RIVERSIDE BY SIDE
Wilder flattered by Burnley interest but says he wants to boss in the Prem at Boro
Championship: 3pm
BY
CHRIS WILDER says he is “all in” at Middlesbrough despite Burnley looking for a new boss.
Wilder held talks with Riverside chairman Steve Gibson after being strongly linked with the vacant Turf Moor job following Sean Dyche’s sacking.
During two press conferences, Wilder spurned the opportunity to kill off the chance of him moving to Lancashire, to take what could still be a £5million a year Premier League job if they survive their relegation battle.
Wilder said: “I’m fully committed. If Steve Gibson gets a phone call, if I get a phone call, we have an open transparent relationship that we speak all the time. I am ambitious, but I am ambitious with Middlesbrough. I want us to get into the Premier League.
“My track record in the past says I don’t jump in and out of football clubs.
“Speculation comes. We embrace it and say it is a decent thing because we are winning games.
“It is head down. I am all in. That is my attitude to my clubs,
until I am told I am not all in. There is no excuse. I want to work in the Premier League, and I want to work in the Premier League with Middlesbrough.
“I have ambitions to work at the highest level. There is no contact. We are making plans to transform this place, the training ground. There isn’t going to be a jacuzzi for journalists, or a bar, or a top-notch coffee machine. But it will be to help the players.
“I am here enjoying working for a fabulous club and we have had some
great times and I am looking for more good times.”
Boro are in a tense battle to get into the top six, but they have hit a poor run of form including just two wins in eight league games (Jordan Rhodes scoring in Huddersfield’s 2-0 win at the Riverside on Monday, below).
They are three points off the play-offs with a game in hand and travel to Swansea today.
Wilder needs goals from his frontmen and said: “The strikers have all missed chances and they will all be disappointed.
“We get the ball there with good play, but we have not found that quality.
“Our crossing stats are right up there with my past clubs. But we are still firmly
in the hunt.”