Boro's survival hopes now at last chance saloon

by werdermouth, posted in Uncategorized

Boro may have been quick on the draw this season but it’s now time to start winning games as that well known gambler Slim Chance just rode into town and doesn’t like the way we are looking at him. Our situation is certainly looking dicey as we approach the last throws of our Premiership survival prospects and Boro’s gunslingers have spent most of the year in the corner of the Saloon shooting craps (or something similar).

After returning home from the far west at the weekend the new boss has been patching up his boys and may be ready to trust them with live ammunition instead of allowing them to continue to fire blanks. As part of target practice, I imagine Big Rudy has been rounding up the cattle at the Hurworth Ranch with his banjo and will be desperate to avoid being branded as a misfiring hand.

The main problem (in addition to the obvious main one) for Boro is in defence – we may have one of the meanest in the league but it’s now one of the most thread-bare. The Doc has rightly signed off a concussed Fabio, who needs to be kept out of the fray this week for his own welfare – no doubt a trick a few supporters may be contemplating if things go badly this evening. George may be ‘in a good place’ according to Agnew but that place is not in the team just yet.

Also Chambers has only just started light jogging (or walking as Adama would call it), which just leaves Barragan as the only fit (in the physical sense) regular full-back – apparently he did throw his hat into the ring as an option for left-back – but sadly it was ruled an illegal throw. Incidentally, when I look at Adama’s leg-like arms, am I the only one who thinks he could probably throw a ball out of the ground?

So there now seems a possibility that Boro’s estranged Husband might get a chance to play away from home today – he’s waited two years for his opportunity and given we’ve got no other options there is now every chance that he’ll finally be given a ‘vote of confidence’ – which will no doubt come as a relief to Downing who’s ageing legs probably need to be employed further up the pitch.

There’s also a possibility that a lame Gaston Ramirez will have shrugged off his ankle problems and be ready to put in another limp performance for the cause. Then there’s Negredo, who for me has started to look like he wants to play as an attacking midfielder rather than an out-and-out striker – perhaps the Spanish left-footer should be deployed on the wings instead?

As it stands following Tuesday’s games, Leicester have rattled up their fifth successive win and are now disappearing over the horizon and riding into the sunset – as are Burnley who just chalked up their tenth home win against a surely doomed Sunderland – the only good news is that The Clarets have yet to win on the road (I know what many of you are thinking but don’t even go there).

So realistically it’s looking like two from three to join not so slap-happy David ‘women are girls and should know their place’ Moyes and his not-so-lucky Black Cats – hopefully Swansea won’t show Spurs something they kept from revealing to us at the weekend.

So take a deep breath and get ready to make your predictions – though in case you are getting all optimistic and have been allowed access to combustible foam hands it’s probably better to do a Bill Clinton and not inhale. The one nagging stat (other than the three goals in three months and no wins) is that new Hull boss, Marco Silva, has never lost a home game in his four years as a manager – probably exemplified by his last game when finding his team one down against the Hammers switched to 4-2-4 for the second half – almost a UEFA McClarenesque strategy – he’s still available I believe…

So will our brave bunch of desperados start shooting from the hip with all guns blazing in an attempt to see off their rival gang and live to fight another day? or will our patched up bunch of cowpokes receive a tactical bum steer as Boro’s survival hopes finally bite the dust. As usual predict you line-up, score and scorers – also will Adama be under instructions to block-tackle Barragan as he attempts to fetch the ball for a last-minute throw-in?

188 thoughts on “Boro's survival hopes now at last chance saloon”

  1. Posted this on the previous thread but this one came up in the meantime so I’m copying it across….
    Good post, Spartak.
    Like Simon and Steve Gibson, I clung on to the hope/loyalty with AK for too long. The more I think about it, the more I think he should have gone after Charltongate. We went on a great run after that and ultimately got promoted but with the very decent Championship squad we had and being very handily placed in the league, I suspect another manager could have delivered the same at that point. AK’s groundwork had been done and with the hindsight of us limping over the line to promotion and then this season, it seems as if the AK decline started long before. He was probably helped in SG’s and my eyes by the awful performance at Charlton itself.
    I think there is a similarity with Tony Mowbray’s time and exit and a learning for Gibson (and myself) – that he must be able to recognise when the tide has turned and act swiftly and confidently, in the best interests of the club.
    I don’t go along with the theory that both TM and AK were poor appointments. I think both did very good things for the football club and, I believe, achieved their goals until the final season. Mowbray moved out some woefully poor value-for-money players, brought in the backbone of AK’s promotion-winning team and set about creating the scouting network and sports science department that modern clubs need. Yes there were plenty of poor signings too – you get that when you taking punts on cheap players – and the scouting department hasn’t exactly panned out thus far but that, I think, is more a case of poor execution than a flawed theory. But once much of TM’s work had been done, the next step was to deliver promotion. I believe he created the foundations for success but then faltered spectacularly. And that failure started about 10 months before his was removed.
    AK took the ruins and added steal, discipline, teamwork and professionalism. Like Mowbray, there were some serious hiccups along the way, this time falling out with players and controlling behaviours, but, with Gibson’s millions, he gave us a Championship side to compete right at the top of the league and not just for half a season. But AK’s micro-management and inability to adapt erupted when he didn’t have things all his own way (the Chairman signing players for him, players voicing dissent) and, though, he got us over the line, something was amiss and it has spilled over to this season. Once again, promising and solid foundations had been laid but once again, we faltered and failed to act early.
    Gibson is a loyal man. We’re seeing that again now with Agnew, Woodgate and perhaps the continued employment of Gary GIll. But Gibson’s loyalty must first lie with the football club. None of us have a crystal ball but SG has been looking after the football club for long enough now and I think needs to be able to recognise when things are going sooner. As do I.

  6. Good reply Spartak, and an excellent post, Andy.
    Hindsight’s the most annoying word of all. I keep saying now that The Matrix sequels should never have been made, but I was looking forward to Reloaded as much as anyone. The joy of coasting on hype and upwardly mobile momentum, all of which had gone by the time a desperate AK failed to land his targets.
    If you lose the feeling of winning the day, and worry that you’re not going to succeed, you lose your edge a little. Hence the nerves that crept in after Burnley beat us in the cup and then denied us the opportunity to go several points clear in April 2016.
    I’d add that there’s almost certainly no such thing as a good way to leave a club, either as a player or manager. Steve McClaren left us abruptly and unprepared for the future, with empty stomachs and an overpaid squad past its sell-by-date. Big Jack’s last game as Ireland manager finished with seven defenders on the pitch… his overdependence on an aging spine meant Mick McCarthy had to do a lot of rebuilding work to make Ireland competitive again in the late 90s and early noughties. Lawrie Sanchez left Northern Ireland on a high – top of their group in Euro 2008 qualifying with David Healy in the form of his life. But NI failed to complete the job and some NI fans were very bitter at Sanchez’ defection to Fulham. When Fulham sacked him that December, one NI fan was quick to write: “He walked out on us mid-campaign for his precious Premiership job. Schadenfreude!”
    I could go on and on.

  10. Well one manager has had a 45 and we are rifling the barrel to see what calibre our deputy has.
    Woody has rode into town with big Joe and they are going to round up our boys get the stray steers into line and head them up for the last sunset.
    We’ve got to take the bull by the horns and let’s hope the udders slip up so we have one last hurrah
    So it’s all hands to the stirrup pumps and hopefully a 1 nil win to our chaps and hope the Spurs can down the swans

  11. I’m overseas again so will miss the event unless I can catch it somewhere somehow in my travels.
    I’m going for a deflating 2-0 defeat that puts us out of our misery. Secretly hoping for the opposite of course but my recent predictions have been a bit of a Jonah so its a defeat from me to join the Makems. Flying home late Friday night to hope for some ray of light against Burnley on Saturday but fear that it may all be over bar the shouting come that point.
    Come on Boro prove me wrong.

