Modern football is as much a game as a personality contest. It is the most appealing personalities that endure in tandem with footballing gifts. Results, statistics and even technique alone are not enough in a world where fans need heroes to believe in – those who allow their intense desire, desperation even, to succeed their way at the expense of everything else are in danger of alienating the fans. Aitor Karanka is learning this the hard way.
No one loves the top dog – everyone loves the underdog, the figure who combines guts, endeavour and the will to prove any doubters wrong with considerable ability. Jordan Rhodes had all of this, and much more.
Rhodes’ appeal at Boro transcended that of the archetypal goal poacher we already knew he was. Months previously he had made no secret of his desire to join the then upwardly mobile Karankanaut, reuniting with his Uncle Steve (Agnew, not Gibson) while firing a club to promotion.
His affable and popular manner off the pitch pleased everyone, and his humility on it was admirable (at Birmingham, he was clearly reluctant to claim an equaliser from a horrendous goalkeeping error, regardless of the goal’s importance). His transfer fee and considerably large wages were irrelevant: he felt like one of us, someone who plugged into the “we shall overcome” mentality of a region repeatedly hard done by.
That, in a way, was the problem. In the days leading up to his arrival, Karanka’s Boro seemed almost anything but hard done by, triumphing through collective strength to once enjoy a healthy lead at the top of the Championship, with a game in hand. The possibility that his impending arrival upset the collective and paved the way for the departure of the low-scoring but popular Kike Garcia could be raised, but it doesn’t hold much water: Rhodes’ intuitive understanding with a rejuvenated Gaston Ramirez led to a greater openness in Boro’s games, especially home encounters with Cardiff and Ipswich and the penultimate game at Birmingham.
We can look back on it now and say this did wonders for entertainment, but not necessarily for a manager and a club who, at the time, needed to ensure that the right things were done at all costs. It arguably placed him at a quandary with Karanka and modern football in general. As good as Rhodes’ off-the-ball movement and knack of finding the right place at the right time might be, it did not come accompanied with the right finish often enough. And at a time when we needed more goals to ease the pressure on us during the run in, this, and his lack of pace, did not work in his favour: quite possibly playing a major part in his relative shunning this season before the move to Sheffield Wednesday.
To be fair to Rhodes, confidence issues played their part. When you move to a bigger club, for a massive fee, there is a greater pressure on you to perform, and every missed chance receives higher scrutiny. Higher still, maybe, was the pressure on him to adapt to the modern day requirements of a top level No. 9: being flexible and tenacious enough to regularly act as a supply striker from out wide if need be, or being big and physical enough to lead the line and bring others into play.
At the top tier, the need for a forward to be relatively clinical is paramount if he’s doing little else. Otherwise, he becomes over-reliant on a very healthy supply of assists which a newly promoted team that likes to pass the ball through the middle can’t be regularly trusted to provide. This, in turn, leads to the forward getting easily swallowed up – and frustrated.
But, to give Rhodes even more credit, he soldiered on, and handled his omission with great dignity. Much less dignified was the online furore that arose from his absence, the kind that elevates the ability of players who don’t play. I’m talking about The Cult Of The Missing Men which also surrounded the absence of Luke Williams, Adam Reach, Scott McDonald and Nicky Bailey from Tony Mowbray’s Boro.
As long as those on the pitch fail to deliver, the clamour for The Missing Men grows, and the hullabaloo surrounding their absence risks becoming far more damaging than the player not playing. I wonder if I’m alone in believing that Karanka would have been more open-minded towards Rhodes this season had the danger of one man upstaging the efforts of an entire club not been so prominent. A distasteful ruthlessness is not merely recommended but demanded in the Premier League. How often, because of sentiment, do we backtrack to praise the man who isn’t there at the expense of the men who are?
Rhodes had already been an underdog by battling to adapt to a system that didn’t really suit him and eventually coming good with a purple patch of five goals that were invaluable to promotion. Now, he was an underdog for not being given a chance. The same fans who had labelled him a waste of money when he missed sitters were clamouring for his appearance.
It would be wrong to criticise fan reaction too much. I know opinions flip-flop depending on timing, manner and circumstance, but the extremity of the reaction seemed, at times, undeniably harmful.
Again, not that this bothered Rhodes. He gave his all whenever he actually appeared, so much so that when he did come good, the response was overwhelmingly positive. The final fifteen minutes at Bolton last season are enduring evidence of this.
I think, as a consequence, we wanted Rhodes to be a great Boro forward. It is no wonder then that perhaps sentimentality is clouding our judgement in the search for a heroic narrative, another guy who, like Albert Adomah might have, found his way from the lower leagues to triumph at the top. And the fact that we’ll never know what might have been will uncomfortably linger with us.
But Rhodes has moved on, and we must too. Far better that we forever recognise him as an oasis of welcome simplicity in a sea of tactical complication – a centre forward who liked to score goals, put himself about the right way and made an invaluable contribution to our promotion. For that, he should always be appreciated – and remembered.
Good post Simon the thing about Middlesbrough is we always have an affinity for centre forwards.
