Mowbray is aiming for football utopia

Thomson was part of Mowbray’s relatively successful Hibernian team between 2004-06, as they claimed a UEFA Cup spot behind Rangers and Celtic.

Mowbray has regularly outlined a desire to find ‘football utopia’ during his managerial career, believing that the game should be played in an attractive manner.

While his first eight months in charge of Middlesbrough might have been with a squad inherited from Gordon Strachan, Boro fans have been impressed by the progress made.

It has been a difficult summer so far in which there has been little movement on the transfer front.

But Thomson, reflecting on his time at Easter Road, knows Mowbray is the right man to take Middlesbrough forward.

“There were times (under Mowbray) when we went through to Glasgow (to face Rangers and Celtic) and they couldn’t get the ball off us,” said Thomson.

“We had a belief that we could beat anybody but our naivety and immaturity cost us a lot of games. I remember a game at Aberdeen where we played almost the entire game in their half and made something incredible like 1,000 passes, but ended up drawing.

“That was kind of the story of those two years. In some ways we were a bit like Arsenal in that we could pass teams to death and end up not getting the results.

“You could see in our opponents’ faces that they hated playing against us. The group we had was pretty breathtaking but we were probably missing a top keeper and that wee bit of grit that all of us have added since moving on to bigger clubs. I’m pretty sure we’d have that dirty side if we were all reunited now. In fact I don’t think we’d be far off winning the SPL.”

Thomson was at Hibernian when Mowbray arrived in 2004 and he quickly realised the new boss had the ingredients to be a managerial success.

“Mogga was a breath of fresh air,” said Thomson. “He was fortunate that he inherited a group of young players who wanted to play the same way he did – it was a proper match made in heaven.”