  12. OFB
    Woodie? Mmm, a bit like Toy Story
    Woodie played by Woodie
    Buzz Lightyear played by Agnew
    Slincky Dog played by Gaston
    Mr Potato Head played by Traore
    Rex, cowardly T rex, played by Stewie
    Sarge played by Leadbelter

  14. I think Steve Gibson has blundered big this time, nothing against Agnew,Woodgate, Joe Jordon, who I’m sure are very capable coaches,and will no doubt put every effort in with these players.
    My concern is the big picture,no matter what you might think of Karanka,next season would have been his fourth,after another year of experience good or bad, he would have been eyeing next seasons changes, knowing what he knows about the current crop,I’m sure he knew the kind of player required ,depending of course in which division we are in, but he had proved he could get promotion,
    Gibson makes a change and it’s big,because the new guy and his staff may have a different phylosophy as to the type of team he wants, does he now rely on his scouts?, Does he have the contacts,? Is he persuesive, does he have an eye for a player? Is he steadfast or does he bounce around depending on results,do players like him or respect him,
    We don’t know because he’s never been in that position,
    The club is now starting all over again, I don’t remember an ex number two promoted from within turning a club around,
    I do know Steve Gibson told Venus it’s your job to lose, he did a week later.
    It’s bad people the Championship is the toughest to get out of,and getting harder every season,
    Brighton didn’t panic , and make a big change,and they will get their reward.

    1. Why is the assumption that Karanka would have gotten us back out of the Championship? His favoured players would all leave and the remaining ones he would have alienated. Other Championship managers would probably learnt to counter his one tactical strategy, taking notes from what every other PL manager has learnt this season. Perhaps Gibbo came to this conclusion and that’s why he bid Aitor adios.

  15. Dodgy internet in Spain has just deleted my last comment!And that took me a while too.
    Suffice to say, prediction is 1 1 draw with Negrado scoring both goals!
    UTB

  17. I also go for two changes, Husband for Fabio and Gestede for Ramirez.
    I think we really need to go for it tonight and treat this as a final where the winner takes all.
    In doing so I think we may get caught out and expect us to loose 2-0.
    Hope I am wrong but it’s all become too little/too late.
    If we do lose tonight I also think that the team will be so deflated they will let Burnley secure their first away win of the season.
    CoB prove me wrong.

  18. Dalla
    ”Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this sun [or son] of York”.
    Agnew comes from Shipley, that’s Yorkshire enough.

  21. Mrmisanthrope
    If Downing is left back we may as well give up now. That is no reflection on Stewie but on the way coaches think.
    We have few enough attacking players as it is, unless Gaston rises Lazarus like playing Stewie left back will make us unbalanced with little width or variety in attacking positions and would be folly.
    So Stewie left back it is, because it makes no sense to football observers it is entirely logical to coaches.

  25. Once more into the breach lads…
    When it came to appointing Agnew I fear that we wanted inspiration but we ended up with desperation….

  26. To be or not you be, that is the question, whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows odd outrageous fortune or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by ending oppose them, to die to sleep no more………or end up relegated

  27. It’s nearly kick-off & Hull & Boro gunslingers are face to face…
    Who’s gonna draw first 🔫 ?…
    It’s obvious, it’s gotta be the draughtsman !

  29. Andy
    Agreed. The best line up we could hope for given the injury situation.
    As you say, it’s down to the players now to show that miracles can occur.
    I live in hope rather than expectation. I’ve been reconciled to the thought of relegation for months. I’d just like to see some exciting football between now and May.

    1. Re : ‘I’d just like to see some exciting football between now and May’.
      Politely suggest try watching any team other than Boro.

  41. Crazy stuff – can’t remember a Boro half with so much action – both teams are just going all guns blazing – could easily have been 4-4. I suppose the purists won’t be too pleased but it’s so far been great to watch – Boro not going down with a whimper it seems.

    1. He’s getting quite a bit of protection from Downing but looks on his limit – most defensive problems seem to be happening down the middle – though two goals were down to loose balls not being dealt with.

  48. Comment by Hignett pre match, we don’t have players who want goals. I thinbk he meant players desperate to score.
    Just not good enough. Hard working, players who work hard.

  49. The Swansea result tonight is a sickener. Had we won there on Sunday tonight wouldn’t have been a total disaster.
    As it is, looking at the fixtures coming up, Palace, Swansea and Hull don’t have a particularly easy run. The only problem is that we have Burnley (h) and Arsenal (h). We need two wins there and everyone else to lose twice to just get close to climbing out of the bottom three.
    Disappointing tonight in that it seems SA’s tactical substitutions in order to keep Downing on the pitch seemed to hand the initiative back to Hull at a time when we looked threatening. Guedioura shouldn’t play again, and probably wouldn’t were it not for the fact that we are probably relying on him to be our Championship attacking midfielder next year.
    There’s no positive spin, doom and gloom all round.

  50. I await excuses with interest. I go back to my comments last autumn, unimpressed with our squad, moving on unimpressed with January business, unimpressed with the club, unimpressed with the manager.
    Hey ho, it is only football.

  51. Please no posts saying at least we gave it a go. We were well and truly stuffed by a team we had to beat. We will be back in the Championship next season for sure and will probably be there for some time.
    This season has been a shambles and the mess will take some sorting out. Karanka, having been wrongly kept on after Charltongate, should have been shipped out much earlier, the team was never good enough (and after the inevitable departures will not be good enough to get out of the Championship) and Agnew is not the manager to take us forward.
    It has been a massive missed opportunity and I’m afraid I now seriously question the competence of the senior management of the club. I fear for the future.

  52. I don’t think Boro managed a shot on goal in the second half – credit to Hull they look a much better side than either us or Swansea. Marco Silva looks like a very decent manager who knows what he’s doing – sadly Agnew looked a bit crest fallen and must know he’s got too much work on his hands. Though to be fair Boro’s makeshift back four looked exactly that and three of their goals were avoidable under normal circumstances.
    My MOM was Adama – worked his socks off both offensively and defensively – also credit to Downing he gave everything too. Barragan looked out of his depth and was easily beaten several times and Gestede’s first touch was lacking. Bamford also made no impact and Guedioura didn’t look PL quality. Basically January recruitment has let us down and left Boro with not enough quality.
    Though again can’t fault the team’s effort – just the application wasn’t there.

    1. Hi WM – I think I would substitute ‘quality’ for ‘application’…we have a team full of second and third rate ‘footballers’ sadly – not even approaching Premier League quality…
      ‘

  53. A thought, Hull and Swansea are not exceptionally good sides, at the turn of the year they were bottom and is disarray after awful first halves of the season. One of them is definitely going to stay up, I don’t think they’re in a different league to us but next year one or both will be.

  54. We did try but we weren’t good enough.
    Playing 2 up was ok but we had no creativity through the middle and the fullbacks didn’t really get forward because Hull kept them too busy defending.
    Frankly, we were lucky to be only 3-2 down at half time and in the second half never really looked as if we were going to win.
    I’m basically optimistic about Boro but it’s hard to see much to be optimistic about.
    Time to regroup?
    UTB

  55. Yes, selwynoz. Time to regroup. And please, let’s not even think about keeping Steve Agnew on as manager in the Championship. We need someone with experience who can get the team to score goals whilst maintaining defensive stability.

  56. No report from me tonight as I’m on a smartphone in the middle of nowhere. I missed the first ten minutes trying to get a link and couldn’t believe we were 1-0 up. That was as good as the evening got.
    Fast, slick passing versus slow predictable build up with no creativity apart from Adama who ran his socks off. My overwhelming impressions were a make shift and rusty defence leaked badly and our January window personfied in one half.
    Our Championship side would have given this league a better go. What is very clear now is that SG has about as big a problem now as when Strachan left. Perhaps not immediately financially but in terms of overpaid space wasters recruited and signed by buffoons I anticipate a long stay back in the Championship if not worse.
    Maybe Pearson wouldn’t have been such a bad shout after all. Anyway no point in blaming Agnew, not his Circus and not his Monkeys.