We love having a big centre forward in the mould of John Hickton and even the goal poacher type like Bernie .
unfortunately Rhodes was not a typical Middlesbrough forward he was a sniffer but he also did a lot of running off the ball.
I like many of the Boro fans wish him well in his new role at the club and hope to be playing against him next season but in the premiership
Oh and Hughie Mcilmoyle was a favourite as well never known any other player who could jump and just hang in the air like he did.
Also loved Fabrizio Ravenelli a true goal scorer
The goal against West Ham readiliy comes to mind. He hung in the air for a good 10 seconds……
You hit it on the nail Simon, when you mentioned the modern day premiership forward cannot just rely on supply, even Costa has now bought into that way,you see him now moving around and creating opportunities, for himself and others much more
at times ,in believing our very own Boro should be doing this and not that,or he should have done this or that,we are forgetting we don’t have the squad at the moment to expect more than a fighting chance of staying up,what is concerning is we have dropped too many points from positive positions,
I think Karanka knows this, if we are lucky enough to stay up then some of our favourite gladiators will have to be moved on and replaced unfortunately, but that is the way forward,
I remember big Jack dropping Eric Mcmordie and ignoring him,I thought he’d lost his mind,but in the end he was right.
COB
Thanks Bob and GT.
Off topic, by the way, GT, but you reminded me of Big Jack’s encounter with Craig Johnston, well documented in Colin Young’s Charlton bio. Johnston’s parents had sold their house to finance his trip from Australia, and he was on trial at Boro… I believe the team were 3-0 down at HT in his first trial game.
Jack was having a go at everyone, and effectively told Johnston he was the worst footballer he’d ever seen in his life… and to *expletive* off back to Australia. Johnston was left with having to tell his mum over the phone that the trial had gone really well and that Jack wanted him to stay… before hanging up and bursting into tears.
He knew that he couldn’t go home because of what his family had sacrificed for him… but he also admitted that Jack was right.
So he went away, worked at becoming a pro footballer, and was rewarded with a long career at Boro and Liverpool.
I had the pleasure of refereeing Craig and a lot of other young Boro players in trials for Harold Shepherdson. In this days Craig played as a centre forward and was known by all his team mates as Roo!!
The famous story was when he did keepy up with a football I front of Bobby Murdock the first team coach and said Look I’m good enough for the first team.
Murdock just threw him a tennis ball and said when you can do it with hhis come back! He did and he did get into the first team
Whenever I have heard Jordan speak I have been impressed, I don’t know about in training but you feel confident he would be the same. If my daughter brought him home as a boyfriend I am sure we wouldn’t bar him from the house.
I am disappointed it didn’t work out for him, I hoped he had been given more of a chance this season.
He can at least say he has played in the Premiership and for Scotland, the fall back position for him is playing at a club in the promotion battle. It isn’t a bad second option and sincerely hope Wednesday get promotion. As long as players leave on good terms I always wish them well unless they are playing against Boro.
Elsewhere Gaston’s agent is stirring things up, I thought his job was to represent his client not stick his nose in our business. Is it just me who doesn’t like agents?
Gaston has had a couple of agents over the last 5 years or so but the stories are constant and with the same consistent theme.
November 2015:
“He wants to return to Italy, he’s constantly thinking about it, and when he talks about Italy he speaks of Bologna.”
September 2015:
“Southampton flop Gaston Ramirez is negotiating to tear up the final 10 months of his £65,000-a-week contract.”
June 2104:
“Southampton defiant over transfer exodus as Gaston Ramirez becomes latest star linked with move. Torino want to take the midfielder back to Italy but Saints insist they have no need to accept bids for ANY of their many coveted players.”
July 2013:
“Now Ramirez’s agent, Pablo Betancourt, has done little to dampen speculation that Inter Milan are keen to bring Ramirez back to Italy.”
August 2012:
“They believe in me and above all they have told me they are going to grow as a club. Southampton is a newly promoted team in the English top flight but it has the means to stay there for a few years. To me they are going to build.”
December 2011:
Manchester United and Liverpool have both been dealt a blow in their pursuit of Bologna midfielder Gaston Ramirez. Ramirez’s agent, Vincenzo D’Ippolito, has insisted that the player will not leave the Italian club in January.
We can add Leicester to that list for January 2017 and now Liverpool in February 2017. Being blunt Gaston is completely predictable and like the boy who cried “Wolf” it all gets a bit boring, repetitive and ultimately self destructive. No doubt by the end of the Season he will be linked with many other clubs here and abroad.
A great shame for the lad because the reason he isn’t playing Champions League football is entirely down to himself, his attitude and his behaviour. I don’t believe that it is his agents fault. Both Betancourt and D’Ippolito have promoted Gaston’s regular transfer stories. The “causation” for the latest 2017 rumour for the “Leicester interest” had nothing to do with agents and most of us found it somewhere between pathetic and extremely ridiculous.
I was at the game when Craig Johnston made his home debut, I think I’m right in saying ,the first time he got the ball he did a Cruyf shimmy, the crowd went nuts
Thanks for the post, Simon. An interesting read, as ever.
