The excitement is over and Boro supporters straining their necks to catch a glimpse of a last minute shock transfer should move along – there’s nothing to see here! It seems the club have all but concluded their business for this summer’s transfer window as squad tidying-up deals for central defender Ryan Shotton and Oxford winger Marvin Johnson are being finalised at Rockliffe. Whether Steve Gibson believes he has got a League-smashing squad is perhaps something he may be pondering and it’s not unusual for the Boro chairman to present his manager with a late gift on deadline day – wanted or otherwise! Perhaps there still is that mystery signing he’s keeping a secret from the local media.
New recruit Shotton has been no doubt pulling his exuberant hair out waiting for the signal to wash and go from Harry Redknapp for a few weeks now as the Birmingham boss has made him wait until the eleventh hour after they finally signed a replacement – so let’s hope he’s worth it! Johnson however appears to have been off the radar of most Boro watchers and at around £2-3m the 26-year old may not be of the expected stature most had desired – though he at least does have some quality tattoos to rival Clayton. It may well be that both are joining the party (promotion or otherwise) as options for cover rather than likely starters.
As it stands with 24 hours left to the shutters coming down over the transfer window, Garry Monk and the club have moved on Martin de Roon, Gaston Ramirez, Christian Stuani, Viktor Fischer, Bernado Espinosa, Antonio Barragan, Alex Baptiste, James Husband and Carlos de Pena – to add to the already departed Victor Valdes, Brad Guzan, Alvaro Negredo and Calum Chambers – plus the Jordan Rhodes loan became a permanent deal. In doing so they have banked not an inconsiderable sum of money – perhaps as much as £40m and no doubt substantially trimmed the wage bill too. With all the new additions this has still left the Boro manager with a sizable first-team squad of around 24-26 players – will the club try to squeeze another one into the dressing room?
| Player | Nationality | Notes |
| GOALKEEPERS | ||
| Darren Randolph | Rep. Ireland | from West Ham – £5m |
| Dimi Konstantopoulos | Greece | new 12 month Contract |
| Tomas Mejias | Spain | |
| DEFENDERS | ||
| George Friend (LB) | England | |
| Fábio (LB/RB) | Brazil | |
| Ben Gibson (CB) | England | |
| Daniel Ayala (CB) | Spain | |
| Dael Fry (CB) | England | |
| Ryan Shotton (CB/RB) | England | from Birmingham – £3m |
| Cyrus Christie (RB) | Rep. Ireland | from Derby – undisclosed fee |
| Connor Roberts (RB) | Wales | from Swansea – loan |
| DEFENSIVE MIDFIELDERS | ||
| Grant Leadbitter | England | |
| Adam Clayton | England | |
| Adam Forshaw | England | |
| Adlène Guedioura | Algeria | training with U23s |
| Jonny Howson | England | from Norwich – undisclosed fee |
| ATTACKING MIDFIELDERS | ||
| Lewis Baker | England | from Chelsea – loan |
| Stewart Downing | England | |
| Marcus Tavernier | England | promoted from U23s |
| Adama Traoré | Spain | |
| Marvin Johnson | England | from Oxford – £2.5m |
| FORWARDS | ||
| Patrick Bamford | England | |
| Martin Braithwaite | Denmark | from Toulouse – £9m |
| Ashley Fletcher | England | from West Ham – £6.5m |
| Rudy Gestede | Benin | |
| Britt Assombalonga | DR Congo | from Forest – £15m |
So has the business and all the cobwebs left by the last regime been done and dusted? There may still remain a few loose ends that need either tying up, untethering or firmly and tightly binding to the Riverside gates. Brentford’s Jota appeared to have been strongly linked with Boro until rumours that his wife seemingly preferred the shopping of Fulham and Chelsea rather than that catered for at Teesside Park – though the temptation of a special deal on leggings at Sports Direct has not provided much sway in the Jota household. Does that mean Boro no longer need a playmaker? Well with Bamford, Braithwaite and possibly Downing now eyeing the number ten role, perhaps it may have been too much competition for places to keep a happy squad – though Bamford and Braithewait have other positions they can be kept happy in, plus Downing knew he was not Monk’s first choice anyway. Though with Jota only valued at £5m by Boro, it didn’t really shout that he was to be the missing piece in what looks like jigsaw without a definite picture. If the team was missing such a vital component then I suspect it would have been addressed far earlier in the window – perhaps Jota was just a desirable option to add to the plethora of other attacking options that Monk needs to quickly make sense of as a unit.
As for Stewart Downing, well he was initially shown the door when the Boro manager arrived at the club, but after nearly two months clinging to the transfer window-ledge by his fingertips with Harry tugging at his ankles, Monk has seemingly been impressed by his desire to hang on at Boro and has re-opened the door and pulled him back inside the fold. Following a late introduction in the Carabao Cup, the new improved dynamic Downing’s rehabilitation was completed when he came off the bench against Preston and manifested his desire with an energetic cameo that had been lacking from his team-mates.
Whether all that was merely window dressing to encourage the not so flush poker-faced Redknapp to show his hand and accept the deal on the table seems unlikely at this late stage. In fact the Boro manager may feel the former academy graduate may still offer his team something extra in the short to medium term. Interestingly, the strategy of including players in the first XI in order to encourage potential suitors to find their voice and match Boro’s valuation has proven successful with both Gaston and de Roon having appeared from the outside to be integral to Monk’s plans until the buyer cleared their throat and coughed up.
However, recent noises from the club seem to suggest that the laws-of-physics-defying Adama Traore is not the latest to have been showcased in the first team to remind those who coveted his lightening speed that he’s the real deal and not a simulation. Football’s closest facsimile to a Matrix character has been leaving his opponents trailing behind in his blurred pixels with his more recent cameos and there have been signs that our very own cyberpunk is secretly developing a end-product too. Whilst Boro have stopped short from having him warm-up in a full-length black leather coat, it appears the club may have consulted the Oracle to ask whether he is the ‘One’ or if selling him would be a slow-motion bullet dodged.
Though I’m sure many of the Riverside faithful would be sorely disappointed to lose their adrenaline fix if a move was sanctioned just at the point those bio-electric signals underneath his blond mane appear to have engaged with other like-minded footballing synapses. If everything clicks into place for Adama then Boro won’t be fending of the likes of Lille with their raised bid of 15m Euros or even Pounds Sterling – it will be Europe’s big guns with their even bigger wallets who will come calling next as Teesside becomes the centre of a bidding war.
In the meantime, the Preston absentee has apparently been told to ‘knuckle-down’ (perhaps different words were actually used) and forget about moving to this ‘once-grimy industrial metropolis’ (as Lonely Planet described Lille) in northern France and concentrate instead on getting the club from a once-smoggy industrial metropolis in northern England promoted. Anyway, it’s not as if Boro have had any previous bad experiences after rejecting a £15m bid for their Spanish-speaking mercurial talent who had failed to turn up for a game towards the end of the transfer window? Hang on, I think I’ve just had that deja vu feeling again…
One player who definitely won’t be leaving is Ben Gibson and as we speak Garry Monk has no doubt been practising his range of knots as he hopes to bind his defensive linchpin to the club to deter late bidders. The club have emphatically declared Ben is not for sale and will hopefully resist all possible scenarios to weaken their resolve… Excuse me, Citeh have offered how much? No way that doesn’t even get Tony Pullis a ‘thanks for your enquiry’ before Steve Gibson hangs up… Say again, Citeh have upped their bid to as much as that? Still there absolutely no way we’ll be selling him… What’s that, Citeh have found another £20m? We’d always planned to let Ben leave for a top six side for the good of his career and we’re confident that Ryan Shotton will be a more than adequate replacement – OK, whilst it’s not ideal that Ayala broke down in training this morning but we’re going to do our best to bring in two centre-backs in the next hour before the window closes… Yes we’re pleased to announce Woody has decided to come out of retirement and is looking forward to the challenge!
So the summer has seen a radical overhaul of the Boro squad and on balance it’s been a very good window for the club as they’ve realised the value on their salable assets and moved on most of those that were surplus to requirement. OK, Guedioura remains and unless he suddenly attracts the attention of a stalker who is prepared to track him down on Algerian international duty, then in the Boro U23s he shall remain. As for Downing’s aborted exit, it seems Monk blinked first (or was persuaded to blink by his advocates) – Stewie didn’t want to make it easy to be shifted and once the manager had brought him back and actually played him, he knew there was an opportunity to see out his contract at his home-town club. The reality now is only a bid by a Premier League club would make him even entertain a move away from Teesside.
There are still doubts on the overall make-up of the squad and whether it has enough creativity, width or pace. But it would be a big ask to have addressed every issue at the same time as moving on a dozen players and replacing them all with ideal candidates. There surely is enough talent in the squad for Boro to at least make the play-offs, but should we expect our new manager or indeed any manager to oversee such change and blend a team together in a matter of an instance? Even the great managers needed time and Garry Monk is certainly not had anything like a managerial career to qualify for such accolades as yet. Five games into his tenure some supporters are already doubting Garry Monk’s ability as the right man for the job after a stuttering start – but until Boro hire the genius of all managers who can make over 20 changes to his squad and start off by winning every game I expect we’ll have to put up with an imperfect world.
Anyway, will we get a pleasant surprise on deadline day or perhaps a nasty shock is awaiting us instead? Many, including the manager, would probably settle for a rather boring day at the office with nothing major to decide on other than tea or coffee. We shall no doubt see what awaits but feel free to speculate up until the transfer clock stops ticking!
A very nice warm up for deadline day Werder. Thank you.
I am hoping you are right and tomorrow will be uneventful so far as Boro are concerned.
Overall I am quite satisfied with the business we have transacted in and out over this window. For me the only real disappointment was holding on to Meijas and not Ripley.
As for the rest, Guedioura had been banished to the U23s, so is possibly the only one that GM would have liked to move on that hasn’t found a home.
Best feature of the window for me has been the willingness of GM to realise the value he already has access to from the academy…take a big bow Fry and welcome to the first team squad Tavernier.
I am optimistic that more will go right than wrong for us this season
An entertaining and thoughtful article and I agree with Powmill’s points too.
Let’s just hope that the corner pieces of the jigsaw are in place and we can start filling everything else in.
Please don’t let Ben Gibson leave…
UTB,
John
Last window I provided a running summary to the new, fledgling blog,
This time around, contributions from one and all throughout the year mean I can put my feet up and rely on you lot.
As usual a top piece by Werder as he does the leg work, I will lurk and knock in the ton as tumblewood rolls along the A66. Unless of course Sanchez chooses us instead of Citeh, Bale arrives to improve his football education.
He won’t
We’re gonna smash this league
Smash this league!!!!!
Nice one Werder,
Im a bit disappointed that Jota wont travel north but I will be relieved if Gibbo stays so wont be too upset with a quiet deadline day, they can switch off the Rockliffe lights for me. Leave the tea lady to answer the phone and all staff and players to flamingo land for a bonding session.
Give Traore a ticket for the “den of mischief” then the velocity ride as part of his re-integration, it does 0-60 in 2.8 seconds.
Downing can have a go on the “cliffhanger” with Howson and Forshaw on the “flip flop”.
There is also “gallopers” for George and “Crazy combat” for Clayts.
GM may be tempted by a ride called the “navigator” while Britt takes in the shooting gallery.
Bonding over, back to Rockliffe with fish and chips on the bus, fax is switched off, nobody’s called so off to bed.
What about the crate of ale. Some Mackeson, Jubilee and Guiness to build them up a bit. It’ll help them sleep too.
UTB,
John
Just how do you keep “dreaming up” these articles Werder…..another great piece of work.
I am will be happy if we can retain Ben, not sure about Adama though. Still do not think we have enough passing skill in the side, so disappointed there. Although GM cannot believe it is that important as he has had plenty of time and money to find one,
Getting to the end of the day with no significant outgoings would be a result.
I don’t wish to sound curmudgeonly but I just get a niggle that yet another window is coming to an end and we are still thinking we are a short of a creative attacker in the squad.
I know it sounds ungrateful but what the heck.
On the plus side, Bamford kooks to be developing in to a deep lying striker. downing looks to be contributing, Traore developing end product though whether that was a fleeting glimpse remains to be seen he may of course sulk.
We haven’t seen enough of Baker and Magic Johnson may be more Tommy Cooper than Paul Daniels. (Tommy Cooper could do magic but it suits the analogy).
Just need to settle on a way of playing.
It is staggering the amount of money now being thrown at “average” players in the Championship and that includes us. I wonder if SG could foresee the fees being spent when he said we would have more financial clout than the rest of the league. Last time we were in this league the 10M we spent on Rhodes stood out, now it seems like more teams than ever before are spending 7,10,15M on players and they don’t have the parachute payments we enjoy. We need to start gelling pretty quickly as there are not going to be too many easy games in this league, starting at Bolton!