  57. This season has not been enjoyable at all, and I am actually looking forward to being in the Championship again. I’ve missed the frequency of the games, and I have missed there being an actual focus to the season. We are never going to be top 6 Premier League, so why not aim for top 6 Championship? Even the sides like Bournemouth or Stoke, even Swansea, who have gone up and established themselves in the Premier League just seem to have season after season of a mid table grind, trying to stay above relegation and knowing they are not going to challenge at the top end. What is the point?

  58. Agree Clive , no disrespect to Agnew but the fault lies with our saviour Steve Gibson….made the wrong call as most of the bloggers have said….now we need a big clear out and a new manager installed who will have to be absolutely clinical in getting rid of the hangers on , that means players / backroom staff / recruitment / present coaches . in a nutshell , a new beginning. I look forward to it

  59. Well I really enjoyed that performance. Well organised and full of energy. Brilliant in every department with not a weak link evident anywhere. Full of creativity and commitment. A pleasure to witness. And offering all of us the promise of a great next season. Well done Werdermouth.

  60. Well here goes with a modicum of controversy!
    My view is that Steve Gibson is wholly responsible for our demise this season through his misguided sense of loyalty. I’m pretty sure his business alter ego wouldn’t have allowed an irretrievable situation to develop in such an alarming fashion as he has with Karanka. It had been patently obvious since Christmas that AK was not coping, unable to think outside of the stubborn box in which his head was firmly ensconced. Doing the same thing and expecting different result etc…
    Understandably perhaps, Mr Gibson is suffering from charity fatigue having propped Boro up for years, but I have to say his judgement on managerial appointments over the years is more than questionable, as have some of the decisions made by his acolytes (Lamb, Blackburn, 3 points, unforgiveable?). Sad to say the nearest to a real manager we’ve had in recent times is probably McLaren. You can see why he’s given Agnew the job, simply because the decision to relieve the Spaniard was made far too late; however, is Agnew the answer, even for the Championship?
    I hate to pose the question, but is it time for a change? It seems to me that pundits and press are only too happy to laud us for having the ‘best’ chairman simply because it means we will remain a club that will achieve nothing – plucky Middlesbrough…galling in the extreme…or perhaps I have delusions of adequacy for our heroes?
    I have nothing but admiration for our chairman and for what he has done for our club, but hey! nothing lasts for ever…

  61. I posed the question a while back, who is running this club and who is making all the decisions?
    Why did we sign Gestede and Bamford in January it doesn’t make sense, was it to help keep us up or help if we go down?
    Either of them have not proved themselves at this level, and when we go down with parachute payments and sales of some,we will be in a very good position to look at a number of players to sign.
    We need I would say definitely four players two strikers with pedigree and two attacking skillfull central midfielders ,
    Could we get a Andy Carrol with Assombolongo, Johnson the Derby midfielder, Hoolahan, Gareth Barry maybe, I’m just throwing it out there because I’m baffled at what’s going on.

    1. We will need a lot more than 4 players!
      Valdes, Barragan, Espinosa, Negredo, Guzan and Gibson will be off as a minimum then there’s the offers from “Promoted” clubs for the likes of maybe Clayton, Traore as just two examples.
      Then we need to deal with the Players who are not up to it who are left. I reckon on a minimum of 10 outgoings probababy more, either by choice or being pushed mainly those signed to “give it a go”.

  62. Pedestrian in mind and body, the team is a shambles. Ayala not a shadow of what he was , how many times did he not pick anyone up and when he did proceeded to impersonate a wrestler.Time to play negredo in behind Stuani and the lumberjack( why did we let Rhodes and Nugent leave). I shake my head that Gibson allowed this farce to proceed , Everyone could see our problems and our January recruitment only made things worse.
    Time to get in a Manager with experience ,no more L plates.
    Hiddinck for me, his record is exceptional and get him in soon to sweep the deadwood out starting with at least two of the muppets we signed in January and if Sheffield Wed. do not get promoted can we get Rhodes back.
    Such a huge embarrassment our return to the top flight , next time do what was promised and give it a go !
    Screeeeaaaaaaam.

    2. Or he arrived at 1 minute past midnight Wednesday morning and left 1 minute before midnight Thursday night, thus staying two days lol
      Come on BORO.

  64. The saddest part in all of this is the demise of Steve Gibson in a lot of people’s eyes. The vast majority of fans have always trusted him, even during the bad times, I fear his reputation will be tarnished through his involvement in this wretched season. Most of us on this blog have been through the ups and downs over many years, but this one really hurts because it’s almost as if we didn’t give it a go on the pitch, we didn’t give it a go in the transfer market and the hierarchy just sat on their collective hands while we careered out of control.
    We all knew that relegation was a real possibility this season, but I concur with Redcar Red that the team that got us promoted would have fared better than this lot.

  65. I agree that Gibson has got more wrong than right this season. I can’t believe the successful business would allow a bunch of cronies who “are local lads” to run his haulage business, so why do the same for the football?
    I’ve said it many times, Gibson undermined AK when he didn’t rip up Downing’s contract in the summer and get him out of the club. He undermined him when he didn’t ship him out in January. He undermined him when he signed Rhodes over his head, -and I strongly suspect when we got the shower of mediocrity in during January.
    For all the talk of the club putting in place a fantastic structure with scouting and a director of football/head coach type set up, Gibson undermined several million pounds of investment to given Downing a nice pay day and bring another local lad back onto the coaching staff. We’ve spent around £16M on two players the manager didn’t want (Downing, Rhodes) and around £15M in January on players he probably didn’t want (although I still think Bamford was AK’s choice). That’s £30M on players who couldn’t get into the top 6 teams in the Championship, with the possible exception of Rhodes, and who will probably generate only half that in transfer fees if we shipped them all out this summer.
    Now, if you tell me that Victor Orta and our expensively assembled scientific recruitment team identified that motley crew as targets then I will tell you “rubbish and twice rubbish!” Those signings are agent signings, the type of deals done boardroom to agent and skipping the scouts and recruiters. Otherwise we wouldn’t have touched Gestede with a barge pole and would have known that Bamford seems happy to pick up his wages and coast through his career as a “what might have been”.
    We are an absolute shower, and it starts with the rank amateurism of thinking that local lads are best and to build a structure only to undermine it. I’m hugely disappointed, we are making Newcastle look like a well run club! Look at their recruitment: Gayle, Ritchie. If we had bought both of those two we would be mid table by now. Instead we are going down and probably churning over 10-12 players in the process. You can’t do a Hull or Burnley and bounce back if you’re saddled with a bunch of desperate makeweights signed in a hellishly bad January window.
    If we by some fluke stay up we might be able to gut the club and stay in the league more comfortably next year. If we go down we won’t get Wagner or most of the other up and coming managers and we will be facing another long barren run out of the top flight.
    Rank amateurism from top to bottom. I’m hugely disappointed.

  66. New Manager,new team, a new red shirt (white band no blue or any other colour) and we pick ourselves off the floor and start to get some pride back in Boro.
    Time for some experienced heads and no more “projects ” because if we do not get back next season we are cactus.

  67. Well the fat lady is now well and truly singing, watched on a stream and it wasn’t good. Surprised how many people are saying SG should go. Two questions who would replace him, we are not a southern club or one with a massive supporter base so not that attractive to buy. Who else would spend millions of pounds (no idea how much bug it will be a mind boggling amount) keeping the club afloat. If it was my money I wouldn’t. He has made mistakes L plate managers bad recruiting of players, but how much input does he have.
    Also football ownership has changed since we were last here it’s all foreign oligarchs and billionaires .
    Will we bounce straight back? Unfortunately I don’t think so, we need an experienced manager and our track record on this front is not good, also will need to spend a reasonable amount on recruitment or will the parachute payments be used to keep the club afloat.
    Have I enjoyed this season, no, it does appear to be a lot of hype spurred on by huge amounts of money.
    So onwards and upwards or downwards in our case….

    1. To clarify Paul – I would never call on SG to go, he is far and away the best option to run the club. But he needs to take this lesson as a wake up call – if you don’t cut out the poison from within quickly, it can infect the rest of the set up quickly.
      As I tried to state above – I find it hard to believe he’d stand for it in his other businesses, so why stand for it in the football business?
      We need a full backroom clear out and to get rid of any of the other “local” lads who think that they can do a better job than people who have proved themselves at much higher levels in the game than they have.
      I’d love to get a Mancini or Hiddink type figure to come in, not necessarily as manager, as that will be a hard sell, but as a consultant to look at who we have and where and weed out the rubbish.
      It’s a big job, and we should be under no illusions that the second the final whistle of the final game blows we need to be ready to start undertaking it.