I agree with a lot of what you say, particularly about Rhodes becoming a better player in people’s minds during his absence. I disagree with a couple of the main points though – that Rhodes represented an underdog and the sentimental attachment.
Once it became clear that Rhodes would be getting no game time, I agree that he became an underdog. Overall though, and I think this ties in with some of the stick he got last season, Rhodes carried a lot of hope and, crucially, expectation from fans. At an initial £9m plus considerable add-ons, JR is one of the the club’s most expensive signings and came with an outstanding goalscoring record at Championship and League One levels. Underdog? He arrived a Championship Ravanelli!
That did change but I don’t think that was because of sentimentality. At least, I don;t think that was the main reason. The main reason, I believe, is far, far more simplistic: Boro don’t score enough goals, Rhodes is a goalscorer.
That argument may be flawed for the valid reasons you mention – that Rhodes is not an all-rounder, that he lacks some of the key assets that make successful Premier League strikers – but I think it is a stronger driver of disenchantment than sentimentality in JR’s case.
Another major factor in bemoaning Rhodes’ absence is also very simple: Dislike of Karanka. Rhodes represented a free hit on AK.
Thanks again for the post but, very much in the spirit of the blog and the one that preceded it, I’d like to respectfully disagree with a couple of your points.
Thank you, Andy. That’s a great response, and it’s given me food for thought.
I would like to explain where my underdog reasoning for Rhodes in the beginning came from. First of all, a Championship Ravanelli? Not quite. I think of Ravanellis as a greater technical and physical presence than Rhodes’s, players who can also hold it up and bring it into play. Ravanelli could wallop a free kick too. The trouble is, when he arrived Ravanelli was so far ahead of everyone else (Juninho and Emerson aside) that the team blend took months and too, too late defensive reinforcements to click. But I digress.
I think of Rhodes as more of a Championship Maccarone – a gifted goalscorer who struggled with finding his way into a different set-up or culture but nonetheless won our hearts by being in the right place at the right time. Maccarone will always have Basle and Steaua. Rhodes will always have Bolton.
But despite his fee and lower tier pedigree, why am I calling Rhodes an underdog? Simple – he was a top dog at a Championship regular but an underdog at a Championship title chasing Boro under a European tactician. Whereas with Maccarone and Ravanelli the teams had been built around them to begin with, Rhodes was joining what had previously been a very successful collective and already faced an uphill struggle to be part of it. Ravanelli and Negredo had the kind of proven pedigree when they signed for Boro that Rhodes did not.
I think of Andy Cole as a Man United underdog for the same reason even though he was a record signing for them at the time… He was a great goalscorer joining an already strong collective and as such he immediately had to adapt, otherwise he would feel superfluous. Like Rhodes he was joining his biggest club yet, a club that didn’t play to his strengths – and had to battle to “click” with them. Neither had the limelight in exactly the same way once they joined United and Boro.
But Cole eventually clicked with the United way, and Rhodes showed strong signs of clicking with AKBoro.
Hope this helps.
Thanks Simon. I understand where you’re coming from and yes, Ravanelli was the wrong analogy. The comparison was not between the players themselves though, but the impact and expectations that came with them. Still, Ravanelli was over doing it.
I think you and I have different definitions of an underdog, though. To me, an underdog is someone who battles against the odds. Rhodes came not as a plucky fighter but as the final piece of the jigsaw, to my mind – the signing that would tip the balance of promotion decidedly in our favour. It worked in some respects, not in others, or at least not the extent hoped for/expected.
I don’t feel that the fans have a particular sentimental attachment to him in the way they do with Adomah, for instance. More that his exclusion from a low scoring side didn’t compute for many and it was also an opportunity for Karanka-bashing.
If I recall correctly I think Rhodes was consistently the most prolific forward in all four leagues before he came to Boro – he was supposed to be a guarantee of goals. Though it was odd that a Premier League club had not previously shown much interest in such a prospect – maybe there were doubts over his physicality or whether he wanted it enough – probably nobody could quite pigeon-hole him as being special in any one department (other than hitting the net).
I remember after we signed him Karanka said he’d have to fight for a starting place and he didn’t go straight into the team as you might of expected given the huge transfer fee. I actually doubt he was Karanka’s pick at all – he seemingly wanted Ross McCormack and I always felt Rhodes was bought on the rebound to show intent.
Clearly he never fitted into Boro’s system of one up top and never would – but in the end he still only got one start in the PL when Negredo was out injured. I sometimes wonder what would have happened if he’d had a run in the side and scored a few when Negredo was struggling to find the net. But I guess he’ll need to wait for Sheff Wed to get promoted now to get his chance.
He wasn’t as clinical as I’d expected when he got into our team and maybe not being top dog at Boro put too much pressure on him. Perhaps he needs an arm round him and is not the egotistical ruthless stereotypical center-forward that we got used to seeing lapping up the crowd’s admiration.
But who’s to say in a few years the fashion won’t be two up top again and maybe he’s just what you need – someone who reads the game and has the knack of being in the right place a the right time.
Yes, two up top, Werder. I don’t think Rhodes ever fitted into AK’s one-up-top approach. My real regret is that he never had the chance to play in a front two with Negredo.
