A second threat to his Liverpool career has prompted Ciss?o ask Henry for advice once

A second threat, to his Liverpool career, has prompted Ciss?o ask Henry for advice once again, though it is unlikely that even the Arsenal striker’s skill extends to banishing the reservations that Rafael Benitez has in the £14m signing he inherited from G?rd Houllier. Just look at the next seven or eight days – the chance to reach the Uefa Cup’s last 32 again, to grab another league victory and build on the Fulham result, and then the opportunity to qualify for the last eight of the Carling Cup.”The big games are coming thick and fast but that’s the way I like it, it’s what the players are in the game for and I’m sure what Boro fans want.”McClaren’s part-time work on the England coaching staff under Sven Goran Eriksson will continue, and he will be heading off with the squad to the World Cup finals in Germany next summer.. But McClaren’s men are still firing on three fronts and will be looking to improve their all-round situation in the run-up to Christmas.McClaren said: “The challenge starts right away. Middlesbrough is a club going places so it was never even a question of whether or not I wanted to stay. I’m ambitious, so is Steve Gibson and everyone at the club, so there’s no danger of setting our sights too low.”Boro have so far failed to repeat the consistency of last season and will be disappointed with their current placing of 11th.But the knee operation to key winger Stewart Downing has proved a major problem, allied to the departure of goalscoring midfielder Bolo Zenden to Liverpool last summer. McClaren said: “We’ve come a long way over the past four years or so and the Carling Cup and qualifying again for Europe have been real highlights.”But my feeling is that we can go much further.

He signed a five-year contract at the time and set about revamping an ageing squad.In fact, McClaren took Boro to the semi-finals of the FA Cup in his first season. But the major breakthrough came in February 2004, when Boro beat Bolton Wanderers in the Carling Cup Final at the Millennium Stadium to win the first trophy in their 128-year history.Since then Boro have gone on to qualify for Europe two seasons running, while last season’s Premiership placing of seventh was their highest ever. But people kept asking me whether I had signed and I’ve done that now. The paperwork has taken time to sort out but it was never anything more than formalities.
“I’ve always had fantastic support from [the club chairman] Steve Gibson and [chief executive] Keith Lamb.

We’ve kept moving forward year on year and we think we can get better.”What the contract extension means is I can now concentrate fully on taking Boro forward.”McClaren arrived at Boro in the summer of 2001 after serving his apprenticeship as assistant manager at Old Trafford under Sir Alex Ferguson. In revealing that the extension had finally been signed, McClaren said: “I’m absolutely delighted to be committing my future to the club In my mind, there was never any doubt It has been as good as done for a long time now. McClaren, who achieved the only major success in the club’s history when winning the Carling Cup in 2004, has signed a four-year extension to his current deal which had been due to run out next summer. The Portsmouth chief executive, Peter Storrie, said: “The Uruguayan FA clearly had no intention of getting him back here on time despite what they told us It is totally disrespectful.”. Steve McClaren has set his sights on bringing more trophies to Middlesbrough after yesterday committing himself to the club until 2010.

The striker was due back from Uruguay’s World Cup play-off against Australia in Sydney on Friday morning, having been on the bench for the entire game, which they lost in a penalty shoot-out.Uruguay turned down a request to send him straight home.Silva had to travel via Montevideo and did not arrive back in England until late on Friday night. Mandaric has made no secret of his admiration for the Yorkshireman. But Perrin looks set to hold on to his job until at least Saturday’s home game against champions Chelsea and perhaps even the following weekend’s trip to Manchester United.Portsmouth are furious with the Uruguayan Football Association after Dario Silva missed the team’s flight to Liverpool on Friday evening. Portsmouth have rejected a number of enquiries about their England Under-21 international captain, Gary O’Neil, one of which is believed to have come from Liverpool.