  68. It takes rank bad management to take a fairly balanced side who were clear on their job in the team and won promotion and make it worse. I would class Valdes as an upgrade in shot stopping, Negredo in terms of ability and Fabio as being a true case in point for us actually having 2 players for each position but other than that I would be content if we didn’t keep any of the others.
    Factor in that a number of our players lived for the dream of playing premier league and it may well be a shock to the system that they weren’t as good as thought they were. How many premier teams come calling for our players will be interesting. The point being that confidence will be shot and at the moment there seems to be very little in the clubs plans for people to buy into. I’ve got no doubt that Agnew is a thoroughly nice fella as were Venus and Southgate but that simply isn’t enough and from an outsiders view, it seems that he must have accepted that Karanka’s methods were the way to go and didn’t have the personality to instill his ideas into the coaching set up. I appreciate that it was only one game and came at a disruptive time but I put the Charlton game in the same bracket as Cardiff. What it pointed to was that he didn’t have the skill of changing things or motivating or inspiring a performance. Is this unfair criticism? Probably but I would like to have confidence in the manager and I just don’t.
    SG has passion for the club and I have no doubt that his decisions are honest and done in the best interests of the club as he sees it but he is short sighted in my view. He has been around football and our club for over 30 years and his contacts book must be bulging so combine that with the reputation of being one of the best chairmen around and get the buzz back and truly have a go next season with management and a team not built around familiar faces and looking after “our own”. He only needs to look at Hull as a team that didn’t recruit for so long and who sold 2 key players at a key stage in the season as an example of how fresh ideas are more valuable than splashing out millions.

  69. There are people on other sites who still think we can escape. I’m lost for words, maybe ‘get real’ would suffice. We need an experienced, tough manager to sort this mess out. I’m really looking forward to the last couple of games… I cannot see us winning another game this season although being Born we’ll probably stuff a top team.
    We’ve had the great Jockification, the Spanification, what next?
    Never mind we scored two goals so that must mean better days. Oh yes, and get shot of those shirts please.
    UTB, wearily,
    John

  70. Something to be said here for changing things at the right time when it’s starting to go wrong. Hull definitely did it when they appointed Silva, Swansea also with Clement. Timing’s everything. In hindsight it’s easy to say we should have parted ways with AK during Charltongate, but arguably keeping him on propelled our charge towards promotion. This season we left it too long, too late, before making the change, and we’re paying for that. Probably an error of judgement by the Chairman here, but we all make them and the alternative to SG doesn’t really bear thinking about. What about Sunderland, even worse than we are and a complete basket case of a club? They need someone to go in and sweep out the longstanding bad elements as a priority, but Moyes didn’t do that, or didn’t get the chance to do that because of a lack of financial backing to reshape the team, and they’ve paid the price.
    It always felt that these three games – Swansea, Hull, Burnley – were the decisive ones, before a horrible run-in. Do well in these, get 5 maybe 7 points, and we can gather a bit of momentum. Instead it has all the feel of 2008/09, a surrender towards relegation and a side that isn’t good enough to do the job. It didn’t have to be like this. There were some promising signings in the summer. I didn’t have regrets about any of the players we shipped out, and it was patently clear where we needed to add in January in order to paper over the cracks, which in the end we simply did not address. I’ve no real problem with Gestede or Bamford, more that those two weren’t enough and we needed a LOT more than an Algerian journeyman to add to the ranks. I’d argue that we were about the weakest side going into this season, certainly in terms of PL experience. Wholsesale improvements were required across the board and a genuine attempt to ‘go for it’. Instead we watched other clubs break their transfer records, spend and invest in order to stop up and develop, and we didn’t go far enough. We deserve exactly what we are getting (the team, not the fans).
    My worry is that going down might involve being down for a number of years again. Given how difficult we found it to be last time and the long seasons of soul searching, cost cutting, bargain players with equally cheap returns, etc, etc, it’s a real pity that we didn’t give it more of a go.

    1. Mike, my comment that Karanka should have been shown the door after Charltongate has not been made with hindsight. I said the same on the blog at the time, explained in detail why that was my view and outlined what I believed would happen if he was allowed to stay. It gives me no pleasure today to see that my prediction was largely right.
      The really sad aspect of it is that I now have serious doubts about Steve Gibson’s judgement, a man who has done amazing things for MFC and for whom I have the utmost gratitude and respect. This season, however, has been a disaster and he is the person who must take the ultimate responsibility.

      1. Fair enough and certainly not an attempt to belittle anyone’s considered feelings that AK and Charltongate; I should probably have worded my comment better. I guess we could all see the potential cracks at the time, and AK’s tactical tendencies, which we largely got away with at that level.

  71. The advertising board outside the newsagents would read ‘Boro in six goal thriller’.
    Not something we would have imagined reading before the game.
    When we are sadly relegated, we may or may not have a new manager. We will probably lose half a dozen first team stalwarts.
    This will necessitate bringing in more players. New players take time to integrate. I expect a slow start to life in the Championship.

  72. A sad state of affairs that we are going back to the championship without making any impression in the Premiership! No exciting performances and not one game to look back on with pride.
    We dismantled a promotion team instead of adding to it.
    We brought in players with no recent or non existent Premiership experience apart from the 3 Villa lads who went down with one of the worst records in Premiership history.
    We brought in projects,cheap Spanish imports,injury prone out of form players who had hardly kicked a ball in two years.
    We let a temperamental sulky stubborn bullying manager slowly strangle any talent each player had by sticking to his rigid boring tactics to keep our goal difference low so that we could finish 17th on goal difference and it’s still an impressive goal difference but utterly useless now when we are seven points adrift but with abit of luck may just keep us from finishing bottom above Sunderland!
    This season we were giving it a go,new additions were meant to enhance the squad consolidate and improve again next season.
    Now we need to have a complete clear out start from scratch and rebuild again.
    SG Kenyon and Orta need to have a good look at themselves for allowing this to happen. The feel good factor from last April,the return to a full house again after season after season of a half empty Riverside has completely vanished in 30 miserable games!!

  73. People may not agree with me but IMHO I would keep de Roon, da Silva, de Sart, Fischer, Friend, Husband, Clayton, Forshaw, Gestede, Bamford, Valdes (if poss), Fry.
    Possibly keep, Traore, Espinosa, Barragan, Stuani, Leadbitter, Dimi, Guedioura
    Get rid, Agnew, Woodgate, Downing, Rameriz (if anyone will but him for a decent price), Ayala, Negrado (option not taken up)
    If we keep the same management team we will be nowhere near the top 6 and next years Exmil Challenge will be about the relegation battle in the Championship.
    Come on BORO.

    1. I would vary that by getting riding Dimi and Leads I believe their contracts have run out
      Get shot of Barragan and you missed off Fabio and Ben !
      Presumably you think he’ll be sold but I think Fabio will stay
      We also have Alex Baptiste Connor Ripley and Harry Chapman out on loan and they could be included in a championship squad
      I have deliberately not included Carlos De Pena as he does not cut it !

      2. da Silva is Fabio and yes I think Ben will go to a top club (and he deserves the chance) yes Ripley and Chapman but I did not go through the youngsters as I don’t know them too well, isn’t there a couple others including a striker and some playmakers that look promising? Is Baptistery getting starts where he is and what about being injury prone like Ayala.
        Come on BORO.

        1. Baptiste is getting his game for Preston and is now 31 he is well thought of down there
          Young Harry on the wing Chaman could come into the squad also

      3. Thanks OFB, we couldn’t have done any worse if he had played. I do hope that some of the youngsters get their chance now. Get them playing and stat changing the approach, style and philosophy ready for next season. It’ll send a message to those who are are perhaps not trying enough.
        UTB,
        John

    1. I hadn’t got to jarsue159’s post when I replied to OFB so if I have made the 100 then it is a complete fluke and my first ever lol
      Come on BORO.