Thanks to Simon for a stimulating article.
I wondered about Jordan’s conversion rate at Boro and I thought I have bit of time so I will have a look at Boro+ highlights. That lasted a game, three chances against Ipswich with no goals, a missed shot, a missed header and a keeper save in a one on one situation. Seemed representative.
Having done some regression analysis I have come to the conclusion that someone else can look at the rest of his games especially because no one will allow any facts to get in the way of a really good, heart felt, entrenched position.
Lets just wish him good luck at the Owls.
My regret is that we’ll never know. I wish him well and I hope he proves critics and non-believers wrong. Good luck and fortune JR, I for one don’t think you had a fair crack of the whip. I hope you score a good total.
UTB,
John
Now a chunter.
Watching Leicester Derby, missing a few bits but Derby one nil down, Derby had wasted a free kick.
Derby got another free kick about 25 yards out for a high foot where the defender caught Butterfield head high. Ref stuck his arm in the air for an indirect free kick. The wall lined up and the ref twice made a point of telling ever players it was an indirect free kick.
That is a very difficult concept to grasp, the free kick has to be passed to another player before a shot can be taken.
Free kick rolled to a Derby player who took a shot which was deflected and went in.
Inexpert summariser on BBC comments that the person taking the free kick had taken a direct attempt at goal earlier short but had changed to having the ball rolled to him to change the angle.
He had no choice because it was indirect, utter tosh! I stalked off to get a stubby in case my previously burned hand flared up. I know it was a few weeks ago but you can’t take chances.
I hope I haven’t missed anything in between.
Extra time at the King Power stadium and Ndidi scores. He cost £17m.
Sorry, pressed send by mistake.
Ndidi is a squad, utility player, shows the cost of the premiership.
Go on YouTube and watch Jordan Rhodes’ goals through his career.
I reckon more than 50% are headed goals. Balls crossed into the box and jr getting on the end of them.
How many crosses do we get into the box each game? We play an incredibly narrow system and when we do get crosses in we have one striker to aim for in the box.
I didn’t big jr up because he wasn’t in the team. Neither was he a stick to beat Karanka with. What I’ve always said is that we never got the best out of him, we never played to his strengths and hence we could never truly judge how good he was. He could have been prolific in another system, he may not have been, but we spent over ten million with add ons and never gave him the opportunity to succeed as we have done with so many of our offensive players.
So the Gazette office is moving to within grovelling distance of the Riverside. The old Gazette building was an early landmark in my memory, I am sure we used to catch the trolley bus from opposite to go to South Bank to watch my brother play but my memory could be playing tricks.
Ian
I believe your memory is playing tricks on you as the trolley bus used to terminate at north Ormesby at a terminus opposite green woods the pawnbrokers. It used to do a tight circle round and swap the trolley wires over to go back to south bank grangetown and normanby.
It was never called a trolley bus it was “the trackless””
OFB, that’s right, and they ran on tyres too not on sunken tracks. Greenwoods pawnbrokers, they were right next to the railway crossing too or does my memory deceive me? The man used to swap the contacts with a long pole, great to watch when it was raining!
UTB,
John
John
You’re right and Greenwoods gone and so is the crossing.
I believe one of the old trackless trolley bus is in the tram museum near Derby.
Getting back to Rhodes after thinking about it probably Bamford is a better fit for Karanka and his tactics.
His distribution is good he has high energy levels and we know he can score goals.
Hopefully this training week in Spain with double sessions will integrate the new players and we can see a dramatic improvement in the team.
Not too sure what team we are going to put out against oxford but I expect to see Ayala and Dimi Bamford and Gestede play a role
Let’s win it a lot of the big teams have gone and I’ll settle for another home tie thank you!
What’s interesting about Rhodes is that it appears that having the ability to score goals just wasn’t enough. As Simon mention in his article it seems the modern (or current fashion) forward has to do more than simply put the ball in the net.
Well we know everything seems to measured ad infinitum (pardon my french) and I wonder if Rhodes just came out as too average when his numbers were crunched on the Boro management team’s laptops. He’s not the quickest, not the biggest, not the strongest, probably not the most prolific passer of the ball either.
I wonder how you measure something that is hard to quantify – like being in he right place at the right time – maybe if you can’t measure something these days it’s not taken into consideration.
We know how Karanka wants to play so perhaps he’s looking at the attributes best suited to each position and seldom found a basis to select Rhodes. Rhodes is probably old school – someone like Sherringham who wasn’t much of an athlete but would always find that piece of space the defenders had overlooked.
Perhaps Rhodes just couldn’t adjust his game to the template required – he wasn’t the first to find his game was not up to the mark at Boro and probably won’t be the last.
Though having a £10m player surplus to requirements at a club with our budget does not make sense – so he had to go. That’s part of our problem at the moment – we had in Rhodes and Downing £16m of assets sidelined, plus if you include Gaston’s current valuation that added up to nearly £30m not available to our cause.