Another great article thank you Werder.
So Jota off to Birmingham – who said he wouldn’t leave London? Looks like that has put the mockers on SD’s move to Birmingham. Can’t say I am thrilled by the thought he will be staying as his 20 mins against Preston did not convince me that he will make a major contribution during the season. Similarly, with excellent money apparently on offer for AT we should have grabbed it and invested in a midfielder who could unlock teams.
I agree with others that GM needs to firstly settle on a couple of formations to adopt perhaps on a home and away basis and to stick to it. He then needs to play round pegs in round holes and not play left sided players on the right or vice versa.
Whether we have a balanced squad to move the ball quickly and unlock teams remains to be seen and once the window has closed then the dye is cast and it will be up to GM and his team to deliver.
KP
I saw the Jota link. Assuming he doesn’t live in Brentford itself he will be within an hour and a half of Brum’s training ground close to the M42.
I believe that when Southgate and Ugo played for Boro, they lived near Leeds.
Travel is no problem for these guys.
KP
London to Rockcliffe is a different matter!
Helichopter, Ian!
Less than an hour from yer back garden in Kennsington to Rockcliffe & you miss the traffic. If the weather’s inclement stay at the 5* hotel for the night courtsey of MFC.
Job done.
Magic Johnson signed today
Ian
Can’t be more than an hour by helicopter! 😎😉
Even quicker to Birmingham.
Well I shan’t be following the Gazette blog on the transfer market. Even if it were to be exciting with incoming super stars I wouldn’t waste a whole day agog with speculation. I love the Boro as much as the next man, but I stopped believing in Santa Claus years ago. If we do buy a ‘wow’ player (which we won’t) or sell Ben Gibson (which we won’t) ‘que sera, sera’, and I can wait until tomorrow to read about it. I find the whole thing such a bore (but each to his own), especially when we’re speculating, or even reading, about transfers not involving the Boro – isn’t it about time that transfer windows were abolished?
It would have been nice to have bought Jota, but in reality it was never going to happen even if we’d been willing to pay the £8m asking price, as the player doesn’t want to uproot his family from London. I suspect Boro knew that and have settled for Marvin Johnson as an alternative. Some fans, not on this forum I’m glad to say, think that throwing money at a club for a player will always succeed – it won’t unless the player agrees, so on that score I think Boro have done pretty well with it’s recruitment so far.
I would however like to see the appointment of an Assistant Manager/Coach be that Steve Agnew or whoever, as it is now incumbent on the coaching staff to utilise the players we have into their rightful places in a settled formation (no more square pegs in round places).
Maybe Steve Gibson’s quote of wishing to ‘smash’ the League was taken out of context; maybe he meant smashing the League meant providing the funds he would make available to the manager. In that regard nobody can criticise him.
Ken
I would think that throwing money at a player would be the only thing that would persuade him that he would like to play for your side.
Barca found to their cost that a deep and abiding love of Baca at two hundred thousand a week, was topped by a deep and abiding love of PSG at three hundred thousand a week.(which incidentally smashed the stranglehold of the giants on the best players)
Note that these beauties are all of a sudden squealing about ” something must be done about these clubs offering big salaries to the best players”
They even want PSG fined for overspending! LOL
This is a club which is owned by three multi billionaire Arabs who earn more in interest per year than Baca possess in total. So good luck with that one.
Just seen the link of Jota to Birmingham. It’s not ideal for a player to commute to the training ground even by helicopter. I realise that not all players live close to their clubs training ground, but in my opinion they should.
It is certainly interesting if Jota is willing to move to Birmingham City for £6m. I’m puzzled about our view of him. As we did bid for him once, presumably we do actually want the player.
Marvin Johnson is a wide man, with 3 goals and 6 assists last season in 40 League 1 appearances. He does not seem to be a playmaker figure who would run the show and deliver excellent set pieces, in the way Jota seems to be equipped, so he seems to be aimed at a different problem from the one Jota would be needed to overcome.
I agree there is a problem of the squad becoming too big, although Mejias, Guedioura and (with the arrival of Shotton who can play right back) Roberts look unlikely to feature, leaving 23. We don’t know what Adama’s state of mind will be – is he going to be fully committed, or Gaston, the sequel?
Dani and Braithwaite have already been unavailable for a time with injury, which is likely to be a feature of the heavy Championship schedule. So there might be an active squad of 21 or less at any time depending on injury levels.
If Jota can perhaps be persuaded to move North, and if we are willing to pay £6m+, I would at least ask the question.
Rockcliffe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIIuR-HjFho
The loan move for Ryan Kent has gone silent. Has anybody got an update?
I’m looking at you OFB
Ryan Kent still on the Radar apparently
OFB
Is that code for he is away in the north west! 😎😉
Several of us were saying before the season that we might start slowly with the number of new players being brought in, and a new system of play. The worry for me is really the Preston game.
Up to then we seemed to be slowly developing within the system, and creating chances, such that with more composure at key moments we could have picked up at least 2 more points. But there were a few issues, which would hopefully be overcome with time.
I expected to find out on Saturday whether the system was really beginning to click. I expected to find out whether Baker can start a game and work effectively as a more creative member of the midfield three – a playmaker. I expected us to give Preston a very difficult game.
Instead, for reasons unknown GM changed the system and put a couple of square pegs in round holes. We got slightly outplayed overall and struggled to create anything, and the issues from before became major problems.
And we don’t know what team or formation we will see next. So that’s why I think there are genuine reasons for concern about where we are going.
If we are going for wide men now, then Marvin Johnson may be seen by GM as a regular first team starter out wide, and may turn out to be a very good acquisition.
I’m back onto projects at home now the summer break is over so I’m not watching too closely at the deadline day activity. A bit of a surprise that cash-struck Harry has found some dosh to hijack Jota from Fulham – maybe he’s just received a handsome cheque from some north-east club to help with the payments!
Whether Jota was a serious bid by Boro is hard to say – in theory we’ve got ten attack minded players in the squad with room for only four at most to start and three to come on as subs. Maybe he did the maths and wondered if it all added up to a good move for him.
We may still see Boro make a loan move as so far we’ve only used up two of the five slots. I’d prefer to see Tavernier given his chance than develop someone else’s young player as he has looked comfortable at this level. As for a playmaker, well Bamford looks pretty useful in that role and Braithwaite was a pretty dynamic looking number ten before he go injured – plus we’ve paid nearly ten million for him so I guess he’s rated at twice that as Jota by the club.
Finally, thanks to Powmill, Jarsue, Ian, Old Billy, Pedro and KP for their comments on the article, which I just squeezed in before my own deadline from Mrs Werder 🙂
two days without my phone, twitter, newsnow, diasboro,facebook and all my contacts the world has stopped and i don’t know whats going on!
Had to resort to dragging the laptop out and finding out. However did we manage before?
I think the signing of Johnson could prove to be a smart move. The Jota interest was cooled by Boro apparently once they knew they had Johnson lined up.
when i spoke to GM two weeks ago he said it was his policy and strategy to target UK based payers.
If players don’t want to play for Boro then we should get rid of them. Is making Traore stay a good idea? Only time will tell…………….
Get my phone back tonight !!!!
OFB,
What happened to your phone? Was it confiscated for ignoring the family? Get it back now, quickly!
UTB,
John
John
I left my phone in my car which is in the garage for two days, Pick it up tonight thank goodness.
ofb
OFB phone home !!
Forshaw to Wolves ?
If we get around £2.5 to £3 m I’ll settle for that
Can’t do without my iPad but hardly ever use my mobile phone, can’t even remember the number when asked for it.
Where’s the news OFB? We’re on the wire now. Mine’s a pint of Bass or Sam Smith’s please. Lovely.
Use that phone OFB you are our high speed Adama of the info…
UTB,
John
If, and it’s a big if, Stewart Downing’s legs haven’t gone and his poor form since returning home was due to a clash of styles and more with AK, then I’m glad Jota has gone to Birmingham if it means Stewie will stay.
Yes, he’s paid too much but he was a dominant PL player for West Ham just two years ago and has played at a higher level than anyone else in our squad.
He is Boro through and through and if Monk can harness that, and doesn’t feel threatened, then maybe Stewie is our man in the middle. Be fair, I doubt none of us know much about Jota (his stats are good tho’) and we should move on and strive ahead with Stewie if we can. He can be this year’s Merson still.
A big danger right now is too many players – Shotton seems a decent deal but will not be playing much at all early on you’d think – and Marvin seems a pointless purchase.
The players we have are, by and large, seriously good with Bamford potentially a cut above in this league. We should focus on what we have, because what we have is pretty damn good.
Yes, Werder, a lot depends on Braithwaite turning out to be a strong Championship performer. Ideally I would want PB playing in front of the main playmaker. He has the awareness and composure that Britt so far is struggling to show, and can score from more situations than Rudi.
So would I, wasted in midfield.
My son (the devote Liverpool fan) rang me this morning and told me that according to all the talk on Merseyside is that Boro are the front runner to get Ryan Kent on a season long loan for £1m.
Come on BORO.
Jack Colback has been offered to MFC. Er, no thamks.
What has happened to Marvin Johnson ! or are Boro holding back to see if they get Ryan Kent ?
Fixtures changes:
Our home game against Sunderland, originally scheduled for Saturday November 4 (3pm), has now been moved to Sunday November 5 (12:15pm).
The following fixture, a trip to Elland Road to face Leeds United on Saturday November 18 (3pm) has also been rearranged and will now take place on Sunday November 19 (1:15pm).
Ticket details for these games will be available in due course.
As a consequence of our game with Leeds moving back a day, our home game with Birmingham City, scheduled for the Riverside on Tuesday November 21, has been put back 24 hours and is now scheduled for Wednesday 22, still at 7.45pm.
Come on BORO.
Werder
The first sentence of your last post includes the word “projects”
Please promise to refrain from using it until 11pm as it is causing me to stress uncontrollably.
It’s all about project management and allocating resources accordingly…
I know very little of Ryan Kent other than he played nearly every game for Barnsley last season in the Championship and scored 3 goals. Whether either we need an 11th attacking player in the squad or Liverpool imagine moving to Boro will allow him to get enough games is debatable. It means he’ll be essentially competing with Adama, Johnson and possibly Downing for the wide right spot – he’d be lucky to play 20 games under those circumstances.
Richard, you and I agree! Mostly. In that I believe Downing can still do a job. If he can re-integrate himself into Boro and contribute positively, then what happened in the past should be, or at least ought to be, forgotten.
But Johnson, well. You know yourself I’m not the kind to write off a prospective signing before he’s kicked a ball. We had this with Fabio, lest we forget, and I fully welcomed his arrival and presence. I still do. Doubts about “United outcasts” really don’t hold water at all – the giant bids for Jonny Evans, an NI man just like me, are concrete evidence of this. (It’s also well documented that Roy Keane offered £12 million for Evans while at Sunderland and David Gill laughed it off.)
Simon
“then what happened in the past should be, or at least ought to be, forgotten.”
I assume you are referring to his dispute with AK and if so I agree entirely about that aspect.
What should not be forgotten is that since his return to the club he has failed to perform on anything like a consistent basis or in line with expectations.
I still remain unconvinced that he will do so now. I would like to be wrong but can’t see it and I do not believe he is central to GM’s plans.
Exmil
I think the Johnson deal is imminent, he had his medical yesterday, finalising the deal today.
What a bad time for OFB to lose use of his phone, maybe he has joined Dom Jonno on the naughty step.
Judging Johnson in his own right.
I like the idea of a forward thinking winger, or wide forward – it’s something Boro, without Braithwaite, lack! Rudy and Britt are all muscle, with the former good in the air, Fletcher… well, I’m still working him out, and Bam Bam has shown unexpected and welcome play-making elements. But to have support from out wide that the full-backs on their own cannot provide forever – it’s exciting. I think that good, forward thinking wide men, be they full backs or wingers, are by nature popular and very useful. That’s why I welcomed Fabio.
Interesting to see that Arsenal have turned down a £20m bid for Calum Chambers from Leicester.
That Chambers was a very useful and dependable player, wasn’t he?
Simon – In theory Christie is more of an attacking wide player than a full-back from what I’ve seen so far – he’s got quite a few tricks with decent pace and a good cross – maybe Boro have more options than they think on the right.
Yes, Werder, I’ve been thinking that too. Alas, I also remember 1998-99 and how Robbo kept the midfield tight and solid, mainly relying on Dean Gordon to supply ammunition for Ricard and Deane. Once the Gordon supply line was cut off our form dipped and we didn’t win for months. We do need alternative supply.
What a wily old bird Arry is.
We now appear to have a player who was declared surplus to GM’s requirements and Ramirez Mk. 2, unless there is a final twist in the offing.
In response to KP, yes, indeed.
We cannot entirely exonerate Downing from being part of the fall of AKBoro.