  77. Well, fellow brothers of the blog, it seems like a tsunami has struck – not quite the one I predicted last night with tears of joy, more like tears of rage & anger.
    For myself, I wouldn’t be too harsh on the lads and Aggers. The back line had two defenders with maybe 2 EPL games between them all season. Consequently, when we go to an all out attack or die mode it can’t come as a surprise that for the most part chaos reigned and we died.
    Consider if you will that the Boro have been schooled in the dark art of defend and snatch a goal for the most part of 3 seasons. Do you forget that when we beat Swansea AK said it was our worst performance.
    There can be no sane person alive who thinks we are organised and can put other teams to the sword. However, the defence can be improved with the return of Friend & De Silva. Fisher could play left with Stewie in the No 10 role. A 4-3-2-1 could still bring back a semblance of order and decency.
    After the storm a cool head can recover.

  78. Spartak the optimist! Who’d have thunk it?
    I have said before that the “worst performance of the season” comment was a massive faux pas on AK’s part. I’ve put it down to being a case of either (a) a loss in translation or (b) reverse psychological motivation for the lads to up their game. If it was (b), it backfired hugely… United have won 3-0 playing terribly, and so have we, at least twice over in the Championship, but the circumstances are very different. When you’re in a relegation fight you have to big up 3-0 wins as much as possible.
    I think, in hindsight, much of my support for AK actually came out of sympathy – I could never shake off the feeling that there were those who never cared for his management, even when the results were the right ones. And if you can’t even embrace upward mobility there is something wrong.

    1. Simon
      I have no intention of going through them, but AK made several statements which did not make sense, I think we should draw a veil over them in sympathy.
      His view that we were simply not able to play as an attacking team with this squad is coming home to us all after last night.
      The entire display can be put down to our new management team, hull were a known force, with the stakes so high it was surely a time to fill the team with midfielders instead of non scoring forwards, because only sheer cussedness was going to stop them pouring all over us, as indeed happened.
      The most telling fact about the new leader is that he was in charge when we went to Charlton, lest we forget, their fans told us to hammer them ten nil, they were a shambles and proved it by crashing through the leagues, and are still crashing through the leagues. Our inglorious group (complete with wannabe manager) put up an all time low in the clubs history.
      Hands up those who think that he should be running our team at this time, because when we go down we need to be a solid group, or the Championship will evaporate in the first ten games.(yes, I fear the worst)

  79. Additional.
    The pain I felt last night, and still feel to an extent, comes from what Vic might describe as the residue of anger accumulated during this Premier League nightmare multiplied by the pain of coming close to having any remaining illusions, or delusions, of survival shattered. Even if you effectively accept the final act is coming, it’s the hope that kills you.

  80. Despite his errors of judgement, I hate to think where we’d be without SG.
    I’m one of those who’s been underwhelmed by the Premiership experience.
    As PaulinBoro says, it’s all hype and money. For clubs like us, all it involves is a constant struggle for survival.
    Following Boro for over 50 years (although I missed the Riverside revolution years of the 90’s for financial reasons) I should be used to disappointment but I just feel empty at present.
    AK did good things for us but, like Big Jack, it seems he couldn’t engineer that little bit extra we needed to progress to the next level.
    Sadly, I agree that there has to be yet another clean sweep and start again. No more jobs for the boys.
    I don’t envy SG in his task of trying to restore order to the current shambles.

  82. Simon
    One word ‘Agincourt’!
    I’m talking the Boro being the French not the English. If some sense of order is not brought about there could be a meltdown that will make us into a Villa of last season & this.
    Not a pleasent thought.

  83. It is indeed the hope that kills you, even now I guess some of us are hoping we can beat Arsenal/Chelsea/Liverpool and pull off a great escape.
    I wouldn’t be judging Steve Gibson too harshly, without him we’d be bumbling along in league one I reckon.
    The demise of the Boro has been tough to take, but last night was the final nail in the coffin.
    Plenty of opportunity for analysis/post mortem over the summer.

    1. The received wisdom is that Steve Gibson has been our saviour over many years. However, are we not in danger of sounding Karankaesque by continually playing the ‘where would we be’ card?
      It’s all hypothetical, because he’s going nowhere, but would it not be interesting to see how we would fare with a new regime?
      As I said previously, Mr Gibson is a serial offender in terms of poor managerial appointments and you would have thought he’d have learned a harsh lesson from the Strachan fiasco which nearly killed us. Sadly, apparently not.
      He needs to have a radical rethink on his strategy vis-a-vis managers,
      otherwise I fear we are doomed to continue our Sisyphusian existence…

    2. Anyone remember the last “root and branch no stone unturned summer enquiry” after Moggas team crashed from the January? Beggar all was uncovered, sorted or fixed.

  84. “AK did good things for us but, like Big Jack, it seems he couldn’t engineer that little bit extra we needed to progress to the next level.”
    There are many that say the very same thing about Big Jack with Ireland!
    It’s like, “OK, Big Jack/AK. You’ve lifted us to the top tier and you’ve made us difficult to beat in many games. But… now what?”
    Some may say, you’re not Brazil/Man U, you’re Ireland/Boro and that should be more than enough, but there comes a stage where it isn’t.
    I read also that when he was at Boro, Jack refused to spend money while we were in the top flight! Shades of this season and our inability to make the right investments. The £12 million for De Roon is small change in an era where Man U are paying eight times that for Pogba.

  85. Nigel
    As I said, the Boro had a patched up defence & Hull are on good form at home.
    Summer appraisals sound nice except we’ve still got 8 games to play.

  86. Spartak,
    You are right the summer is the time but I hope the club has a disaster management plan in place and are working on it right now.
    I just hope that we don’t see any tweets and Instagram posts in the summer from players in first class on aircraft or by the blue Indian Ocean. The fans will be hurting all summer getting on with the day-to-day rituals of getting by. Hells bells I’m hurting now and I think it is going to get worse over the next few weeks.
    A possible, although highly improbable, 24 points at stake so how many will we get? Even none sounds a risky bet.
    UTB,
    John

  87. I don’t think you can conclude too much defensive-wise given that we probably put out our weakest back four for about three years against Hull – plus Gibson had one of his rare bad days to boot. Three of four goals were down to defensive errors and on another day we probably would have prevented them.
    It’s no use getting nostalgic about Karanka and playing a three-defensive midfielder formation as the only way that works. It didn’t work and Boro became an impotent non-scoring team that the opposition discovered gave them a free hit for the majority of the game.
    If you can’t manage to play with just two defensive midfielders then I suggest you’ve got something wrong somewhere else. Hull played 4-4-2 last night as well so it wasn’t as if they struggled, Boro didn’t have a shot in the second half – not to mention Leicester won the league playing it and had a pretty mean defence too.
    So if you need to play with a three-man defensive shield it probably means you’re not giving the opposition enough to keep them busy in their own half. A two-man defensive shield seemed more than adequate for 80% of Karanka’s reign and in the end he just didn’t know how to create an attacking force without being given riches beyond our realm to acquire a ready made one – so he just tried to stop the opposition and hence just two goals in 2017 before he ran out of people to blame.
    In the absence of a miracle we are down – Boro basically have to win three games more than the two or three teams outside the drop zone in out last eight games – which probably means at least five wins and I’m sure anyone collecting on that bet will be retiring to the beach and won’t be freezing at Riverside watch Boro hold on against Fleetwood for a glorious 1-0 victory.
    Yes a major re-think looks like being the order of the day in the summer and Steve Gibson should take a careful note of what has been learned and what is needed to create a team that can progress forward as the opposition improves.