We’ve also added Gestede and Bamford who are not match-fit and currently not starters either, which gave us around £40m of talent not in our Starting XI – no wonder we’ve struggled in January. You can’t just blame the manager, it seems providing him with players he wants or needs has not been too successful.
Anyway, what we’ve got now is all that we have to utilise – so time to get our assets up and running on the pitch before it’s too late.
Werder
Stop interrupting trackless stories! oddly just been speaking to my brother, OFB is right.
We caught a bus in to Middlesbrough from Acklam, then another to catch the trolley/trackless bus.
Back to Werder.
The problem we have is we don’t know how they measure a player or rather how much the various measures are weighted.
I listened to a Leeds player talking about Cantona, I can’t for life of me remember his name, the other bloke not the Frenchman. Howard Wilkinson used to get really frustrated with Eric because he didn’t do all the bits required.
The Leeds players themselves were happy for ten of them to work like dogs and Cantona do what he did best.
I don’t think you can get away with that anymore, come to think of it, Fergie probably got Cantona doing more than Wilko. You can imagine Fergie stroking his ego whilst giving him a rocket at the same time.
Here is a thought, how many of these players we beat AK with are plying their trade in the top flight?
Werdermouth,
Good point(s) I do think that Rhodes is a little bit like Sheringham, a player who has guile and craft and the ability to be in the right place at the right time and I don’t think that those non-measurable/quantifiable skills can be trained into players.
I remember being at a match when Denis Law was at his best, it was somewhere in London, and I’d gone just to see him play. The home fans were calling him useless, what’s all the fuss about, he’s done nothing and in the last half hour he scored two goals and it was literally all he did all afternoon and they won. I know that isn’t the modern game, he’d have been substituted in today’s game. Was he a ‘luxury’ player?
UTB,
John
Ian
I believe your memory is awry. The Trolley Bus to South Bank started and terminated at North Ormesby.
How many of AK’s preferred players will be plying their trade in the Premiership in a few months time is also a fair question. To me the bottom 6 sides in the Prem and the top 6 in the Championship are not too far apart in terms of competence and ability.
I don’t think Rhodes was used to “beat” AK at all. AK has a favourite low scoring striker who went over 900 minutes without a goal, would any other player with a similarly poor statistic be “accommodated” in any other position (apart from Valdes of course) by AK? The answer is an emphatic no!
AK made a rod for his own back by the strict standards and adherence to requirements that have been testimony to his reign at the Riverside being meted out to all and sundry regardless of age, experience, ability or cost (apart from Negredo and Valdes).
Jordan Rhodes’ record speaks for itself, he has nothing to prove to anyone, he has played for middling to poor or even struggling Championship clubs yet maintained his goals per game record regardless of changing coaches and team mates. He hasn’t done it at Premiership level but apart from one half season in the company of the most expensively assembled squad in Football neither has Negredo and whether its the player or the system Alvaro doesn’t look like delivering the required returns any time soon. Stewy was soon benched for not delivering, Albert is now in the hall of fame in that respect, Ayala seems to be almost forgotten along with Dimi and even Stuani has been dropped.
JR may or may not hack it at this level but Negredo certainly isn’t and yet we have now signed Gestede who hasn’t delivered at any level (ironically apart from when he was with Rhodes at Blackburn for two seasons). The justification that we have a non delivering, non functioning system with a non functioning striker that needed a copy cat version of said non functioning striker in said non functioning system except a poorer version is baffling to put it politely. I’m sure Einstein would have a more apt description. That’s not a stick by the way that in pure Mowbray parlance is “it is what it is”.
That JR is some sort of stick to beat AK with doesn’t add up for me. The JR/Negredo “stick” is a a self made one by AK himself and one of many I may add. Ayala/Espinosa is the latest one, Barragan/Fabio is another just simmering nicely, then we have had Albert/Stuani and Dimi/Valdes. Apart from Negredo’s few months with City none of those players have made it in the Premiership even Valdes couldn’t break into United’s team despite his history of Spanish and European trophies and changing managers.
My view is that if there was a freak training ground accident and Valdes, Barragan, Negredo, Espinosa and Gestede were all crocked for the rest of the season our fortunes may actually take a more positive turn. The only weakness that I would envisage would be in squad strength to cover for future injuries and suspensions. My take on the “stick” beating is that it is more a case of self-flagellation with that “stick” being more of a rod for his own back.
Thanks Jarsue – I suppose intelligent players like Rhodes (and probably not so intelligent players) often need a run of games to work out how their team-mates play and develop partnerships – then they also need time on the pitch to work out how the opposition are playing, so they can use guile to get the advantage rather than just relying on their physical attributes.
Maybe the modern game has become more about following the instructions from the manager who wants to orchestrate the whole show. That’s probably why you need athletes who can run from A to B to C etc and put in what we call a shift. Players now come armed with videos of the opposition and ‘shapes’ they need to align to in the different ‘phases’ of the game.
OK nothing wrong in that you will probably say, but I wonder if it does stop players thinking for themselves – again many will probably say that’s also probably for the best given their decisions. Though it almost feels like everything has to be pre-planned and players are waiting for the mistake to take advantage as they pass and probe rather than actively thinking about how to catch the opponent out.