AK was his own wurst enemy. Zero positive man managemwnt skills*.-
TNM. Relied on his ‘mates’ first n foremost, even if they couldn’t do a throw in.
*Total Nonsense Management
The more a manager believes in his cult, the deeper a trench he digs for himself and the more “yes men” he surrounds himself with. Heck, it happened to Big Jack – by the end of his Ireland reign seven defenders were on the pitch.
But no Irishman unmoved forgets the good times.
Can’t understand 6.5m for Fletcher who can’t get a shirt and our failure to bid above 4.5m for Jota.
Unless he didn’t fancy the smoggie lifestyle.
As for the offer of Colback from the skunks. I say swap him for Howson.
9 hours to go, tick, tock.
Steely
‘Arry is after Wilshire on loan as well.
A window wouldn’t be the same without Arry sat in his 4×4 with the window down.
The pursuit of wide players, refusal to sell Traore (so far), reintegration of Downing, blooding of Tavernier and Wing in the Karembeu Cup (that’s right, isn’t it?) and signing of Baker plus offer for Jota (no. 10s), suggests to me that Monk is shaping the squad more towards a 4231 set up. Perhaps Bamford’s form in a withdrawn role was the reason that Boro weren’t too convincing in their attempts to sign Jota.
Where that would leave Gestede is open to question and I think if he goes today, which doesn’t seem likely at the moment, that will almost confirm for me that the formations used so far are not Monk’s end game.
Thanks Werder for the great post. Here is my comment.
Generally I have been happy for Monk’s team plans – especially so with BamBam and Asombalong up front. Let’s just now concentrate on the team we have and make it work like Preston did as a team. We have talent but need time.
About “smashing the league”. I thought at the time Sir Gibbo meant that we have the resources (money) to go for the top spot. He wanted to convince the fans at the time.
What has surprised me is that we have got rid of some players for serious money: We got more than I never thought we would get – so credit to Karanka here. I was hoping that Stuani, de Roon and Fisher would stay, well the other who left were more or less the players we anticipated to leave. But I expected them to leave for free.
So the real surprise for me after the chairman promised to smash the league is that we have hardly spent much on net level. We have paid just about £ 6M more than received (that excludes Shotton and Stuani). So I expected us to spend even more with all the parachute payments etc.
I don’t mean we should have spent more, but I expected more money to be spent. But I feel we have got some descent players in – I just hope it clicks.
OK, what we do not know is the salaries we pay for the new arrivals. I would imagine we are paying top money on this level for Asombalong etc. But that was not perhaps what Sir Gibbo meant.
All in all I am happy with the window. That is if Gibbo Jr stay put at Boro as there is still some hours to go.
Up the Boro!
You’re so right Jarkko with your assessment. I can only think that some of the players we released were on very high wages, certainly too high for the Championship. Maybe we haven’t as much in reserve of our parachute payments as we’re anticipating. Perhaps Bob can help out here, although players wages are usually a well guarded secret.
AndyR
If Gaston had stayed I suspect we would have played 4231 more often.
The truth is we need to get a grip of midfield, we cant be a defence and some strikers waving at each other from opposite ends of the pitch.
I think Gestede will become plan B, Bamford and Britt forming some form of partnership.
The imponderable are Braithwaite, Fletcher, Johnson, Traore and Stewie, you can throw Baker in to the mix.
They will probably be fighting for two places.
The defence is ok but how many holding midfield players do we need? Clayton, Leadbetter, Howson, Forshaw, Guedewhoareyou, Maybe Baker as well.
Then we have the likes of Tavernier coming through.
I certainly agree that Bamford should be a striker alongside Assombalonga, and Gestede an impact player if and when required.
Boro website confirms the signing of Johnson. Is the end nigh! 😎
Tea or coffee Mr Monk? Traore or Kent? Gestede or Kane? Kane! Kane Please…Wake up Mr Monk, wake up! …it was just a dream… Harry Redknapp just rang, he says he’ll take Downing on loan if you pay his wages…
From what I have learnt from my son, Ryan Kent is right and left footed, got a powerful shot with either, can play left/right wing or as No 10, good range of passing and a good engine. My son reckons, once GM sees him on the training pitch, he will be in the first eleven, but time will tell if we get him.
Come on BORO.
It’s strange though how few players are two footed. I remember in the fifties that Trevor Ford of Wales, a right footed player, was made by his father to practice his shooting wearing only a boot on his left foot till he had perfected being two footed. Ok, that might not work for everyone, but I wonder whether one footed players today would practice more to try to perfect the wrong one.
Boro can still sign premier league players on loan when squads are finalised
Also note Spanish transfer league still open today
Picking up exciting new faces on deadline day or close to it, while not losing key or useful men, is the way to go. Letting Adomah and Reach go when neither pacy “project” was ready – Adama and Fischer – was folly.
Poor Jota needs to get a new agent, promised a move to West Ham with the bees told to expect a substantial bid weeks ago. It never happened.
Now finds himself in the land of Jasper Carrot playing for the artful dodger in a championship team living on the memories of Trevor Francis.
I would have stayed at Brentford.
Careful there Billy. Jasper Carrot was a staunch Villa fan – he hated City.
Oops, sorry. No it was Villa he hated. Apologies.
All these comins and goins can get all excitin like yer first kiss with the girl next door (other genders are available on request- lol). Yet, like Jarkko says it’s the big team picture that counts and individual pieces, no matter how polished, do not have the same importance.
It’s a matrix, a soup, if you like, that GM sorts out or we fail in our goal of gaining promo.
Will MFC wither & die if its not achieved? Nah! But it will mean 9 seasons outta 10 in the Championship. What a shame we didn’t offload AK and the Conquistadours last summer instead of halfway through a losing season.
I’d like to think that the Preston game was a one-off formation experiment that won’t be oft repeated, preferring to acknowledge that our creativity department presented enough clear-cut chances in the other games we lost to suggest we already have sufficient talent in that area. Add to the mix a fit again MB, SD and new signing MJ and we look to have more than most teams in this league, getting the most out of them is GM’s job, not SG’s cheque book. Also, we look to be coming out of this transfer window with only an £8million net spend and plenty spare loan slots so should the need arise we have the January transfer window to give us a boost.
Jose and Klopp took an entire season last year and some doom-laden spluttering spells before looking much improved this time around so I’m gonna be patient and hold my nerve for a while yet.
Ryan Kent likely to go to Germany according to sky.
Ryan Kent is probably what Ryanair will be called if the Brexit negotiations go badly…
Ian
What about Brexit ?
OFB
To get an idea what Adama could be worth if his game clicks – Arsenal have just offered £92m for Monaco’s 21-year old forward Lemar, who they signed for just £3.5m two years ago. When big clubs panic on deadline day they certainly do it big time!
Billog – Very good sir, one of the best reasonings so far in my humble opinion.
Andy R – you may be right about Monk reverting to his favoured 4-2-3-1 – it would make sense over 4-3-3 given the number of attacking players we have in the squad – though 4-4-1-1 is also a possibility if we play with dedicated wide players, which is what Karanka essentially played in his second season with Tomlin and Bamford up front. AK only switched to a proper 4-2-3-1 in our promotion year and it only started working once Gaston arrived. It perhaps actually became 4-5-1 once we were promoted so the shape is probably determined by the attacking intent to some degree.
Unfortunately Ryan Kent has signed for German club Freiburg who came in with a late bid and Klop sees the Bundesliga as a better development option.
Come on BORO.
I think Boro are finished in this transfer window and everyone has gone home.
Come on BORO.
Time for bed said Zebedee.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZTBDnj0Cgc&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Very disappointed with Boro signings ,in the last couple of days.Hope I am wrong but they would look comfortable in the northern league.
Interesting quote from the end of last season – “He’s got pace that scares the life out of people but he doesn’t know how to use it properly yet. We can work on that.”
No it’s not about Adama Traore, it’s how Mike Appleton, the Oxford manager described Marvin Johnson.
Incidentally, he also said he’d end up a natural left-sided wide player – I had initially thought he was a right-winger but it will be interesting with him and Adama on the flanks bombing forward with the strikers trying to catch up.
I’ve got my phone what day is it?
Have I missed anything ?
It’s been very quiet ……
Well, Bob, it’s been a lovely day in the Vale of Pickering.
Ken I have this on vinyl, I still chuckle when I hear it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eedH28a4Fus
No Natalie on Sky alongside Jim White but we have Hayley McQueen. quite happy with that.
Local girl, and Boro fan. It’s in her blood.
Very local to somebody. Could be a neighbour to some! UTB!
PS
I wonder if Sky have to do a COSHH assessment for anyone working with Jim White?
Supermans brother’s move may have hit an obstacle, the German transfer window has closed so Ryan may still be available. Freiburg are stil trying to get the move done. We need some Kryptonite, preferably green.
PS Only a rumour, but I am trying to keep interest up.
May well give up soon.
Looks like a dodgy rumour, hey ho!
Spartack, one for you. Been watching Channel 4’s, Russia to Iran across the Caucasus mountains. Excellent and a completely different world. Levison Wood has just reached Azerbaijan leaving behind the wild but beautiful Daganstan.
A year in Kazakhstan with temperature of -40 in winter and + 40 in summer with mosquitoes and mid amd rain and rough roads did enough for me
You can keep it thanks
A lot has been made about the amount of new recruits and how the team need time to gel. Sky have put up a page showing the new players that each club has signed in the championship this window and it makes for interesting reading.
From Sheff Wed with 4 to Barnsley with 17 (it will take years for all them to Gel). Boro are listed as having 12 so assuming bit part players are included for all teams.
248 players are on the list, an average of 10.33 per team (not sure who is Boro’s 0.33 player, time will tell).
Teams that have recruited the same or more than Boro are Bolton, Hull, Birmingham (Moaning Arry got 14 in), Norwich, Wolves, Leeds and Barnsley.
Seven others brought in 10 or 11.
So please, no more about needing time to get to know each other, its not a blind date, a quick hand shake and get on the training pitch as all teams are in the same boat.
The gelling can be done to their hair after training.
UTB including the 0.33 player whoever you are!
Sir Gibbo hold on to captain Gibbo. A very successful window. Not many Championship clubs have an England International defender with Premier League experience. And worth potentially £ 30 million. A great signing, like.
Now we need an assistant manager next. I think that will be easier than keeping Gibbo Jr.
Up the Boro!
I agree with the view that the transfer window- which covers the whole period since June 1 – represents a very solid performance by the Boro management team. One could argue that the only player that they would have wanted to keep is DeRoon and they have added a lot of strength in all areas.
There is a useful article on the Boro website which sets out all of the activity and there are 17 new players at first team and junior level, 9 players out on loan and 14 senior contract players moved on. In addition we have the complete change of management across all teams.
I can’t remember Boro ever undertaking that scale of change and it seems to me that we can’t expect everything to come together instantly. Its also a fascinating cultural shift with the club shifting so determinedly towards players who are either UK raised or have spent a lot of time here.
Like many other here on this blog, the Preston game was a real disappointment. I think that this reaction is due to the strong, positive signs that came from the earlier games, even the defeats which could have so easily ended up as draws or victories. I’m prepared to give GM a pass on this one and look forward to him returning to a more solid foundation. I’m also not prepared to give up on the ‘three at the back’ because it worked very well with Clayton as the central filler and freed up the full backs to be genuine attacking players. However, when he tried to tweak it against Preston with Friend playing as the left of three centre backs, it all fell apart. Maybe we will return to the 2 plus midfield cover or even see three out of Gibson, Ayala, Fry and Shotton filling these roles. Either way, the battle for places in the team is going to be full on and should bring the best out of everyone.
We certainly seem to have a very attacking squad and the question is whether we want to lock down the midfield if that reduces the number of people getting forward. I would be happy to see Boro risk being hit by counter-attacks if it happens because we are going full out to score goals. Of course, we do need to start scoring those goals 🙂
UTB
As Marcus Aurelius wrote
‘Give your whole will to Clotho.’
Good mourning, world of Diasboro.
Exciting last night wasn’t it!
No? Nevermind, 41 games at an average of 2 a week to come. 🙂
I’m with Jarkko (yes I know its scary), as we need a number 2 – Assistant Manager that is.
It will be a season of glory or ignomy with no inbetween. Either promo or flat-lining by Xmas.
Happy days
Pedro
I can imagine how beautiful the Caucasus are but they are quite some distance from the foot of the White Carpathians. In fact, 2 633km give or take a km. Which is further than London at 1 831 km.
Just measurin like 🙂
Cheers, Spartac. You are an optimist as me, too. UTB!
Selwynoz
Now you are at it too “we can’t expect everything to come together instantly”
Maybe not but as I said previously, we are not alone in having enough newcomers to field an entire team. Exactly half the league have recruited 11 or more.
Like Boro, some of them have a new management team to bed in (including the dirties).
