extra four or five places.

"At the moment we have no basis for believing that's going to happen this season and there's a lot of frustration among the supporters.

"We have a knowledgeable crowd here and some of the criticism thrown at the club is justified.

"But I don't want to isolate Bryan in that. The support from our hard-core fans is unconditional and I can't be critical of those people.

"But I would hope the fans wouldn't personalise the issue and isolate individuals.

"We now have some of the best footballers in the world here and we're still confident we can, in the long-term, achieve the ambitions the supporters have for the club.

"And nobody has more ambition than Bryan Robson. In any walk of life you are going to have tough times, but if there's anyone who can smash through those challenges, it's Bryan.

"It mightn't be at the pace people want - people are impatient - but we've got to close our ears to that and not be too influenced by others.

"We had a bad time around Christmas last year and the vocal demonstration has actually lessened since then.

"The letters we're getting suggest there's a resilience among our supporters which says it's now time to get behind the club.''

Gibson admitted: "I could envisage a time when I would work with another manager. As a chairman I've worked with Bryan and Lennie Lawrence.

"Lennie was a cracking guy and I was close to him, but when it came to it, I did what I had to do.

"There could come a time with Bryan when friendship won't count for anything and I would have to make a difficult decision. Bryan would expect me to do it and I've told him I would do it. He's big enough to understand that and it wouldn't affect our friendship.

"There's no timescale, but Bryan has two more seasons on his contract and in that time I believe we will win our first major trophy.''

Robson revealed last week that Gibson had received "nasty letters'' from disgruntled fans.

But Gibson stressed: "It wasn't necessarily hate mail and I'm not concerned about it. Football is about opinions and everybody is entitled to their opinion, but it's mine that counts here.

"A lot of people are craving change and in my case it's guilt by association. Some think that, because I'm not prepared to make a certain decision, there's some fatal flaw in my make-up.

"A lot of letters accuse me of blind loyalty, but that's not the case. I'm only interested in making the right decisions for this club. Friendship and loyalty are important but the progress of this club is more important.

"We've had so much to do over the last six or seven years. Before Bryan came we'd finished tenth in the First Division, we had no training ground, we had old Ayresome Park and we had no infrastructure for youth development.

"Now that's all in place and Bryan has been the catalyst for the reinvention of this club. Bryan is the reason so many players have come here. We felt we were close to signing Dino Baggio (from Parma) recently, but it didn't happen.

"But we broke our transfer record when we paid £8m for Ugo Ehiogu and we think that's a great investment for the club. The reason he is here is Bryan Robson. The same applies to Alen Boksic and Paul Ince.

"The supporters have been fantastic, they've shown a great deal of faith, and I'm disappointed for them with the way things have gone of late.

"What I would say to the disaffected fans is that the infrastructure of the club is in place. It's taken a huge investment and any decision to improve the club will be taken, providing I believe that decision is the right one.'