Football has become a game of speed and force, where the opposition need to be worn down – though perhaps just occasionally you need a few ‘luxury’ players to get you that unexpected goal every so often.
Redcar
We may well be swapping places with teams with ex Boro players in a few months time. That is then, the now, and previously, is that players didn’t leave us to join top flight teams.
There were no bidding wars featuring Jim White for their talents.
I don’t recall bidding wars for Gestede at £6m or Bamford at £5m from the Championship or elsewhere but there was at least considerable interest in Rhodes. There was no speculation linking Negredo with a move back to Spain and Barca or Madrid or even back to Manchester. None of our players with the exception of Gibson is sought after by anyone with the exception of Gaston of course who has a new suitor every month of his career. Best of a mediocre lot best describes what we have incoming and outgoing.
If SG presented Ronaldo and Messi to AK they would be on the bench until they learned to track back, defend and tackle.
As for Denis Law he would be left to rot in the U23’s side, no defensive instinct, rubbish at defending corners and couldn’t tackle a cheese sandwich. Same goes for that Robert Charlton lad and don’t get me started on Best, a flamboyant waste of a shirt if ever I saw one!
Mind you with those three there wasn’t a lot of defending to do, still its a ridiculous notion having a balance between defence and the banned “A” word.
That Robert Charlton lad I met whilst on service in NI. I have never been so gobsmaked in my life. Shook his hand, couldn’t utter a word.
Lol
Spartak
Are you sure you remembered correctly??
It’s not like you to be lost for words ……,,
Just sayin like!
Me too, Spartak. I was once lucky enough to meet Sir Bobby. Just like you, I was so awestruck I couldn’t think of owt to say. I just smiled sheepishly!
RR
My reasoning behind people using Rhodes as a a stick to beat Karanka with is somewhat in line with Simon’s comments. Despite some important goals, Rhodes’ conversion rate, particularly in one-on-ones, had been quite disappointing in the Championship. At that point he was getting a fair bit of stick from Boro fans. Fast forward six months or so and perceptions of him had changed quite a lot. My conclusion is that part of the reasoning for that change, but only part, is that the situation was a useful tool to attack Karanka with. There is some well reasoned criticism of Karnka, often from yourself, that I agree with and respect but we all know there are others who will take almost situation and use it as evidence for the prosecution.
I too would have liked JR to have been given a good opportunity in the Premier League, especially given that Negredo’s conversion rate has been ok at best, but, based on last season, I don’t feel great confidence that he would have done much better, if at all.
Perhaps my view is also tainted by the fact that I generally dislike fans accusations of managers having favourites. I tend to find that the people who make those accusations and the ones with the biggest favourites themselves, and what is actually happening is that the manager is not picking the fan’s favourites, rather than having favourites of his own.
Onto to the Everton game. I do hope that AK rebalances the team but have little confidence that he will. There are lots of options to choose from. I would be interested to see either the 3-5-2 I talked about a few games ago, or possibly a return to 4231 (though it did little for us at Goodison).
An option for an attack-minded 4231 would be to put Guedioura into the holding two, with Ramirez at no. 10. I agree with Werder (I think it was) that Downing is no longer a winger but I see few other options for the left unless we go 352.
Before we signed Rhodes I put in print on the Untypical blog that we shouldn’t sign him as he didn’t fit the system AK played but as Spartak regularly points out what do we non professionals know? 🙂
With regards to JR’s misses they are more significant and became polarised because of the few chances we create even in the Championship. Top strikers have a 1:4 conversion rate so it was always more likely that Rhodes would send three or four chances wide or into the keeper’s arms for every one he scored. Because there may only be two or at best three of those chances per game for AK’s Boro each miss became critical in our eyes.
In reality the system doesn’t suit Negredo either again for much the same reasons as Rhodes in that he will need at least 3, 4 or maybe 5 chances to nick one goal, that’s two and a half games with Boro’s current attacking intent.The “stick” for me is the wanton abandonment of trying to score not so much Negredo, Rhodes or even Albert whose unreplaced goal threat we are now missing.
The Trackless Trolley bus is a good analogy for Boro. Our system only goes as far as Midfield then it turns around due to a lack of overhead wires to take it any further into the town centre!
Must admit even as a child I did find the system back then a bit odd and confusing in that it linked surrounding areas (North Ormesby, Bennett’s Corner, Normanby, Grangetown) to a degree but it never really went to where the public masses wanted to go.
RR
I like that analogy. Hope this reply gets there quicker than mine to Ian, which arrived an hour and a half late, a bit like our attacking support.
Copy of interview from Boro website with Bernardo Espinosa
He seems a nice guy and his English is excellent
http://mobile.mfc.co.uk/news/article/2016/middlesbrough-fc-bernardo-espinosa-3564410.aspx
Re the Trolley Buses, I’m not sure why they couldn’t go to Middlesbrough because the TRTB operated a Petrol Bus service linking the South Bank, Grangetown and Eston areas to the Middlesbrough Corporation Terminus at Royal Exchange. United buses seemed to cover the entire South Durham and North Yorkshire area and they operated the Bus Station where it is currently located. Must have been something to do with the way the Corporation Bus company operated.