Try telling Cardiff, Leeds and Wolves that they should be getting to know each other, or gelling, instead of trying to smash the league. Or ask them politely to wait for us why we try a few things out.
Sorry but I cannot take this is an excuse after the money we have spent as most of the teams are in the same or similar situation, some shopping on the loan market or in the bargain bin.
SG has played his part and invested the funds (again) Time for the coaching staff and the players to stand up and be counted starting at Bolton.
No more talk of gelling please.
UTB
A good summary on the latest player joining us yesterday, Marvin Johnson, at the Echo: Boro’s New Signing Marvin Johnson
He can play as an ultra attacking left back but he is mainly an attacking midfielder, a left winger or a striker. Looks exciting but let’s not forget he needs to adapt to the Championship level first.
Secondly, I disagree with some that we still have too many defending midfielders. I think Adlène Guedioura in not defending midfielder (I must admit I haven’t seen him play for Boro for more than just minutes as a sub) and I thought Jonny Howson was bought as a more attacking alternative. The same goes for Forshaw (at least under Karanka in the PL).
It will be interesting to see who are our first 11 after a month or so. Plenty of options and all depends on Monk’s formation and tactics (two different objects!).
But looking good so far. Up the Boro!
Jarkko – I find the central midfield roles are a bit tricky to quantify as in theory any player can try to be attacking, but I decide to include in my squad table the likes of Forshaw, Howson and the peripheral Guedioura in the defensive midfield bracket as they don’t appear to me to be creative attacking players with the intention or pace to burst through the middle or look to get in and around the box. Forshaw appears to have lost the creative element from his game in the last 12 months and Howson just doesn’t look comfortable at the moment in his role. Ideally the midfield need to mix it up a bit more and link the team together, perhaps we’ll see it develop in the coming weeks
Central Midfield is the fulcrum of the side and the jigsaw piece that absolutely has to function correctly for all to succeed. That given, and in light of the many new faces, it must have been very tempting for GM to start with Clayts and Grant . . the most successful, competitive and proven combo we have had in that area at EFL level. However he may also have understood the attacking limitations of the two and in using Forshaw / Howson, instead of Grant, he has tried to be more positive at the expense of drive but the perfect balance has proved elusive to date. The international break has come at a perfect time to improve those fine margins.
And finally, I am sure Marvin Johnson will have a longer and more successful career as a footballer than the previous ex-Boro winger we had on the left. I think you know who I mean.
PS. This is not the ton. too many touches. Up the Boro.
Sorry I seem to have inadvertently knocked in the ton when replying to Jarkko, I thought OFB had put it away but appears his phone is still running 48 hours behind and he posted on the old thread instead – Still, I’ll take it…runs sheepishly to the halfway line.
Just read Marvin Johnson’s interview on Boro website where one of his quotes was “I want to roll my sleeves up to show what I can do”. Maybe he should have added “and to show off my tattoos”.
At least it would have rhymed. I can’t get my head around why young people have this craze for tattoos (sorry I mean body art). What will they look like when they reach my age? When I was a child the craze was for skin transfers; at least one could wash them off.
Body art
It’s a zeitgeist thing Ken
That means it’s not rationally driven but emotionally throughout large sections of society that ‘feel’ it’s an expression of their character, values and identity.
Bit like supporting a footie team, really.
When they reach your age, they’ll all have them so it will be normal won’t it?
I’ve got a couple and I’m 61. One is the old Boro badge that I had done after that great day on 29th Feb 2004. The other is a cartoon of my campervan.
I’m probably a bit biased as my step son is a talented tattoo artist.
After protestations that he was busy with projects, Werder has been remarkably prolific with posts, even lurking for the ton. Well merited, as he lives in Germany shouldn’t that be tonne?
The debate about midfielders is interesting. We tend to play with defenders, attackers and last but not least midfielders.
Their modern job is to shield the defence but the best also pen the opposition by shielding the defence in the oppositions half. They should also be progressive rather than sideways passers.and be able to play box to box.
The best transfer of the summer in the English game may well turn out to be Matic for ManU because he has all the attributes needed to enable United to push forward.
Ian, Matic is one of the best in the business in the role you describe and i’m pretty sure we had him training with us on trial a few years ago but decided to pass . . one that got away.
The left back, midfielding, winger, striker thing about Johnson concerns me. It sounds more like a schools football definition of a developing 13 year old and not a 26 year old professional. Just hope he’s not some sort of “late developer project”.
After the failure to bring in either of the two Liverpool lads he was presumably a late last minute Plan C back up allied to an impending Traore departure that didn’t happen. Lets hope he sets the Riverside alight!
It worries me too, he’s 27 in December but has only one season behind him in English league football, at League 1. Also, how does Stuey now go from been told he absolutely isn’t part of the managers plans and can go a.s.a.p. for free (without the manager even working with him) to being a fully integrated member of a promotion “team”. GM seems to have his head screwed on in the art of saying the right things and being media savvy so why did he feel the need to commit himself so early over Stuey’s future without safeguarding himself over the possible situation he’s now faced with . . strange one for me and unduly out of character.
The “Downing saga” has dripped out rather than a full and frank disclosure. That he expressed a “concerned opinion” is seemingly true. What he actually is alleged to have said to whom, where and under what circumstances is something that we will probably have to pay £14.95 for at some future date from a bookseller near you or more likely online to your Kindle (other tablets are available).
The scenario in the summer seemed to be clear out Karsnka’s team both on and off the pitch and anyone associated in any way with the politics, bad feeling or festering of any open wounds. That meant that most of the recently arrived Spanish Armada was scuppered along with South Amercans and even his “assistant” Aggers. Downing was also implicated so any clearing of the decks had to be impartial and all inclusive so that the new broom could sweep clean.
Putting a player on gardening leave is difficult let alone expensive so Stewy was allowed to leave. As things panned out nobody wanted to pay an ageing ex Premiership player his going Boro rate let alone pay several million for his services.
He is all that remains of that “era” and presumably nobody remains now to argue with. That said Downing hasn’t earned a reputation as an argumentative so and so in his career compared say to the likes of Ramirez and one or two others we can think off. The lad probably got on with training at Rockliffe, encouraging and helping the young lads and like as not it probably became obvious to Monk (no doubt aided by a few words from some of the older pro’s) that the situation in June politically made sense but was irrelevant and plain stupid now.
On the flip side Stewy is now under a manager who ironically is a far better fit for his skill sets than the previous incumbent who I think most of us on here came to the conclusion that he didn’t sign him or particularly wanted him. As a consequence we never seen the best from the player as like the rest they were manacled to a system which suited some (e.g. Ben Gibson and Dimi earlier) but at the sacrifice of more expansive creative types.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all if this Season sees Stewy as the Merson man in a Typical Boro scenario.
As I said in a previous post
Chatting with Dave Allen who used to be the Boro PR Officer he thought Stewart Downing was marvellous and a credit to football.
He said no one at the club had a bad word to say about Downing and that he was a really nice guy.
Dave Allen also went on to say he had heard the rumours about Downing and that he knew for a fact that none of it was true.
This statement was unsolicited and I for one believe what he said at the meeting
Everyone deserves a second chance and I think that under Monk he will have a decent season
OFB
Werder, yes the midfielders are tricky but I think Forshaw was our best hope to go forward in the first half of our Premier League season.
Howson was definitely bought as an attacking midfielder. But will he be used as one if different story. And so was Clayton!
Anyway, here is the post AV should have written for us at the Untypical Boro blog: http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/verdict-middlesbroughs-transfer-window-shifts-13555375
Very good reading for the next fortnight, me thinks. Up the Boro!
Yes, Jarkko, AV’s piece is very interesting. He clarifies that with net transfer spending and including wages, the club is probably committed to spending £41m this year, and the parachute payment will be around £48m. We are absolutely fine for FFP and the club hasn’t mortgaged its future in any way.
I think the transfer activity has brought in some very promising players, and if GM can mould them into an effective unit we should be in the race for a play-off spot at the least.
My one concern would be over Jota (or a Jota-like player). Harry Redknapp has said he will use Jota on the right. This suggests to me that we have insisted on retaining an unhappy player – Adama – when we could have sold him and bought Jota for that position and had £3m change in our pocket*.
It seems that although Jota’s stats are fantastic at this level, there is something about him that GM didn’t really like, so GM didn’t feel really committed to driving that deal through. Probably Adama’s pace and power is seen as of greater value than Jota’s guile, vision and accuracy.
It will be interesting to see which player delivers more goals and assists for his team this season.
*But maybe Jota would not have moved North?
Jarkko
There are optimists and there are ‘optimists’.
At this present time I consider myself to be a cautious optimist. I’m still heavily concerned about team performance levels.
There was obviously more than just our Gazza who didn’t particularly like “Something about Jota”.
No Premiership bids of note, not wanting to compete against Brentford, wanting to stay in London yet ends up at a club who on paper are no more likely to get into the play offs than the Bees themselves in Birmingham. Personally I would have liked him but if Downing is staying then it may have been a case of too many chefs.
Cooks?
An interesting read from AV, which summarises much of what we’ve previously discussed on Diasboro and it’s worth mentioning again FFP is now spread over three years – with Boro allowed a loss of £39m for the year they had in the PL plus 2 x £13m for each Championship year – so the maximum permissible debt is around £65m over three years.
If you take into account Boro probably made a £20-30m profit (on PL prize money plus matchday and commercial revenue) last season – based on another article AV produced on our total PL spend last season, which he estimated at just under £100m including transfers and wages. Then there’s plenty of spare spending capacity for the next two seasons before we even come close to exceeded FFP should Steve Gibson wish to fund it from his own pocket. Hopefully he won’t need to but he has less wriggle room in year three when parachute payments end and our PL debt allowance of £39m is lost from the three-year figure – so we’ve only got two years to flex our financial muscles!
I would just add to AV’s projections that he estimated on a total incoming spend of £46m he thought the net spend would be around £10m – However, on that outgoing spend for me, I’d put the net spend at less than £4m given the widely reported figures on the bigger fees received (below), de Roon’s fee was often quoted at around £13m and Gaston’s at closer to £10m – plus AV didn’t include any fee from Fischer from whom it was reported we got the money back that we paid (£3.6m) and the addition of Stuani and Husband’s fee would easily take the money received to £40m I would have thought. Even on the lowest figures that AV quoted I make that £42m.
de Roon: £11-13m (reported estimates)
Gaston: £8-10m (reported estimates)
Rhodes: £10m
Espinosa: £4m
Fischer: £3-4m (reported estimate)
Stuani: £4m
Husband: £1m
Barragan: £1m loan fee
Here is the link to the excellent site posted some time ago by Spartak
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/fc-middlesbrough/transfers/verein/641
They have the net spend at £8.66m with no figures for Stuani going or Shotton arriving but I think they were about the same. These figures seem to include the add ons.
So if you add the £4m for Stuani and the £1m loan fee for Barragan then that would give a net spend of £3.66m, which would remarkably agree with my estimate of it being under £4m until you add in Shotton’s £2.5m – though Braithwaite is shown £1.2m higher than previously quoted. I think most figures on transfers are to some degree are estimated or averaged from reports given the non-disclosure by clubs – we will never get a definitive figure.
The end result is that we are in a very healthy position. If we do go back up we will be very strong, if we don’t we will still be in a healthy position.
Over the first three games we have 76693 through the gate compared to our promotion season where we had 65718. Admittedly we did have SheffU as visitors so that boosted the number by 600 per match. I cant remember the price increase since then, 10%
As long as we are challenging then the fans will keep coming.
Financially, we look sound for a couple of seasons.
Yes, RR, there was mention of Premiership interest, especially from West Ham, and it was surprising that Jota ended up at Birmingham, unless he has an unlikely appetite for driving on the M40 / M25 / M1 and M6 (if he really is going to commute from London).
On the other hand, the club put in a bid of £4.5m, and then baulked at £6m. I suspect that it’s to do with a lack of pace or dynamism, perhaps he is too similar to Stewy.
But the stats say he was as near a sure thing as it gets, and maybe he can deliver a corner without hitting the opponent on the near post – the poor guy given that job must get a headache every game we play.
Yes, a good article from AV although much of the finances are guesswork as more and more incoming and outgoing transfers seem to be undisclosed. Overall AV’s article was spot on and sets him apart from the other Gazette reporters. I haven’t always agreed with his observations, especially his view that Boro’s match away to Villa in the League Cup was one of the worst draws possible. I know Villa are going through hard times, but they are the 5th most successful club in the history of English football and Villa Park is one of the most iconic old stadiums in the Country.
It seems now that the Hispanic project was a failure under Karanka. Managers do tend to buy players from their own country, for example Strachan with his jockification, Wenger in his early days, and now Wagner at Huddersfield. That is understandable to a degree, but in Karanka’s case it seems obvious now that it caused a rift with the established British players.