  89. I feel embarrassed making this comment, largely because I am so angry at the abject display at hull that it is difficult to even think straight never mind be rational.
    Here goes with my comment.
    Has it occurred to anyone that, when the dust has settled, say, six months time, it is entirely possible that AK’s opinion that this team was so bad that it took all his determination and ruthless concentration on defence to crawl out of the Champ. If that were to be so, then his utter refusal to let them even try to be gallant attacking buccaneers was shown to be correct at hull,(with bells on)
    As it is apparent that strange things have been going on with buying and selling players(no I do not know who called the shots, it is impossible to work it out by applying logic. Boro don’t do logic. What I will say is, make sense of selling Rhodes, and buying Branford, and there are plenty more, how did we miss out on sixteen million for Gaston, now worthless )
    Whoever has been doing the buying(and selling), they have no inkling what makes a Premier player for they have collected together a group of players who lack many qualities which go to make a top notcher. Having opened my mouth I had better state a couple of the talents needed, they need to be powerfully built, brave, very fast, able to dish it out when required, fearless when taking one for the team, oh, and consistent(that’s good )
    If the above is even half right then we may have to be a bit kinder to AK who after all had to be relieved of his duties because he was suffering stress.

  90. Let’s see if I can type this in while the Internet is still working and my fat fingers don’t hit a wrong key.
    I woke up this morning with a thick head and a cloudy morning which sort of sums up where Boro are.
    I am slightly bemused that the inquest has started before the body is cold and whilst it is coming up to Easter, we can always hope for a miracle, if you believe in that of course, other religions are available. Being a Boro supported makes you want to believe and hope for the impossible (or as my wife says, mad)
    That said, the patient is in the ICU with life threatening injuries and unlikely to come off the critical list any time soon. If anything, the life support machine will soon be required, but only for a short period of time until the family decide that enough is enough and there is no longer prolonging the suffering. My guess is that will occur at about 10pm on Bank Holiday Monday when it becomes clear that SA cannot raise the dead.
    I will reserve comment on the season for later on when I got over the hurt of a season that promised so much but delivered so little.
    However, the culpability must be shared by many from the top downwards, from SG, who for all his good points, this season maybe took his eye of the ball slightly and put more trust than he should have in others. I still think that his plan was to be cautious with the spending, having put so much in, see what happens. The ” nobody has died” comment kind of supports that to me. He perhaps realised that the EPL has changed so much financially that to really compete in the first year would have involved a shed load of money which he wasn’t prepared to do. When all said and done, £12m on de Roon is a drop in the ocean.
    What happens next season, who knows? For me, it will mean more midweek games to get to, more away games as the clubs give more tickets to well supported teams and maybe another promotion push with players who actually look like they care.
    Right then, a San Migual ( or several) has my name on it!
    UTB – I believe in miracles!

  91. Since his tenure Steve Gibson has basically changed managers every three seasons, how many times has it been for the good?
    We all have opinions on Karanka,and yes we weren’t this free flowing attacking phenomenal new Boro.but in his defence we lost points through individual mistakes at bad times,or missing very good chances to score that would have gain points,a little bit of luck might have helped too.
    Know one can deny though, he wasn’t given much help in the transfer market, as a premiership club you have the pull of interest from all over the world, and look what they came up with, no excuses.

  92. plato – Yes, I’ve had that thought. On reflection though I believe AK is a low risk, defensive minded coach. Another coach playing more offensive football having recruited players with a different skill set could have got us promoted.
    That said, once we were in the prem I do believe Karanka thought the only chance of survival was to be ultra defensive and if we’d had the luck/nouse, we could have seen wins at Arsenal, West Ham and Leicester which would have even now made the season look somewhat different.
    As for the recruitment, as I remember it AV told us it was a collective. With input from the Head Coach, recruitment team Gibson and Bauser.
    Which if true means it has been a collective failure, but in football it is always the manager/head coach who pays the price.
    I don’t buy into the theory that Downing and Rhodes were ‘forced’ onto Karanka by the way.
    Recruitment is what makes or breaks a manager ultimately. Tactics, man management (however perceived), coaching etc are just background noise in my opinion.
    Boro recruited poorly last summer and in January and we’ve paid the price.

  93. AK might well permit himself a small ‘I told you so’ moment, but Steve Agnew had to be bold and go for a win. That meant switching to a new more attacking system in an away game with three of his first-choice back four absent, and it was always going to be very high risk.
    I assume we are all clear that although there are points still to play for, we need two wins and a draw just to get to where Hull are now, and our form is awful. So at this point it is about ending the season with some fighting performances and getting some decent results in the run-up to next season. Time for everyone to put down the survival results predictor.
    At least the recruitment team can now focus entirely on players to get us out of the Championship, with no tilting at windmills as we saw in January*. We need a realistic assessment of who will leave, and to identify tough and resilient characters with the necessary skillsets who can perform in the relentless Championship schedule. I’m not sure if Victor Orta has the right contacts book for that.
    All that matters now is not going down and doing a Villa or Norwich next season. We have to bounce straight back up.
    For Steve Gibson, he must use the time to assess whether Steve Agnew is really a manager. Smoothing over the ruffled feathers in the squad and running sensible press conferences is not enough in itself, we also need to see improved performances. Otherwise, someone who has already succeeded in management needs to be head-hunted.
    *While we were pursuing unrealistic targets, Hull signed Marcovic and Grosicki who may not be dominant Premiership players, but can do enough creatively to make a difference – see ‘Albert Adomah’.
    And sorry everyone, but I’ve got to vent my frustration with one rant … I totally agree with Michael, no more awful arty-farty ‘design statement’ shirts in an overall mish-mash of a colour scheme – that wretched kit was shouting ‘relegation’ from day one. Let’s have a powerful and coherent strip for a town with a proud industrial heritage – more steel, less squeal.
    Mark W

    2. Boro
      Just one quick
      The hull match was more than just one of the eight, a draw would have seen us three points nearer them, they needed to win or else. It was foolish in the extreme to go wild, we had far more experience than they had of playing a defensive game, and frankly they are where they are for a reason.

  94. We improved up front, but our defence collapsed. I said a point would have been a good result and how true that looks now. An AK keep-it-tight approach might have been a wiser tactic but you can understand why Agnew felt he had to go for it – played into Hull’s hands though, I bet they couldn’t believe their luck when they saw how open we were.
    Certainly agree though that Hull’s recruitment in January puts us to shame – Hull barely made an effort to stay up at the start of the season and now there is a chasm between us.
    We almost need to ignore the gap – if we get to 38 points we’ll stay up. So we need to win 4-5 games from 8. Highly unlikely considering we’ve won 4 in 30 but you never know.

  97. It’s a great shame the prevailing view now expressed on here, and elsewhere, wasn’t the consensus a year ago.
    Yes, SG has stuffed up (again) but any halfwit could see that AK should have been chopped after Charlton and that is not with hindsight.
    More still, he should have gone in the summer, the poor and negative performance against Brighton (starting without the in-form Rhodes or Downing) was a signpost to things to come and it was blindingly obvious that AK was nothing other than negative in his approach to everything football.
    Did AK ever sign a really decent player? Probably not, a damning indictment. As for youngsters transitioning into the first team…
    He has been as bad a boss as we’ve ever had, truly awful, and his legacy will probably be the most negative and difficult to overcome of any former manager here.
    Strachan was an awful man and manager but spent comparatively little and saddled us with far less of a mess.
    AK bought terribly and, the 15M or so in Jan and 12M on de Roon are effectively what we’ll get for our crown jewel (Ben) Gibson this summer, a huge waste. It’s deeply saddening.
    Steve Gibson has performed erratically for a long time now and his actions must be questioned and challenged. Of course he is doing it for the good of the club but it doesn’t mean he hasn’t lost the plot, because he has, big time.
    His comments that the world will keep spinning when we go down would have Bill Shankly etc turning in their graves and betrays a fatalism and cluelessness about what to do next. That’s not what we want to hear or see Steve.
    The fans have played their part in the club’s downfall also. Being a proper fan today is not about blind support and blind optimism as it was in the schoolyard (we can still stay up if…) but is about general support and also challenging and questioning decisions made by the club when they are patently wrong. It is a failure and betrayal of the club to not to so by the fans. Why anyone would side with AK purely because he was the boss is beyond me. Support the club not the man. Do you ever think we’ll see AK slipping into the Riverside to clock a game again? Of course not, he’s gone and his ‘loyalty’ to the Boro has gone with him.
    Making feelings known en masse is important and we the fans should done a lot more. Supporters are a very powerful stakeholder still and by being timid or blind, we have not supported the club as we should have.
    Far worse still, is the media. The Gazette, once a good paper indeed, is now merely pitiful. The paper has not stood up the club and questioned its decisions as once was its role. No wonder no-one buys or reads it anymore. The quality of its football writers is dire indeed, they all buy into the clubs mandate (by choice or otherwise) and have no credibility. The video chats are car crash TV in the extreme and just vapid.
    Had the Gazette and supporters done their bit sooner, things may have been much different, and to not do so is an epic failure. ‘All it takes is for good men to do nothing’ etc
    But we’re in it together and I doubt many on this blog will desert the club, I won’t.
    SG is not obliged to explain himself but morally must do so for us to head forward. Clear the air Steve, tell us what truly went on and what you’re going to do next.
    Gibbo is the best ever to happen to the Boro. I want him to stay forever but I want him also to do things better. You own the club Steve but it’s our club too, so let’s all move on together by you doing your bit. Now.

