Speaking exclusively with BOYLE Sports , Irish football legend Shay Given has looked at the promotion race in the Championship and the title fight in the Scottish Premiership .
Given has paid tribute to Steve Gibson and dreamed of Middlesbrough , Sunderland and Newcastle all back in the top flight, while backing Mark Robins to bring much-needed stability to Stoke City .
Having come up through the Celtic youth system, the former Ireland international has also given his verdict on the title race, with Rangers having signed Derek McInnes and Lawrence Shankland from Hearts , and why he expects Martin O'Neill 's champions to be hard to topple.
Middlesbrough
What Can Middlesbrough Do This Summer?
I went on loan to Middlesbrough towards the end of my career, and I just have to give a special mention to Steve Gibson for everything he's done for that club over the years and how easy it would have been for him to just walk away. They've got so close so many times, and it'll be 10 years since they were last in the Premier League next year. He's obviously got other business interests and lots of other stresses in life, I'm sure, but he's stuck by the club, and he deserves huge credit for that.
You look at last year with Rob Edwards , and it looked like it was finally going to be their year, and there was all the turmoil of him leaving, and then Kim Hellberg came in and took them into the playoffs, then they were out and then back in for the final. They must have thought that this was their opportunity, but they keep getting to the top of the mountain only to slide back down again. I know what the Championship is like. I coached in the Championship for three years. It's exactly as they say. The bottom team can beat the top team, and it's an absolute battle every three days. It's so demanding on the players and the staff, and you can imagine what it does to an owner as well over the years.
You look at what Sunderland did last year, and I'd love to see Middlesbrough come up and do the same. Imagine it. Middlesbrough , Sunderland and Newcastle United all back in the Premier League . That's what I remember from my playing days at Newcastle , all three of them in the top flight, and it was something else with the derby games, the fans and all the banter around it. It'd be great if Middlesbrough get back up to the promised land because if there's one owner who deserves it, it's Steve Gibson , but you can't take anything for granted, just because Middlesbrough have been challenging the last few years. The Championship is that difficult.
Managers and their coaches across the country will be sitting down right now thinking what's going to happen this year. You can go on a six-game winning streak, and you're in line for automatic promotion, then lose six on the bounce, and you're in the relegation fight. That's the nature of it. I know a lot of people around Europe love the Championship . Previously, there's been no VAR. It's just helter skelter; anybody can beat anybody. There's a real fondness for it as a competition out there around the world.
Stoke City
How Far Can Mark Robins Take Stoke City?
Stoke City have had too much chopping and changing, if I'm being honest. Too many managers have been in for a bit and not done well. They tried it with the young Spanish manager, Narcis Pelach , and he was soon moved on. Even for the players and the owners and the staff and the fans too, it's a case of not knowing what's going to happen next. They can't just keep churning through managers.
Mark Robins did a brilliant job with Coventry City , and I think by sending out the message he's here for the foreseeable future, it calms things down, but now they have to get back to getting the right players in. I think Mark Robins has got the credentials to get them back to the top level, to the Premier League , and you look at the owners at Stoke . They must be the wealthiest owners in the league, or up there. There are financial restrictions on the clubs, but I think it's more of a case of them buying the wrong players for too long. I think they've been working to get the structure of the club right over the last few years, and now it's time for stability and getting everyone pulling in the same direction. That's what Mark Robins can do for them if he's given time.
The Scottish Title Race
Are You Expecting a Three-Horse Race in Scotland Again?
Will we see Rangers and Hearts bounce back this season? I hope not because I'm a Celtic fan! It was a mad title race last year, really wasn't it, and the fact it got so much interest was because of the madness of the whole thing with Hearts being up there for the first time in a long while. There's a lot of people in England now who never used to look at the Scottish Premiership that are now all over the fixture list wanting to talk about what's going on across the radio and the phone-ins and what have you.
There's real interest given the thought that the Old Firm was going to be toppled, and the way it played out with Wilfried Nancy coming in and then Martin O'Neill returning, coming in, coming out, shaking all about to just about scrape over the line on the last day, it was brilliant. The thing with Hearts is that they've got the right people behind the scenes. Obviously, Tony Bloom has gone up there and invested, and it'll be interesting to see if he can sustain their challenge this year after losing their manager and their best striker. The Scottish Premiership will be hoping they can because a three-horse race is much better than a two-horse race, so all eyes will be on Hearts .
How Do You See Celtic's Title Defence?
I've got so much time for Martin O'Neill . I've done a lot of TV work with Martin . Before he got the job back at Celtic , we were working for Premier Sports in Ireland , and it just came out of the blue, the Celtic offer. Now they've taken him on for at least another year because he has done so well. I thought he might have left on the back of a horse with the trophies under each arm type of thing because it was such a special ending to the season, but he's still hungry for more success. And I just hope they can recruit a couple more players.
They signed a new striker this week, Kasper Hogh , but I still think they need to strengthen a bit more. That was one of the reasons, obviously; Brendan Rodgers had a bit of a falling out last summer with the club because he didn't think he was getting backed enough in the market, but I do think the money's there. If they do add a couple more quality players, then I think Celtic will be hard to topple with Martin at the helm again this year.
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