Boro in their time have suffered with the temperament of some, but not all, Latin players. For every Juninho and Doriva, we have had a Emerson and Ramirez, so perhaps Monk felt that Jota was a step too far. I think the fact Jota ‘absconded’ to Eibar for a while and has since indicated that he wished to stay in London, then signs for Birmingham vindicates Monk’s suspicions. However, it is surprising though that he sold Stuani, a player who apparently hadn’t given a moments trouble, but wished to keep Traore who doesn’t appear to have any football brain whatsoever. If the coaches at Barcelona couldn’t improve him, I fail to see how Monk will.
Last season Boro did most of its recruitment early and it failed; this season they have done the same again, but far better in the standard of players recruitment. I’m not a fan of buying players at the eleventh hour, it smells of panic buying. One can’t even compare it with high street sales, as most purchases are at inflated prices. Having read some of the comments on the Gazette forum, there seems to be great disappointment that no business was completed yesterday. I find that very strange indeed as we now have the best squad on paper in the Championship, and if we had bought Assombalonga, Braithwaite and Randolph only yesterday, the same fans would have been ecstatic.
Some of the younger fans were brought up on a diet of Juninho, Ravanelli, Hasselbank and Viduka, and still seem to think we are a Premier League club. Before the season started most of them had us certainties for promotion, but now many see us finishing mid-table. The highs and lows in expectations supporting the Boro. I’m pleased to say that most bloggers on this forum have seen it all before and take a more balanced view.
It is now up to Monk and his coaching staff to get the best out of our players. My forecast for what it is worth is promotion via the playoffs at the end of the season.
From what the little I have seen, Jota reminds me a bit of Benito Carbone, maybe Forestieri, A bit of a livewire.
Ken is right, we have made some great signings, and crucially we have managed to hold onto Big Ben and Adam Clayton, which we would have taken with both hands at the end of last season.
As a bonus, Dael has come in and looks an accomplished performer.
Maybe Jota was that something a bit different to complete the jigsaw, but as yet we have little idea what Braithwaite can do and Baker certainly has potential. Let’s hope they can provide the goals and assists we will need.
Simon
I don’t know about AK amd other managers but I think Strachan was a cult
Just saying like
OFB
Did you have your preemptive spell checker on whilst writing that blog Bob?
Oh yes
I know what I mean
And so say all of us
He was hired by Southampton, Coventry, Celtic, Scotland & MFC. Some before us & some after us. That means the powers that be considered him to be the best candidate.
What does that say about decision making at the very top?
Well that flawed me!
Never liked him as a player and rate him the worst manager I have seen for Boro since I started watching in 1967 and that includes the late great Bobby Murdoch
Ken, agree on all you said.
But with Traore, he is now a couple of years older than in Barcelona. I think he matures and by getting some experience and more coaching he can improve. He is just 21 years old now I think.
Let’s hope he continues to grow and play as well as in his latest match.
Up the Boro!
My view is that we did well to keep Ben, but then there were no late big bids that we know about. May be the “he is not for sale” really did deter clubs?
However, I know little about Jota, apart from how to pronounce his name, only what I have read. As others have said his stats are good, but is there a small underlying problem? It will be interesting how he does at Brum and ‘Arry.
But I am still disappointed that given our resource spend, we did not bring in a creative player, unless Braithwaite turns out to be him. If not we are goosed in that department. Also as was posted previously and I concured with, SD gets NOWHERE near Merson in creativity, never mind the goals and assists.
I hope I am wrong but Stewy has disappointed and is now two years further down the line from when we bought him.
The key to me is in Mr Monk getting his team formation, choice of players in those positions correct and getting more from the existing poor preforming midfield.
I don’t know what you mean Bob, I was questioning your spelling of the word “and”, well, at least I think I was!
Amd amd amd
It’s this small keyboard
And I thought you were just being a little curt with him 😉
I have no sympathy with those Premier League clubs who are disappointed that they didn’t get their targeted purchases. All this brinkmanship serves them right. For Heavens sake they have had a whole month, and yet still play cat and mouse until the eleventh hour.
For those who are not sure of the signing of Johnson (billog72 @ 9:54) and Redcar Red lets look at another player who is now 30.
After never playing in the football league at the age of 25 he joined championship side Leicester City and the rest is history, his name is Jamie Vardy.
Give the lad a chance !
Come on BORO.
I hope your right about the parallels with Vardy and Leicester as it would mean Boro will actually smash the Championship with a 100 points and then win the Premier League two years later!
Werder, that is the aim. Right?
Up the Boro V
Ken
Arsenal is a case in point. They have known Sanchez wanted leave last season. The player they tried to sign yesterday, Lemar, for £94m was keen to join them for a fraction of that months ago. They could have sold Sanchez, bought the Frenchman, made a profit and had him bedded in by now.
If Boro did something similarr we would be disparaging to say the least and Neil Bauser would walking about with a false nose and fake glasses. I would have changed my name from Gill and there would have been seismic activity in the White Carpathians.
OFB
I was not questionin your assessment of Stricken. I was commenting on the capability of those who appoint him.
‘An incestuous pot from which to gather your lot.’
And there’s the recruitment floor right there 😉
Severe lack of competent lateral thinking. If I didn’t know better I’d say it was a worldwide conspiracy led by the Illuminati. But no, just a lot of same minded cognatively retarded people, poisoned by greed and ambition. Most don’t even understand the game, so how could you expect them to pick a good manager.
The Downing situation is a mystery which, as RR says, may only be revealed in a future (auto)biography.
I’m sure he is a genuine guy. My beef is that he has not lived up to his billing and has, therefore, not proved value for money.
I’ll eat humble pie if he turns into the new Merson but I agree with Pedro’s assessment.
D-Day put to music
Randolf – I gotta get out of this place.
Gibbo – the green green grass of home.
Shotton – finally (it has happened to me)
Stewy – home is were the heart is.
Adama – please release me let me go.
Ramirez – Hasta Manana till we meet again.
Marvin johnston – take a chance on me.
Dimi – I’m still standing.
Gestede – should I stay or should I go.
Stuani – for the good times.
De pena – another one bites the dust.
Ryan Kent – wish you were here.
Howson- one day at a time .
Britt – my aim is true.
Agnew – what a good day for the roses.
barrahan – you need hands
Leadbitter – If you don’t no me by now.
Arry – I like driving in my car.
Jota – this is the road to hell.
SG – help me make it through the night.
GM – it’s all over now.
(The deadline not his tenure)
Did anyone notice that we smashed the league in the NE?
We paid two times more for Marvin Johnson than Sunderland paid for all for their 10 new players in total. They have Mogga time with practically no money to spend.
Love SB, me. Up the Boro!
Lets hope it is all worth it Jarrko.
In some newspapers Stewart Downing at 33 years of age is described as a veteran. It makes we wish I could be a veteran again, and I guess most of us have the same wish.
Ken
In our heads, we’re still 18. It’s our bodies that betray our age.
Benitez is not a happy bunny.
Would that have anything to do with a cognitively retarded individual owner who enjoys binge drinking, throwing up in the fireplace and binge drinking some more?
“This toon needs an enema!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Tpe-dbPQI&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Maybe the whole sector needs a jolly good purge.
Here’s something for those whose bodies are starting to betray their age – and indeed for those who have bodies still staying loyal to them. It’s an article written by Harry Pearson in the quarterly ‘Blizzard’ about the football history of South Bank simply entitled Slaggy Island
Thanks to GHW for that link, though I’m not sure if it was the stealing of tools from a shed in the opening paragraph drew his attention to it…
A wonderful evocative article and it brought back memories too. A great read.
Thanks GHW and Werder and of course Harry Pearson.
UTB,
John
Thanks Werder
A great and nostalgic read. Brought back some memories such as my long gone dad who played for Boro Swifts at the same time as Don Revie.
Micky Fenton was my boss when I was one of his paper boys working out of his newsagents at Roseworth – a long long time ago now!
Anyone had any experience of bet365?
I am not a betting man and only ask as it appears they are providing a stream of next week’s match at Bolton.
The match is not available via iFOLLOW as it is being televised by their international partners in, I believe, Bulgaria and Greece!
I am torn between wanting to watch Boro and security concerns as it appears that I will need to register with them and provide personal details. I am also not sure if they will want some money or credit card details from me.
Back up plan is to listen to radio commentary via club website but not the same as being able to watch.
Any experiences/thoughts/advice gratefully received.
Avoid like the plague, a dose of clap, a hammer to ones head or any form of interaction with a member of the British Conservative Party – the last mentioned being the most dangerous to ones health and well being unless you are within the inner circle.
🙂
KP
Bet365 is fine.
You need to open an account and stick some money in. 10 quid should do it.
I use it all the time in Oz.
You can put the image on to your tv via your computer.
The match is not in full screen but is watchable.
Better than nothing
Good luck and UTB
KP
Once you pay your 10 quid, if you don’t gamble it you are good for the season.
I have $15 in there and never use it to gamble, just to watch matches.
Old Billy
Much appreciated – I will open an account and can always place a bet on Boro at the end of the season or a three legged horse which will probably have more luck! 😎😂
They say that retirement is wasted on the elderly, but I was lucky to retire aged 52 and as I’m reaching my twilight years I often reflect on where the years have gone. My two great passionate pastimes of my life have been my love of Classical Music and my love of Sport.
That’s maybe strange as I can’t play a musical instrument, and I was hopeless at sport. In fact I doubt if anybody writing on this forum has a worse playing record than me.
For example I played football as a right winger and can’t recall ever scoring a goal, I played a lot of cricket with a highest score of 9 not out but did once take 4 wickets in a match, didn’t once break a 100 on the golf course, and only once potted 3 successive balls on the snooker table. Therefore, if I couldn’t play sport very well the next best thing was watching it live.
Now there I’ve been very lucky having been to 3 Open Golf Championships and seen most of the greats from Nicklaus and Palmer to Jacklin Seve, Norman, Faldo to McIlroy. I’ve seen Len Hutton, Trueman, Viv Richards and Boycott at cricket, been to 6 Rugby League finals at the old Wembley Stadium, but football has given my most satisfying memories, and that’s what I want to reflect on here.
Another saying is that nostalgia is wasted on the young, but I’d like to share some more of my nostalgic memories with you. I suppose the most successful periods for Boro in the First Division were before the two World Wars, well until recent times that is. In 1913/14 they finished 3rd, and then the three seasons from 1936/37 they finished 7th, 5th and 4th. Apparently there was great excitement and expectation that 1939/40 would see Boro win their first League Championship. In fact it didn’t start too well with only one point gained in the first three matches before the season was declared null and void. However, Boro might have won it, so Hitler had a lot to answer for.
Well of course I don’t remember those seasons, but when football resumed in 1946 huge crowds attended not only football matches, but most sporting events. Boro’s average attendances in the first five postwar years were between 34,000 and 36,000, and only in 1998/99 has an average reached anywhere near those figures. The ground record was broken several times in those halcyon days, the first 50,000 plus gate being the infamous 6th round FA Cup tie against 2nd Division Burnley in March 1947 when 53,025 attended.
However, I have previously touched on my first two seasons following Boro, but the next two were my favourites. Boro had escaped relegation by the skin of their teeth in 1948/49 and had seen the retirement of Mickey Fenton and his total of 147 league goals. They bought Peter McKennan and Alex McCrae as twin strikers, but the season didn’t start very well with only one win in their first 7 home matches which included a 1-5 defeat to champions Portsmouth who went on to win the league for the second successive season. I remember that match well as it was the first time I had seen a black player, Lindy Delapenha. He made such a good impression that Boro bought him from Pompey at the end of the season.
Well following a 0-2 defeat at Liverpool in October, Boro found themselves second from bottom, and it looked like being another battle against relegation. Having only won 3 matches (2 of them away wins) a slight recovery ensued and after having played half of our matches Boro had climbed to 15th with 19 points, but the real improvement started on Christmas Eve with a 3-0 home win over Huddersfield, and then two 1-0 wins over Newcastle on Boxing Day and the 27th December, the day when the ground record was broken for the last time – 53,802 with several spectators sitting on top of the west end roof. In those days it was not uncommon to play 3 matches in 4 days, but to win all three without conceding a goal was quite exceptional.
It took three matches to beat Villa in the FA Cup 3-0 at Elland Road in the second replay, so it was probably not too surprising to lose 0-4 at Villa five days later, our 4th meeting with them in a fortnight, and of course typically Boro lost 2-3 at Second Division Chesterfield in the next round, but it did enable Boro to concentrate on the league, and with 9 wins and only 4 defeats in the last 15 league games Boro finished a healthy 9th after playing 3 matches again in only 4 days over Easter.
Unbelievably Boro had won 11 of their last 12 home games, the only defeat being at home to Manchester United on March 11th 2-3 after leading 2-0 at halftime. Alex McCrae had scored 14 league goals, and Peter McKennan 15 despite missing the last 8 matches through injury, but he left at the end of the season and once more Boro had to find a new centre forward – enter Johnny Spuhler, my favourite player at the time, who the next season was converted from a right winger.