  98. It seems that I’m the only one who doesn’t actually know what really happened before the Charlton game,
    So anyone out there that was in the room and can tell me the facts,I’d appreciate it?

  99. I don’t agree with those who think Fibson has a poor track record with appointing managers.
    Robson may not have been much of a coach but exactly the sort of star attraction necessary for the “Riverside Revolution”. Who knows what would have happened had the 3 points not been deducted.
    McClaren was a devious man but delivered our first and only major trophy with a UEFA Cup final to boot.
    Southgate? The wrong choice at the time for sure but even he did quite well until his midfield was stripped out.
    Strachan – yep, fair play. It was awful. I would argue that he took over a soft-centred group at the time though and can see why he might have been considered a good choice at the time.
    Mowbray. – it ended awfully but a lot of good work was achieved along the way.
    Karanka – see Mowbray.
    I have no idea how good a manager Steve Agnew is. No-one does and I guess that’s the point but I’m not going to write him off without any real evidence to do so.
    SG remains absolutely cricial to this club. No-one else is going to put the money that he does into it, nor care as much how it fares.
    But he does need to stay out of transfers and act sooner when the wheels fall off.

  100. Perhaps our biggest problem this season is we overachieved in getting promoted.
    To be fair to Gibson, probably was never wise to go beserk last summer or in January, relegation was always not unlikely and rather we are this position than like Sunderland now or QPR a few years ago. Karanka took a bit of a gamble on fischer and Traore and when it was not apparent they were good enough seems to tried to stay up with 0-0s and the odd 1-0 before – when he could get replacements in – throwing in the towel. Perhaps like 1992/93 when we – perhaps unexpectedly – found ourselves in the Premier League and were found wanting,
    Not an Agnew fan, but hard to see exactly who could have kept us up. Our choice of next manager will be crucial and best not to rush into it. Clearly he didn’t want to get rid of Karanka but seems to have had no choice in the end.
    Is it really 20 years ago since the league cup final? I was more devastated that day than I am today. Remember the inevitable feeling on the bus coming home cursing Emile Heskey- that there was no chance we would win the replay. Even winning it 7 years later, did not cure the pain.

    1. Archie
      I do not believe for one moment that AK was the one doing the buying and selling, they were a new crew having fun in the sun.
      What we are landed with is a non Premier squad (largely under sized and underweight, lacking in speed, and above all lacking in any sort of skill in front of goal, hence no scoring)

    1. Simon : Sorry but I disagree, as if he’d done right & regardless of stats we wouldn’t be where we are now.
      RE : An iteresting read of which I agree with all points made. I’m sure you feel better getting all that off your chest.
      It sounds like SG has Boro as just a sideline & not a main focus in life. Like a train set in the loft.
      I hate to say I stated months ago, along with others & what most on here are saying now regarding the predicament we’ve found ourselves in.
      All was totally avoidable if the people who matter most had listened & acted accordingly to those, us fans who are paying their wages.

    2. Most of AK’s winning Championship side were all Moggas recruits (make that budget recruits).
      Know who I’d want as new head of recruitment!

  102. Additional.
    Seven years ago, at the end of 2009-10, Sir Martin Narey launched a tirade at fans in the comments section of UntypicalBoro. Extreme it may be, but it is worth a read.
    “The season is over and, as ever, Boro fans are full of indignation.
    “Steve Gibson hasn’t delivered on his promise to return the club to the (Premier League), to which, of course, ‘we belong’.
    “But what possible justification is there for that view? We’re a club that has won practically nothing. The … years of plenty which delivered the extraordinary and regular experience of major cup finals were, at the time, greeted as nothing more than our right.
    “And the architect of our greatest success on February 29, 2004, followed by the journey to Eindhoven, left us without much regret on the fans’ part. Boro fans thought we could do better, or, as it was so often put: ‘we could go to the next level’.
    “The same fans who screamed for the replacement of McClaren – today crowned as the manager of the new Dutch champions – were soon insisting that the cerebral and utterly decent Southgate should follow even when our start to this season was indisputably promising.
    “Now, Strachan’s honeymoon is long over and it seems clear that if we’re not at the head of the Championship in September his departure will be widely demanded.
    “We had eleven great years in the Premier League. We don’t belong there, not measured by our history or our achievements and certainly not measured by our support which is modest in numbers and alarmingly apathetic in behaviour (at least at the Riverside).
    “The Sheffield Wednesday fans who this afternoon so loyally and loudly roared their team – without success – to Championship survival put us to shame.
    “Just what do we think makes us different to Sheffield Wednesday? Instead of assuming a rapid promotion to the top division, as our right, we need to contemplate the threat of further relegation as has recently happened to Leeds, Norwich, Southampton and now Sheffield Wednesday: all bigger clubs than us and with better support.”
    Ouch.

  104. I am going to be quite rude. The blog has got quite angry so I will put a few points.
    There are many people who would be only to happy to still go and watch the Boro, take their kids to watch the Boro, commentate even, but they cant because they or their family are no longer with us or finances don’t allow it.
    For goodness sake, relegation is no reason for bile or grief, get a grip.

  106. Simon, I have listened to about half of this, and am typing while it continues above….
    Eamon has strong views, doesn’t he? And he’s not shy about expressing them. He’s like someone who knows a bit about football but is talking to mates in the pub, rather than talking to a TV audience. Very little sitting on the fence or giving people the benefit of the doubt. Everything is either black or white. Pity a shy retiring flower on the panel, who has the temerity to disagree with him.
    Certainly not bland……..

    1. I met him three years ago. Far from the firebrand he’s renowned for being on TV. he was actually very affable. I think whether one agrees with him or not isn’t the issue – it’s whether one recognises the problems he raises. And as over the top as he can be, he makes many a good point.

  107. Ian G
    Thanks for injecting a note of sanity. If we get relegated – and it is still an if although definitely more than likely – then we will all have to start again and discuss what we have to do to get out of the Champinship again. What we shouldn’t do is treat it like the end of the world. I’ve actively supported the club for over 55 years and have seen a lot of ups and downs. What makes me proud is that it is still a local club which works with and for the community and is still locally owned. There may be plenty of people who disagree but I’d rather see us relegated and stay more or less the same in spirit than becom the plaything of some idle billionaire. Do other people agree or is it all about success by whatever means even if we lose what make this club special.
    Saying this doesn’t mean that I don’t agree that there have been bad decisions but that’s a different debate. As OFB has said, we have the core of a very good team and a lot of top class young players around the club. We will have over Pds 100 million to spend and should be able to get back up.
    Who is the right manager? Ask me in the summer. At the moment, I feel really sorry for Agnew. He picked the team that we all wanted – subject to injury- and played an attacking game with two up front which was what we all wanted. We went one nil up and then he was let down by the one thing that we’ve all counted on, the defence. They were all sloppy goals to give away. Would we have won with Friend, Fabio and Chambers playing? Maybe yes and we would all be dancing around.
    i really think that we can beat Burnley and then we will see what we can do to end the season in style. Survival is unlikely but let’s enjoy ourselves.
    UTB

  108. I think had we been seen to give it a go both on and off the pitch the frustrations and ire would be more measured. Now I don’t doubt that the intention and belief was to stay up but it didn’t particularly feel viable for many parts of the season even well before we dropped into the dead zone.
    A lot of it was predictable (and warned about on here endlessly) which just rubs salt into the wounds. Personally I don’t see thst core of a good team that Bob does although sincerely hope that Bob is proven correct in 12 months time. For me I saw a decent side dismantled and the “remainers” come June/July will be too few and far between.
    The future may mean we enjoy a season like Newcastle have but we could also do a Leeds longer term just as easily. What hope or faith should we have on recruiting the “right” players for the Championship?