Steely
Petrol buses turn the ignition and go anywhere, any time, once the trackless was up and running, god knows when, you can bet that no more overhead lines would ever be put up, strange idea, trams, clog up city centres, are a pain in the neck, and have thankfully disappeared.
Not so, Plato. There are plenty of trams in our city centres now – Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham, for instance. And go to Germany or Switzerland and you’ll see them everywhere. They’re efficient, clean, quiet, and take hundreds of cars off the roads. What’s not to like?
Looking forward to the Everton game on Saturday I expect a win as a birthday present !
The training this week should gel the midfield and hopefully we get more than one player in the box.
I expect Downing and Forshaw to drop out and be replaced by Ramirez and the new Guy whoever he is !!
O F B
I think that Everton will be the biggest test of us at home for some time. In good form(and how) big striker great in the air, scoring lots of goals.
We will have to stop them playing(sorry, that again, but there we are) if we win, it will be the biggest boost for us in a long while.
Thank you Simon for an excellent article, well written and prompting two sides of the coin thoughts.
I am with the ones who thought he did not get his chance, especially in the EPL. May be it is because AK, as much as he has done, still grates with me. It´s his way, but as many have said before, most Managers are not for listening and believe in their own way to do things.
AS RR said we swopped one in JR for two no better in my belief.
“My view is that if there was a freak training ground accident and Valdes, Barragan, Negredo, Espinosa and Gestede were all crocked for the rest of the season our fortunes may actually take a more positive turn. ”
Perhaps it might, but wishing injuries on hard-working players who are doing their best is simply cruel. If so, we would be just as guilty of favouritism as the manager accused of it. Dunphyism at its finest – the man who repeatedly criticised Ireland’s coaching staff for “blaming someone else” for shortcomings, while offering himself the forbidden pleasure of beating the living daylights out of Charlton and McCarthy in print.
To me, the players RR mentioned have become underdogs, at least in my eye – everyone seems on their case but they may well deliver, if we stick by them like fans should do. I know I will. Valdes and Negredo have delivered to a point already – are you ignoring their saves, assists and off the ball contributions?
They’re MFC men and I will stand by them if they play. Full stop.
Boro fans are officially off their trolley. Discuss
Two things stand out for me about Rhodes – one, as mentioned above – why have no PL clubs ever gone in for him? (And why is he nowhere near the Scotland squad?) The consensus in football seems to be that he isn’t cut out at the top level – so that isn’t just AK. And there is no doubt he is being used as a stick to beat AK with from some quarters, you just have to look at some of the posts on social media.
We brought him in to do a job (get us up), he did that (without really setting the place alight – in fact, I don’t think he has a Riverside goal to his name) and we’ve sold him on for pretty much what we paid for him – not a bad deal really.
The other is a quote from AK last year about JR being ‘not a strong character’ – he wasn’t being critical at the time, and I think he meant he was a quiet lad – which fits in with the picture of him being quite humble. He clearly isn’t the type of player who bangs on the boss’s door, demanding to be played – so in that respect he’s probably quite an easy player to leave out.
Anyway, I wish him all the best – will always be remembered as one of the heroes of last season – the Bolton goals are the stand out memory.
Hi Phil
It works both ways. I think Ronnie Whelan challenged Big Jack once, asking him why he wasn’t featuring in Italia 90 – it didn’t go down too well with Jack or for Ronnie.
Totally agree with you Simon, on Valdes and Negredo. Valdes has been one of our best players this season and whilst Negredo hasn’t been as clinical as we would have liked he has assisted or scored 10 of our 19 goals (plus a couple in the cup). Has he been worth £100k/week? Not sure – and I’m not sure I’d want to sign him permanently in the summer, but I think we’d be adrift at the bottom had we gone into the season with Rhodes and Nugent.
I don’t think it’d make any difference who’s up front. With ak it is all about the defence. The attackers are neutralised whoever they are by a lack of ambition and numbers. I include all of our attackers in that including negredo.
BoroPhil –
I did actually wonder the same thing about whether Rhodes made it easy for Karanka to leave him out given his amenable acceptance of the situation. But I wonder if perhaps having uncle Steve as his number two actually made it quite awkward for Karanka and maybe he was relieved to see Jordan leave.
3 goals in the last 7 Premier League games & no wins, that’s ZERO WINS!!!
4 wins in 23 games, 16th place in the league table only 1 point above the relegation zone.
Aitor says he will ‘try’ to keep us up! Excellent!!!
Then, in Aitor we trust & we must be patient.
Everton next- anyone on a daft quid for a Boro win 🙂
Spartak
I’m not really a betting man but you know what ?
I think I’m going to put a fiver on the Boro to win a resounding 1 0 scored by Negredo penalty for a foul on Traore
I’ll check the odds tomorrow but should get a good price as an accumulator!!
I think that the Boro will start to pick up now like we did last season after Charltongate.
A bit of team building after a few days in Benidorm and hey presto
Hopin yer right OFB!