The next season Boro were definitely the best team in the league, but after losing Alex McCrae through injury half way through the season, fell away to finish 6th. I may have touched on that season before, and perhaps I might recap on that again when we have the next break for international matches.
Brilliant read Ken!
Yes, a real pleasure, thanks, Ken.
Enjoyed the post, Ken
I vaguely recall watching a supporter on top of the roof of a stand and then he went through it, bouncing on the concrete steps below. I believe he survived the fall (Ayresome Park/Holgate End?)
Now readers and contributors is my mind playin tricks on me or did that really happen? I can’t remember the date, match or details.
Thanks Werder for the link. It was a great reminder of the South Bank that I was born in. I went to school in Napier Street. My uncle was a boyhood friend of Wilf. They were in the same class at school but, alas, in different classes as far as football is concerned but, then again, nobody could match Wilf! Fond memories.
I was an Assistant Warden at South Bank Bail Hostel in the mid 90’s & my Uncle was a Desk Sergeant at South Bank Police Station in the 70’s/ early 80’s.
My worst memory of the place was on a Saturday morn when the market stalls were erected. 6.00am the constant banging of steel scaffold poles off the tarmac of the carpark.
Never saw Wilf!
Thanks to GHW and Werder for a great read
I second that. Nice to know about the history in and around the town. I have followed Boro weekly – and now every day – since the mid 1970’s. Love the place and especially the club.
Up the Boro!
Thanks also from me to GHW and Werdermouth. Harry Pearson’s articles are also so interesting.
Slaggy Island was on the 21/72/73 bus routes for me from Redcar to Boro Exchange on match days, then the Corporation Specials to Albert Park.
I never actually saw Ellis Cup matches which I believe in the 1950s were played at the season’s end, but remember reading the results in the Gazette. I did though used to watch Redcar Albion’s Teesside League matches at Borough Park and Redcar Crusaders at Ramshaw’s Farm.
South Bank FC won the FA Amateur Cup in 1912/13 beating Oxford City 1-0 in the replayed final after a 1-1 draw. Of course Bishop Auckland held the record for the number of wins and I remember attending the Final at Ayresome Park in 1954 when they lost 0-1 to Crook Town before some 38,000 people. That was the second replay following a 2-2 draw at Wembley before 100,000 and another 2-2 draw at St. James’s Park before 60,000. Incredible years!
Incidentally for fellow Teessiders, Stockton FC won the FA Amateur Cup three times, the most recent being in 1912 when they beat Eston United 1-0 in a replay. The North East certainly ruled the World in the FA Amateur Cup, when even since the Second World War many Semifinals being played at Ayresome Park involving Bishop Auckland, Crook Town and West Auckland.
Who says nostalgia is dead; I love it, me.
Further info regarding West Auckland Town who represented England in the first “unofficial World Cup” in 1909 and beating Winterthur from Switzerland 2-0 in the final, and then retaining it two years later by beating Juventus, then an amateur team, 6-1. I’m sure most of us have heard the story, but just to say that the story can be found on Wikipedia, and that a film “A Captain’s Tale” starring Denis Waterman and Tim Healey was made about those events and can be viewed on YouTube.
And thanks to Ian for that very funny Jasper Carrot link a while back. It made me laugh, not least because my brother and I sat silently amongst the Brum City fans several years back as Boro beat them 3-0 in a Prem game at St Andrews. (Viduka got one, and French Franck another, but I can’t remember who got the third. ) We’d got our tickets through my brother’s FA connections and we sat next to the former Premiership referee, Alan Wiley, who was himself a big Blue Nose. Mercifully, he was the only one of the disgruntled Brum fans around us who knew we were Boro. So, we won 3-0 and thoroughly enjoyed it, but it was deeply frustrating having to sit on our hands as the goals went in!
Viduka got two in that match Clive, the first and second. Both were beautifully taken goals, the first involving Reiziger in what was, I believe, one of his last games for Boro.
They were also, if I remember rightly, our first league goals that season after blanks at home to Liverpool (0-0) and Spurs away (0-2).
Thanks Simon. I wish my memory was as good as yours!
Clive
Or your database as good as Simon’s
OFB
I’ve been thinking about our signings which I must say I’m pretty pleased about
The one signing that intrigues me is Johnson
I think he’s going to replace George. At the moment I’m sorry to say George and Adam Forshaw appear to be the weak links in the team.
It will be interesting to see if my theory holds up!
And remember folks you read it on Diasboro first
Your Premium Site
OFB
Must say I hadn’t countenanced that outcome for Johnson especially with Fabio still in the ranks. I had assumed he was earmarked for wide left but there again even GM doesn’t seem to know his best 11 or formation. Time will tell if it’s a back three with pacy wide men or four at the back with overlapping full backs. Just hope that GM settles on something sooner rather than later.
Im sure we will see GM’s ‘A’ game now we have a settled squad. I am still quite excited at the prospects for this season.
Powmill
It is more a case of we need to see GM’s A game. Most of the squad are not on international duty so scope to work on them.
The key area seems to be knitting the defence and attack together by controlling midfield, Graham Taylor’s ten game test approaches, we are half way there.
What a debut and what a goal from 17 year old Ben Woodburn for Wales yesterday. It gladdens my heart to see young lads starting their careers like that. It reminds me of the impact that Duncan Edwards made at a similar age.
Well done, young man.
Glad to hear the Harry Pearson article that GHW found revived a few memories for those of you whose Boro recollections go somewhat further back than mine – although the likes of Wilf Mannion and George Hardwick were just names from the past for me.
Though I do remember going to see a belated testimonial game for them in the early eighties at Ayresome Park, which I vaguely recall a Boro XI lost 2-0 to an England XI – I think it was a young Paul Walsh who scored both goals and a rather chunky Bobby Murdoch came out of retirement to flatten a few youngsters and hoof a few balls up-field.
It was also great to read about Steely’s uncle being a friend of Wilf and that KP’s dad played alongside Don Revie in the Boro Swifts. Plus some really good historical recollections from Ken – not to mention his personal memories of following the Boro. Though credit of course to Harry Pearson for his great ability to bring the characters of the past back to life.
Still have the programme for that match. I think it was Jimmy Hill who did the interviews, but could be wrong.
Is Charlie Wyke now the best striker that Boro’s academy has produced since Andy Campbell? Fourteen goals from 19 starts last season for Carlisle, now a brilliant robust hat trick yesterday for Bradford City.
I was talking to Andy Campbell the other day
He lives next door to me and is a friend of my family and sons
Andy has pulled his boots on again for Stokesley Reserves although this time he is playing as a full back!
His team mates are pleading for him to play up front again but he says those days are over !
I even threatened to referee a game for them!!!
Have to get the Zimmer frame fitted with a motor !
OFB
Here is a link some Harry Pearson articles, the last one is dated May 2016
http://harrypearson.blogspot.co.uk/
I must try and find out what happened after that, anyone know?
The general opinion on this forum and in the local press seems to be that the club has done well in the transfer window and now has one of the best squads in the Championship. Maybe the level of rose tint in my glasses is running low but I’m not so sure that the general opinion is right.
I do agree that the business done by the club in getting rid of players was by and large exactly what was needed after the disaster of last season. I would have liked to see de Roon stay but otherwise I agree that those who were eased out had to go. So credit where credit is due to the club management for that side of the transfer window business.
It is the level of quality of the incoming players that has left be underwhelmed. Looking at the list of players in Werder’s excellent leading article I am struggling to find many players that I think are top quality and who could hold their own in pretty well any company. In fact, I can only identify five players that I would put into that category and they are Gibson (keeping him was the best piece of business by far done in the window), Clayton, Downing (maybe past his best but he has a quality pedigree), Bamford and, probably, Braithwaite. Two more players, Assombalonga and, yes, Traore, may force their way into this group over the course of the season.
Behind this group is a large group of players that I believe are average Championship material at best. This group includes all the goalkeepers, all the defenders except Gibson and Fry (who I think has huge potential), all the defensive midfielders apart from Clayton, all the attacking midfielders except Downing and maybe Traore and, finally, all the forwards except Bamford and possibly Braithwaite and Assombalonga.
I appreciate that there will be some howls of derision at this view of the squad but before rushing to ridicule my opinion ask yourself a few questions. Are George, Fabio, Ayala, Shotton, Christie and Roberts at the top of the Championship defender quality tree or are they clinging on half way up the trunk? Would you consider Grant, Forshaw and Howson to be above the level of other Championship defensive midfielders? Do you think that Baker will set the division alight or will he need to get some experience under his belt? Can Johnson make the transition from lower leagues to the Championship and make an impact this season? If Fletcher gets much game time is he going to contribute the goals we need?
Of course, if you really believe that you can answer yes to all these questions then not only are you perfectly entitled to dismiss my views but I fear that you are also delusional.
I maintain that the squad assembled by Monk and the club management is a squad of largely average Championship ability with a few top quality players in it. I don’t think the squad is good enough to win automatic promotion this season and would need further investment if it were to do so next season. Interestingly, however, four of these top quality players – Gibson, Clayton, Downing, Bamford – could could be used to form the spine of the team and raise the overall performance level far enough above the average to maybe just creep into a play-off place.
Much will of course depend on how Monk uses the playing resources and whether he finds and sticks with a settled team populated by the best players for the system he chooses to play. He has not made a very convincing start and the clock is ticking towards the ten game checkpoint for considered assessment of his performance and the team’s prospects. We shall see.
An excellent post and unfortunately a lot of it rings true.
Slowly slinks off taking off his foam hands dropping them to the ground and not looking back……
Boroexile
Your view(review) of the various sections of the team are not a million miles off track.
But, and there is always a but. Consider the following, the most important segment of the team is, as always, central defence.
Your assessment of Ayala missed an important point, namely that we will not be fielding him very often,
Our regular pairing will be Gibson and Fry, and I believe that both will play for England, together with the best keeper we have fielded for many seasons I think we will not concede many goals.
Boroexile
I agree with much of what you say and only the coming weeks will either prove or disprove your assessments.
I do however take issue with your view with regard to Downing as being “top quality and being able to hold his own in any company”. He may have fallen into this category some years ago but since his return to Boro he clearly has failed to deliver and I still doubt that he will do so this season.
If your assessment is based on his previous experiences/performances then that is fine but you would then have to apply the same criteria to other members of the squad.
There is clearly a lot of experience at Championship level within the squad but the teams that perform do not always have the best quality players, as to a degree was demonstrated by Preston.
The big challenge for the squad and for GM is to see if they can now operate to a system which will enable them to dominate the majority of teams within the division and produce the required performance and results.
So it’s watch this space!
Boroexile may be right, but in my opinion the standard this season is a little lower than last season, and much lower than the last time Boro was in it. I don’t see a Southampton, a Leicester, a Bournemouth, or even a Burnley in it this season.
Where I do agree though, is that the Boro squad is light years away from being a Premier League squad. Bamford was a flop in the Premier League, and at the moment only Gibson and possibly Randolph would currently get a place in that league. Clayton might get a place in a Premier squad, and Fry might in the future, but although Downing and Leadbitter might have two years ago, not now I’m afraid.
Having said that I still think we’ve probably got the strongest squad in the Championship, but how it is utilised will be key to where we finish. A major overhaul of personnel would be needed to compete in the Premier League, but let’s get there first and worry about that later.
KP, I agreee that Downing has largely failed to deliver since his return to Boro and the puzzle is why.
Shortly before he returned to Teesside he had rave reviews playing the no 10 role at West Ham so his apparent loss of form is odd. Maybe it was to do with the disharmony at the club that has now been recognised in public by a number of people involved.
Whatever the reason I believe that he is a quality asset and hopefully Monk will wipe the slate clean and give him the opportunity to show that he can be a very influential member of the team.
Boroexile
There has never been a fan who does not have an opinion or a theory about a player(any player)
So here goes with my theory about Stewart.
He has been allowed to play in second gear for most of his career. How so?
He was so good when he burst on the scene that he was allowed to get lots of crosses in, and that was it.
On the odd occasion he would do something that properly was the province of a much more valuable player, one who played in the middle of the park, as in an away game against Portsmouth(Harry Redknapp) losing 1-0 with about ten to go Stewart got the ball in midfield moved forward into the box and drilled the equaliser, two minutes later he did the same, front and centre 2-1.
It was no coincidence that Harry signed him for West Ham, played him in midfield, and kept him there.
It was the best period of his career, a few good goals on match of the day, plenty of praise from the pundits.
Harry wanted to sign him again for Birmingham, guess where he was going to play him.