    1. RR my memory may be fading but we have dropped out of the PL 3 times and only once bounced straight back, and that was when we bought Merson for what was then a lot of money (wouldn’t buy an average striker today) so I am not convinced we will bounce back. I think we will need a new manager not SA. What about Gary monk? Will we be like the mags and bounce straight back heart says yes head says no.
      There again we may win 6 of the last 8 matches and stay up
      Ok I will go and have a lie down.

  109. Crumbs of comfort?
    We are only 20/1 on to be relegated.
    We have a game in hand.
    We have five home and three away games left.
    Hull and Swansea have three home and four away games left.
    You may need a particle filter to find them but crumbs they definitely are.
    Personally, I think the bookies have got it right.

    1. Ian
      I was lookin at the table & fixtures this mornin and noted the same. Still, Swansea & Hull have points accired not simply wishful thinkin.
      Being cynical I believe Boro will raise our hopes only to be relegatef by a point or two.
      🙁

      1. Indeed. Boro are the old masters in raising hope and expectations before killing you off in dramatic fashion.
        The most typical Boro scenario would be to win the next 3, close the gap to 1-2 points then lose at home to Sunderland and blow the whole thing to pieces.

  110. Spartak
    That isn’t being cynical, it is just the nature of football and sport in general. If someone wins, someone loses.
    The thing King Canute got wrong was he didn’t study the tide tables.
    Post Xmas Slump is alive and well.
    🙂

  115. Richard Evans – I disagree with you completely that Karanka was as bad a boss as we’ve ever had, there is simply no evidence to support that argument. He turned the team round from league one relegation contenders to a premiership side, bad bosses don’t do that.
    I also disagree that he should have gone after Charlton, six wins, 4 draws, 22 points from ten games suggests I’m right on that. A change of manager at that point would have seen us still in the championship this season I reckon.
    Personally, I think Karanka leaving last summer would have been the best bet, he could have walked away with his CV enhanced, job done.
    gt – You’re not alone, no one outside the club knows what happened, just a few people pretending they know.
    Andy R – I think Steve Gibson’s track record on managers is mixed, Robson was successful without a doubt, McClaren was too without question.
    Southgate wasn’t but then he was handed a hospital pass and was utterly ill prepared and too inexperienced to deal with it.
    Strachan was a disaster, Mogga laid the foundations, Karanka built on them.
    What we need now is a manager who knows how to get a team promoted from the championship, Agnew may prove to be a good manager, but appointing him permanently would be a big risk. I’d prefer to see an experienced manager with a track record of getting teams promoted to the prem and keeping them there appointed. There aren’t many of those around, but Boro Head Coach is an attractive job in football.

  116. Just reading a penalty charge notice from London.
    Banged to rights because the boot is overhanging the hatched lines at the lights. What is galling is that the traffic was moving nicely then stopped, in the photo you can see where a couple of cars up the driver has left well over a car length gap in front of him.
    The poor bloke behind me is well and truly stuffed and he is on a bike!

  117. I’m not sure I’d agree we definitely need a manager with experience, or a track record, of gaining promotion from the lower tier. Just look at Benitez – he has no experience at that level, but you wouldn’t use that as cause for alarm.
    I do agree that we have a certain cache though, we’re still an attractively run club. Neil Warnock, bless his rugged face, is desperate to be Boro manager. There will be others. We also have an elevated profile on the continent now due to our appointment of AK, so there must be a decent pool of talent to choose from.
    Just please not an old pals act. Hignett and Woodgate – could you imagine the horror?

  118. Mr Parkers dog
    I thought the cabbages were in midfield.
    On reflection, the posts were probably for Sweet Peas, delicate things so don’t need knocking about. They still plenty of compost.

    1. Boro are the Hyena gravy of the EPL. Having told AK “That’s shallot” SG may need to dangle a big carrot to a tractor decent manager. There’s not mushroom to manure ver in the Championship. Let’s plug any leeks in de fence & lettuce pray we bounce back at the 1st attempt. If we do it’ll be a turnip for the books.

      1. Maybe we can get a Swede in to manage, more than likely it will be a spud when the chips are down as we have frittered away the prem money.

  119. I think most people would embrace Higgy actually. He gets a lot a credit, not undue either, for helping to give AKBoro a more attacking dimension, and the manner of his departure leaves many a fan cold.
    To be frank, though, that’s not the first time Higgy’s been hard done by at Boro. 18 goals over two seasons and several more match-winning moments didn’t stop Robbo sending him off to Aberdeen. If I remember rightly.

  120. smoggyinexile – I take you’re point re Benitez, although maybe he’s an exception. I was assuming that managers of his stature wouldn’t go to a championship club, no matter how relatively attractive the job is. I certainly wouldn’t want Neil Warnock in charge, I’d rather have Strachan back!
    As for Higgy, I cant see it, why? What does he bring to the club other than being an ex Boro player? Great footballer, probably a great bloke, but less well qualified/experienced than Steve Agnew surely?

  122. “What we need now is a manager who knows how to get a team promoted from the championship”
    Nigel, there’s a talented young Spanish manager with a proven track record in the Championship who’s available. His name escapes me.

    1. If Peter Kenton is still on the scene then I wouldn’t be surprised if Di Matteo crops up.
      To be honest, I’m expecting Steve Agnew to be in charge next season.

  125. Nigel, attacking flair is fine providing you get promoted. Dour defensive football is fine provided you get promoted. The end justifies the means.
    No one cares about style, just achievement . If we’d have scrapped our way to 17th under AK by boring everyone to death we would all have been chuffed. If he’d have abandoned his principles in August, gone all tiki taka with tricky wingers hugging the touchline and finished 18th he’d have been chased out of town.
    Nobody dancing on the pitch after the Brighton game was muttering ” yes but if we’re giving marks for artistic impression as they do in figure skating we’re no more than a 5.1″ – not even Richard Evans.
    The next coach will need to keep achieving more season after season regardless of how realistic that is. That’s the expectation. If they don’t and there’s a calamity such as falling to stay up in a league full of established clubs with more money than you, they’ll be toast.

    1. Did you know that giving a dog one slice of toast / bread is equivalent to you eating seven slices ?
      I’m full of information, useless or otherwise !

  127. Let us not pretend that next season needs to be hard, they just need to buy the right people to ensure that we come straight back up. When you factor in the parachute payment, the amount we get for this season and the money generated by sales – Gibson alone should net us close to £30m, then we should be able to afford to rebuild in the way Newcastle did at the start of the season.
    Here are a few players we should consider, in my opinion, either buying outright, or on loan – money talks, and rebuilding from the start is what I would do, as the team we have now is worse than the team that got promoted.
    Tomas Kalas – Fulham/Chelsea – right back
    Timothy Fosu-Mensah – Man Utd – right back
    Andy Yiadom – Barnsley – right back
    Liam Moore – Reading – centre defence
    Pontus Jansson – Leeds/Torino – centre defence
    Charlie Taylor – Leeds – left back
    Kieran Tierney – Celtic – left back
    Jacob Murphy – Norwich – winger
    John Swift – Reading – centre midfield
    Tom Cairney – Fulham – centre midfield – left-foot
    Conor Hourihane – Aston Villa – centre midfield
    Aaron Mooy – Huddersfield/Man City – centre midfield
    Helder Costa – Wolves – winger
    Tammy Abraham – Fulham/Chelsea – striker

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