OFB
Fhttp://www.soccerstats.com/formtable.asp?league=england
Not much to cheer you up in that link but football is played by two teams of eleven on grass.
Odds for tomorrow on Skybet are 13/5 Boro, 23/10 the draw and 11/10 a win for the Toffees.
Sunderland and Hull odds on to go down, Palace evens and we are 5/4. In other words skin of our teeth.
Always a chance.
Hull changed manager & just beat Liverpool after selling best 2 players.
Sunderland just destroyed Palace.
Leciester are in meltdown & we cant win.
Hopin others come to oue assistance is like trying to avoid the existance of the law of gravity – fine if yer on drugs!
I see Paul Clement (Swansea) has been named Premiership manager of the month and we all know what happens next (hopefully) lol.
Come on BORO.
A bit late to the Rhodes party, however I concur that he didn’t get a true chance to prove himself this season.
I’ve said before, and will re-iterate, that by my reckoning this was because he simply was not AK’s buy. As RR stated above, AK made a big thing of how Rhodes would have to earn a starting berth, which he gradually did. In this pre-season he was scoring and seemed to fit the team well, until we signed Negredo.
Now, if you want to beat AK with a stick, here it comes. Negredo comes in and Rhodes is dropped quicker than a hot stottie fresh from the oven. Negredo doesn’t need to “earn” his starting place, and Aitor doesn’t stick by those who got us promoted for the big kick off. There is the AK stick beating – his much fabled policy is immediately abandoned for a big money import. Now, Rhodes, being the understated and ‘umble character that he is, gets on with trying to force his way into the team. Alas, he is unable, despite Negredo’s lone furrow ploughing, to get any game time.
I wish him well. I hope he fires the Owls to promotion and gets his chance to lead the line in the Premier League next season.
Anyone remembering the tram lines? Must have been before most of us were born.
The trolley busses are back to many cities (I know Boro is town) to get rid of diesel particles and NOx emissions.
Hope the weather was nice in Spain. Up the Boro!
I can still remember some team lines in Middlesbrough which had been tarmacked over but were still visible in parts. This was on linthorpe road heading down into town and the bend turning right outside what is now the Cleveland centre.
I recall getting absolutely trollied in Benidorm once…
Don’t you mean tracklessed ?
Powmill
A case of going off the rails?
I wonder what the travel arrangements are from Alicante airport? I assume they are flying from there but where to and who with? There is no scheduled flight from DTA to Alicante or to many other places for that matter, must be on OFB’s private jet!
Interesting that Phil T didn’t make the trip this time.
We all remember Man City and their ill fated break in the middle east returning on the eve of a cup match, at least Alicante is only a couple of hours away and no worse than travelling to an away match in the UK.
Lets hope they are fully focussed at 3.00pm tomorrow.
Ian
You’re right it’s my fault!! I forgot to check the tyres and one was bald on my jet so we were hit with a three point penalty deduction.
Any way we managed to find another one and the lads buckled down and got it changed and we’ll be back tonight fit and raring to go.
P.S
Anyone want to buy a gulf jet stream 400 which has a bit of a noise and if you listen to it sounds like attack attack attack!
Ian
Judging by the pictures published the other day they were taken in the Premium Executive shed of Deep Thrombosis Valley Airport so presumably the Club must have chartered their own plane assuming that they didn’t fly via Amsterdam or Aberdeen. My guess is that they will have returned adorned in shorts, sombrero’s and flip flops via the same route. I would think that Phil T’s trips of that sort are now heavily dependant upon raking in obscene amounts of cash from their “Pay for Boro news” service.
Reading about the financial situation at Bolton, and it looks serious,
It does make you wonder if it is worth the push for the top division,or would you be better lower down playing attractive football,winning more than you lose and probably more fan friendly.
How can you survive at the top, forget the day to day running of the external needs to run a club,up keep, maintenance ,staff,policing,and the rest,in order to be consistently competitive in the premiership, you need a squad of at least twenty players good enough, with an average salary of say £50,000 a week, that in itself is £52 million a year,
It boggles the mind.
One for conspiracy theorists. Picture on the Gazette site of a smiling Boro squad before they set off back to the North East, who was missing?
Gaston of course, the Gazette did ponder if he was taking the photo.
Personally, my #daftquid is on him not being involved tomorrow.
Just as an aside and an observation about the Newsnow website that a lot of us probably have in our favourites; when we were in the Championship there was a reasonable stream of decent content which was readable. Now in the Premiership it is littered with garbage click bait, non news stories of unbelievable depths of brain deadening proportions.
Every day there is something from the Star/Mail/Express stables with a 1 to 20 of the Premierships oldest grounds, biggest capacity, longest ponytail etc. There is equal garbage provided by other “news” outlets making the task of sifting through and finding something of value all the more difficult. It seems that for journalism in the Premiership it is all about the quantity with little to no quality.
I’ve just put up a match preview for the Everton game tomorrow – and as a special treat I’ve included a table of match stats that I collated earlier. So feel free to have a read and leave your predictions for tomorrow’s game.
https://diasboro.club/2017/02/10/boro-v-everton-preview/