You know my feelings about Downing , and I don’t agree with Dave Allan’s comments about him.. Downing has spat his dummy out at every club he has been at. He was given a huge contract by SG and has not lived up to it. I hate the term “he is one our own ” no way ! Ben Gibson is the one who deserves that title with his honesty and a genuine feel for the club and wanting to stay. Downing if he had any pride should have moved on . One word describes him …Greedy.
Seeing through the eyes of SG is ALL that matters.
If SG wanted a Boro born three legged frog with one eye in the squad, then that frog could choose his own shirt number.
SD ‘greedy’? What abject nonsense. We’re talking MFC here not MCFC, Barcelona or PSG. Even on 50k a week SD would be on 2.5 squillion a year. Any idea what Britt is getting? Seen Neymar’s a month salary? SD would have to play 6 seasons to come to Britt’s transfer fee. He could’ve stayed at West Ham & played Premier League. Still, SG gave the call & SD answered – enough said I suppose.
Let’s all be
Realistic about smashing this league.
We ain’t gonna do it !
Too many new players in
New coaching methods
New formations
But
We should make the playoffs!!????
I can only think of Mcguire Hull to Leciester as in Championship to Premiership transfer,so what does that say about the quality of this division.
If we are not nine points clear in January , questions will be asked?
Why not take a more novel approach?
Nothing entitles us to a place in the top six, let alone the top two. We are an entity that, like England’s national team, has won practically nothing. Try not to think too much of Championship title-winning success at this stage, investment or no investment. Instead, for now, it may be best to aim for a good run of results to get and maintain a place in the top six and, if we achieve that, aim higher still.
It’s the “we’ve a good team, so let’s see how we can do” approach. Something that can relieve the entitlement from our shoulders, give the team room in which to breathe and enable them to both excite and achieve.
Simon
As all good managers say take one game at a time
OFB
nothing would surprise me in this league. I dont think its about how much you spend, just ask Villa fans.
Every member of this Boro squad has the potential to be quality this season.
A lot can be achieved with average players who are prepared to roll their sleeves up and get stuck in (not suggesting that all Boro players are average)
Promoted teams will display the following attributes, hard work, good coaching methods, a couple of natural leaders, team spirit, ambition, mental strength and taking one game at a time.
If you can stay relatively injury free, limit suspensions and get the “rub of the green” you may just stumble over the line and leave the big boys in your wake.
I am sure Huddersfield had many, if not all of those attributes without spending big.
‘re 360. How did you get on KP?.
it looks like a viable option for me too.
I would have to use a vpn as betting here is illegal. The guys here believe that all things are pre ordained. I wish they would tell us how the season is going to pan out and put us out our misery.
……. crosses the ball into the box for the Aussie strikers
Allan
I have just opened and account with them and made a deposit of £5 which was the minimum. I also used my vpn as my credit card is registered in the uk and it also meant I was directed to the UK site with everything in English.
It looks as though the screen size is quite small and like you mentioned you cannot enhance it to full screen but will link up to my tv as suggested. At least I now have three options for watching games, Sky, iFOLLOW and Bet365 so should be able to see the majority for this season at least.
Thanks for your advice and hope selwynoz is able to get registered without any problems.
CoB
All signed up and now waiting for Saturday night..
I’m also looking at Bet 365 for the Bolton game. Otherwise, I’ve been paying A$9 per game through iFollow. I’ll let you know how I get on.
For what its worth, I think that we have as good a squad as any other team in the Championship. It will come down to how well GM can turn this group into a team that regularly wins games and rarely loses them. You can call this ‘gelling’ or simply the application of good coaching. I don’t care about the semantics of it but its daft to say that we don’t expect the team to get better than they are now and a big part of this will come from everyone getting used to the way that everyone plays around them.
Exactly what system he chooses we’ll have to wait and see but I reckon that he’s an attacking coach and we could regularly see seven players well forward in the opposing half.
UTB
I think Boroexile has raised an important issue in terms of whether the overall quality of the squad is as high as the price we have seemingly paid to assemble it. Boro have forced the market to some degree to get in the players they needed to rebuild the squad but the overall problem for any Championship club is that they won’t really be able to attract PL standard players.
Instead Boro have tried to pick off decent Championship players and have had to pay over their representative value to encourage a sale. However, I would argue that in comparison to many of our rivals Boro have the raw ingredients to form a good team – but that is essentially where we are at the moment, Garry Monk has to now make a functioning team from the resources at his disposal and it’s not clear on how long that will take.
The additional problem is that those who remain are also now facing adapting to a change in style too – so there was no active familiar system for the new recruits to assimilate into and that makes it harder since Boro are creating the foundations and playing structure at the same time as building the team.
I expect we will need to be lucky and try to hang in around the playoff zone until we see an overall understanding and the team gain its identity.
Werder
In a previous post I pointed out that Boro were not alone in recruiting 10 or more players. So we are by no means the only team going through the gelling process. if most the teams are currently gelling then I would expect Boro’s perceived superior quality to show through, I just dont believe gelling can be used as mitigation for poor performance and lack of points and we should not be kidding ourselves that everything will be OK at some point in the future.
To summarize: most championship games will be Gell v Gell for the next few weeks.
Let hope that Boros gell is stronger than most.
Just coiffing like UTB
Werder, exactly as you said: The additional problem is that those who remain are also now facing adapting to a change in style too – so there is essentially no familiar system for the new recruits to assimilate into and that makes it harder since Boro are creating the foundations at the same time as building the team.
As we do not know the best eleven or even the most likely formation (and we might have a different formation when having possession and when defending) yet, I have listed the players we have now in a 4-1-3-2 formation below.
My 4-1-3-2:
Up-front: Bamford (Fletcher); Assombalonga (Gestede)
Attacking MF: Braithwaite (Johnson); Baker (Downing): Howson (Traore)
Defending MF: Clayton (Leadbitter)
Defense: Friend (Fabio); Gibson (Shotton); Fry (Ayala); Christie (Roberts)
Goal: Randolph (Dimi)
That still leaves a bench having Mejias, Forsaw and Guédioura: And the academy lads like Wing and Tavernier.
Of course there are several other formation available but here I tried to list what we have at the moment. I would be pleased to hear about other formations.
We look strong on paper and definitely have more players who can score than we had a year ago. Meaning we could win matches with a goal or two out of nothing. Hence we should get some results also during the bed-in period.
The start will be tough as Werder wrote above. But we will get better all the time (hopefully). As I said earlier, we invested two times more in Marvin Johnson than Sunderland invested all summer. So could have been worse!
Up the Boro!
It will be interesting to see what formation Monk decides on – it will no doubt need to accommodate many of our ten attack-minded players if he’s going to keep a happy squad – I think 4-3-3 that has previously been employed maybe doesn’t meet that requirement but whether your 4-1-3-2 will do the trick is hard to say until we see it on the pitch. I wonder if Monk is still contemplating a back three with wing-backs now that he’s got Shotton and Johnson onboard with something around 3-4-3 but that will need more work on the training pitch than it got last time.
I agree Jarkko that we have several players now who can score goals. However, we can only play at the most two strikers in their rightful positions in a match. If Bamford plays as an attacking midfielder he is unlikely to score 20 goals. Similarly Gestede will probably only play about 20/25 games in a season, so is unlikely to score more than a dozen goals.
You’re quite right in saying that we have many alternatives, but overall I don’t think we will score many more goals than in our last two seasons in the Championship. I would guess about 70, or 75 at the most which should secure a playoff place.
I never realised how difficult it was to kick a football, professional like, until I read some of the comments on this here blog.
Looks like you need cognitive-motor genius.
As Lewis Wing is an attacking midfield in center and Marcus Tavernier playes on the left side, I hope we can see Mikael Soisalo sometimes on the right wing.
But having done my study above, I would say we might need a right sided midfielder or winger in January. It was essential we kept Traore in August!
Up the Boro.
Sorry Jarrko but I must refer you to the reply I gave earlier.
Old billy
september 4, 2017 at 7:24 am
Werder
In a previous post I pointed out that Boro were not alone in recruiting 10 or more players. So we are by no means the only team going through the gelling process. if most the teams are currently gelling then I would expect Boro’s perceived superior quality to show through, I just dont believe gelling can be used as mitigation for poor performance and lack of points and we should not be kidding ourselves that everything will be OK at some point in the future.
To summarize: most championship games will be Gell v Gell for the next few weeks.
Let hope that Boros gell is stronger than most.
Just coiffing like UTB
Old Billy – I don’t doubt that other clubs have brought in new players and maybe some have fared better in the opening games – though Boro could easily have 9-10 points instead of 7 if a few crucial moments had gone differently in the Wolves and Forest games – though the Preston game was a lost opportunity due to tactics and application.
Though with new recruits a lot will depend on where on the pitch they play and whether they are starters or squad players. Boro have only Gibson, Friend and Clayton out of the XI that were regular starters last season – which leaves quite a gap in developing an understanding on the pitch.
On top of that, how many of the clubs in the Championship have started the season with new managers – I think of those with more points than Boro, only Leeds and Wolves also have new managers (Mark Warburton joined Forest in March).
So whilst we may expect better, it’s not unexpected from my point of view that performances are still looking less than smooth – 9 to10 points would have been quite respectable from the opening five games but some players haven’t really performed to their best yet and the team as a whole is not playing with any consistency.
We should also not overlook that Boro have set the target of automatic promotion and have been given the favourites tag – that in itself add to the pressure and also increases the expectations of the crowd. Some of the players will no doubt need to get to grips with that but it’s about getting the team playing as a unit – or gelling together if you like.
For me, much depends on whether GM identifies the need for more control of the football and the flow of the game as the priority. If that’s right, the ability of Baker and Braithwaite to adapt to the challenge of the Championship will be crucial to our chances.
Assuming he plays 4-1-2-3 again, it might look like this:
Defence
Claytonator
Howson – Baker
PB – Britt – Braithwaite
Baker in as the playmaker, with Braithwaite starting to the left and PB to the right, though they could be fluid. Hopefully their quality would enable them to combine to create more coherence and penetration in our play. If that works, Howson should be able to make more sense of what is happening around him, and join the party.
Britt has a good scoring record at this level, so we have to assume that he will calm down, and focus on getting a good contact on the ball and being more clinical when shooting. This being so, he would start up top.
You are clearly staying fit, OFB. Some of us need a Falcon X heavy-lift rocket on our zimmer frame to manage any sort of acceleration…
How about Villa this season, they haven’t got a new manager and invested a lot last year in new players?
And they are below Boro.
We should be careful we do not end up as low as Villa last season by repeating their problems. That is always possible with so many changes and a new manager. I do not know if they changed the way the play after relegation.
Patience. Up the Boro!
Managed two whole posts without using the ‘Jota’ word … my psychiatrist will be delighted…
“We didn’t have the best of starts this season and while we have the quality on the dressing room, we were lacking something in the early games.
“This league is not just about quality, it’s about the work-rate and the graft, the determination, I think the lads have got that we just had to adapt to the division.”
This is a quote from our Jonathan Franks of Hartlepool after they got a win in a 4-3-3 formation on Saturday. Don’t they have a manager who is good friends with Monk, do they?
Same problems elsewhere, Up the Boro!
I refer everyone back to AK’s first full season, we had six points after 5 games when the September round of matches started.
The crucial thing is where we go from here. I do have a concern about playing Britt, Gestede and Paddy as a front three. Of the three Paddy is the only one where the ball will stick when you play it forward.
With Clayton almost playing as a centre back that leaves a lot of the pitch covered by Howson/Forshaw or whoever plays there. It is easy to get overrun in midfield, that is the issue for Monk.
He can play 4231/442 but he must play them in a balanced formation. Paddy can play in the No 10 or withdrawn striker role. We have enough players with Downing, Johnson, Traore, Braithwaite, Fletcher, Baker even to be part of the three behind Britt – Rudi is plan B.
No doubt the squad have been beavering away in Rockcliffe, lets hope they come out fighting.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=fighting+like+beavers&src=IE10TR&pc=EUPP_MALNJS&ru=%2fsearch%3fq%3dfighting%2blike%2bbeavers%26form%3dIE10TR%26src%3dIE10TR%26pc%3dEUPP_MALNJS&view=detail&mmscn=vwrc&mid=51A03EC0E76865CB2A1851A03EC0E76865CB2A18&FORM=WRVORC
Do you have beawers in North Yorkshire? Just asking, like. I have not seen them in my various visits to the place.
Or can you see Boro fighting like beawers under Monk at Riverside?
Up the Boro?
Beavers.
The reminiscing of Slaggy Island got me thinking about famous people who were born there. Henry Bolckow and John Vaughan, the steel industrialists who were responsible for the birth of Middlesbrough and particularly South Bank sounded like they might be a good central defence partnership for Boro, but though revered on Teesside, they were not born locally. Bolckow was in fact German and Vaughan was born in the beautiful cathedral city of Worcester.
Teesside has produced many famous sportsmen but although many footballers played for South Bank teams, only Wilf Mannion was born there. George Hardwick was from Saltburn and Mickey Fenton from Stockton. Then I remembered a famous score line – Barnsley 0, Middlesbrough 2.
Now you won’t that recorded on the football field, but in a TV studio. That was the night when Paul Daniels (born in South Bank) demoralised the rather supercilious Michael Parkinson twice on the latter’s show by performing two card tricks (which the studio audience and TV viewers were privy to) behind Parky’ s back. He then licked his finger and gave out the score as Barnsley 0, Middlesbrough 2 much to Parky’s annoyance.
Maybe he should have said Barnsley 0, South Bank 2.
As I can’t think of another famous South Banker, I reckon that makes Newton Edward Daniels (who I always new as Teddy), Slaggy Islands Second famous son.
I first met Teddy at Sir William Turner’s Grammar School when we were both 11 years old, I attended Constantine College on an accountancy course with him, and worked with him at Redcar Corporation, but was nevertheless surprised to get a phone call in 1988 from a researcher for TV’s “This is Your Life” to ask if I could give any anecdotes if I was selected to appear on the show. I certainly could, but maybe they might be censored.
Anyway recently I have been struggling to compose a verse for this forum relating to Boro players, and was looking for some inspiration (without much success to date, but I’ll keep on trying) when the Slaggy Island subject came up, and then I came across the following verse that I composed and which the TV researcher gave to Teddy (l guess I should now say Paul), and although it has nothing to do with football might amuse some of you, so here goes:-
In September 1949
You started Grammar School
And I recall that even then
You loved to act the fool.
Your names were Newton Edward,
But I knew you then as Teddy;
You always loved to test your skills
With a card pack at the ready.
On leaving school you started work
As the Treasurer’s Junior Clerk,
By collecting rents and Audit work
At Eston made your mark.
You then moved on to Redcar
To complete the Audit team;
But to be a famous magic man
I could sense was your main dream.
So you started touring night clubs
As a part-time semi-pro;
The Great Eldani you were called-
An anagram, I know.
But it soon became apparent that
Your Audit days should stop,
And so you bade your sad farewells
To run a mobile shop.
This proved much more convenient,
And on the goggle box
You attracted a wide audience
On “Opportunity Knocks”.
I sometimes wonder why you left,
If you were really wise?
Cos since those days so long ago
We’ve had the odd pay rise!
But seriously I do regret
I’m not there to see the fun;
I’m on my leave in Portugal
Relaxing in the sun.
And now you’ve made it to the top
And got yourself a wife;
I hope you have a happy day,
For Paul, This is Your Life!
Dedicated to Paul Daniels who sadly passed away after
suffering with a brain tumour earlier this year.
RIP Teddy.
Ken, I think I need to go to Slaggy Island the next time I am on holiday. Facinating.
I know Steve Gibson is local but where was he and Chris Kamara born? I know Downing is from Palister Park and Gibbo Junior from Nunthorpe (my son’s favourite because of the annual circus there).
Up the Boro!
Both Steve Gibson and Chris Kamara were born in Middlesbrough. I like the fact that Wikipedia state also the North Riding of Yorkshire, I imagine much to AV’s chagrin.
Well done Ken. You might add the late Vin Garbutt to your list of famous South Bankers. His lament to South Bank, “Slaggy Island Farewell” is worth a listen.
Of course, nice one Powmill.
Ken
Another gem, you are a top addition to our motley crew.
I think Ken is Diasboro’s very own mesmerising Messi.
The depth of squad here on this blog is amazing.
Thanks to Ian, Pedro and Redcar Red, but Messi I certainly ain’t. As I mentioned previously I was pretty hopeless at all sports, in golfing terms a rabbit.
Strongest squad the blog has had, need GHW back.
Just catching up and reading some superb posts and Boroexiles reality check got me thinking. I pretty much agree with the general tone of what he is saying but I also think that those “other” players outside of Gibson, Clayton, Downing, Bamford and Braithwaite are better than maybe given credit for.
If we look at Championship Goalkeepers, Randolph is as good as any and probably better than most. Certainly Martin O’Neil and Simon’s oft quoted friend Roy Keane seem to think so, keeping Westwood benched. Going further I would guess that if you asked Hammers fans who they would prefer in a straight either/or choice on Randolph or Hart right now it would be a very close decision. If we do go up I think Randolph is the ideal keeper for us in he has Premiership experience and is affordable so I would add him to the aforementioned five making a core of six.
I do agree about Downing (though I may change my mind come Christmas). I think a lot of his issues have been in playing the Karanka way and having to fit in rather than fitting in which he clearly didn’t. I have no idea where or how Monk will play him but I suspect that he will use his talents for the betterment of the team rather than restrict and restrain his abilities for the benefit of any system. Of course all the “Anti-Stews” will cite that he has been garbage for two seasons and will continue to boo even if he does boss the middle and slides balls through for Paddy and Assombalonga to score for fun, that is “Typical Boro” after all. He changed the game along with Bamford against Preston and had our only shot yet I heard someone muttering whilst walking away from the ground about how those who cheered the “waste of money” were muppets (not actual terminology). Envy is a terrible thing, I wonder how he felt about Valdes’ wages or Negrado’s even?
Getting back to the fabulous five (or six as including Randolph), who is the Championship’s best striker? Ross McCormack was undoubtedly up there but has fallen from grace or more to the point is still stuck behind his locked gates. Rhodes I still think is a goal machine but its pretty clear that thus far he hasn’t fully recovered from his Boro stint but will do so one day, so who else is there? Assombalonga is probably as good as any “current” in form goalscorers that are out there. I accept that he isn’t as good as the top Premiership half dozen and that Lukaku, Kane or a Costa would probably get a game before him but we don’t shop in those stores so in my opinion he is the best of what any Championship side can afford and that is where our competitors are, for this season anyway.
Right Back and Left Back positions are probably more open but who would we love to sign at Championship level that we truly envy that would be an immediate absolute stone wall upgrade? At CB we have Fry emerging alongside Gibson and I’ve said it before but up until the transfer window Fry would be my pick of the two. Now the window is shut tight Ben mightn’t feel so draughty and can concentrate better on playing in the Premiership next season with Boro. He is still only a few “competitor” injuries away from a call up and as they said (or at least Greavsie did) “its a funny old game”.
Up until the last few weeks Howson would probably have come out in the top half dozen or so of best Championship Midfielders. He certainly hasn’t looked the player we hoped and thought he was but I doubt he has suddenly become poor overnight. I think once the team, system, and structures bed in his intuition, insightfulness and reading of the game will get back up to speed and we will see the real Jonny Howson. Grant has invaluable and proven experience of this league and his age isn’t as advanced as many seem to think and unlike our own Bob is far from his motorised Zimmer just yet. Shortness of competitive match fitness isn’t the same as his legs having gone and washed up.
Baker clearly must have something otherwise Chelsea would have sold him rather than loaned him out again, like Paddy he may be deemed just sort of their standard but thats probably good enough for most outside of the top 6 in the Premiership. He has the skill now we just need Monk to remind him of his responsibilities in not being wasteful in possession, when to try his tricks and when and where not to.
Most on here were pretty much in agreement that come the end of August we probably wouldn’t be looking likely to smash the league until the transfers were over and the Manager could get his stamp on the side and start to mould them. Its disappointing not to be 4 points clear but we didn’t expect it in reality, in fact we are probably round about where we thought we would be. Only the Preston game was a crisis in confidence, I’m sure Monk realises the same and will reflect on his logic.
Teams in the Championship quite often start off on fire then literally burn themselves out once the two games a week, injuries and suspensions start kicking in. Do Cardiff have an in-depth squad prepared for the rigours of a gruelling season or Leeds or Ipswich etc? I don’t think they do and will droop and wilt by January, over reliant on their good start to keep them at the business end.
As the old Music hall song goes “its not where you start its where you finish”. Interestingly the same song has a less often quoted lyric “a hundred to one shot, they call him a Klutz, Can out-run the favourite all he needs is the guts”. I wonder who fits that description at Boro?
The end of October is where we will see Monks merits or flaws and some semblance of what is to come.
RR
The popular Chicharito – he of the around 50% strike rate for Leverkusen and Mexico – bounced back from being sidelined mostly at United, so yes, I see no reason why Rhodes can’t do the same.
When I was researching for my piece on Rhodes I came across this quote, and related to it…
“Fans aren’t taught to appreciate movement off the ball – only the shot that leads to goal… Chicharito’s movement is a joy to watch… I wish there was more emphasis, to the spectator, on the more nuanced facets of the game. The play off the ball, for forwards. The way a defender’s body is facing. The movement of the eyes of a midfielder… One of the issues he ran into at Man United was their lack of in-form wingers. Nani and Valencia were too inconsistent. Fergie relied on Carrick and Rooney to drive the attack, which ultimately shut Berbatov, Owen, and Chicharito out. There was no quality support, or quality service, to give Chicharito the chance.”
Two more (shorter) quotes before I get back to work.
“Van Nistelrooy is my favourite Man United striker ever, I’ll always remember my Liverpool mate’s attempted put down of him: ‘All he does is score goals!’ What else should a centre forward be doing? Winning corners? Saving penalties?”
“Fox in the box strikers are unfashionable these days. Tactic heavy, entertainment-lite managers want players to be all things to all people at all times. Gary Lineker on the wing and Ian Rush as wing back.”
Yea, all Grievesy did was score goals! It’s like saying all Banksy did was make saves.
Simon
The great Van?
Another poster on here gave a run down on his time at ManUtd.
I’ve forgotten the actual stats.
But they concerned winning the big prizes during his residency, they were not good.
jarrko – Steve Gibson and Chris Kamara grew up on the Park End estate.
Just been on the MFC site and there was the capital and currency challenge featuring Dael Fry and Connor Roberts.
They have to guess that capital and currency of three countries.
It is fair to say Dael knows his way around the pitch better than he does around an atlas and I wouldn’t recommend a career in the foreign exchange department of Ramsdens.
Yes, it was embarrassing Ian. Mind I was impressed that Connor knew the currency of Ghana, because I’d never heard of it.
Jarkko – beavers had been extinct in Great Britain (ie the island containing England, Scotland and Wales) for about 500 years until some were re-introduced in about 2001. Since then, there have been some “escapees” and some further re-introductions in various parts of England, Scotland and Wales, but none, so far, in North Yorkshire (or, indeed, any part of Yorkshire).
The re-introduction of extinct species in Great Britain is usually the source of much disagreement. Wolves, for example, were wiped out about 340 years ago, bears about 1,000 years ago and the Lynx about 1,600 years ago. The Romans would have known all of those animals as native species in GB and the Normans brought over when William I came over from France wold have just missed the last bears but would have had to compete with the wolves when hunting deer.
If I were a farmer, I wouldn’t want wolves re-introducing if I had flocks of sheep or even cattle out in the fields, and if I were camping in a tent I don’t think I’d sleep too well if I knew that ANY of those three animals I mentioned were wandering around when I was going into my sleeping-bag!
There are, however, thousands upon tens of thousands of other Beavers in Great Britain. The name is used for the youngest sections (6 to 8 years old) of the Boy Scouts movement (followed by Cubs, then Scouts of various types). So, on that basis, there will be LOADS of Beavers in North Yorkshire. But none of them will be vegetarian swimming rodents famous for building wooden dams!
Forever Dormo,
There is talk of re-introducing Lynx in Kielder Forest, apparently those in favour say that they will stay in the forest and not spread.
Last year, at least I think it was last year, there was a ‘debate’ about sea eagles being introduced on the Norfolk coast then some kill-joy mentioned that their favoured prey was all the lovely waders in the bird reserves. That debate has gone quiet now.
Food for thought you could say.
UTB,
John
I remember when I was a teenager me and my mates used to go beaver hunting
Down in the jungle over the border can you hear the sound of those drums ?
Those Bongo drums ?
I’m on Bob’s wavelength on this debate 😉
OFB,
On your neck?
UTB,
John
Neck of what ?
OFB,
Obviously not the ones with big buck teeth.
UTB,
John
John
Some could give you a nasty bite though !
OFB
Forever
But do those beavers fight? Probably over the last sausage roll.
At Uni in the early seventies we were debating species that had died out be it in the UK or world wide. The academic leading the lecture made an interesting point. These species had their chance and failed.
We may fail at some point, it isn’t right, it isn’t wrong, it just is.
Don’t necessarily agree, I think we can do more. A plight close to my heart as a trout fisherman is the fate of the native crayfish. There are few waters left where the more aggressive, larger, North American, signal crayfish hasn’t taken over. Not only is it more aggressive it carries a disease that is devastating to the indigenous species without affecting themselves. Just so you know the native crayfish is a timid creature, if you come across one of the invaders it will rear up waving it’s claws which have a bright red underside to their claw.
Here is your natural history question, why is it called the signal crayfish?
having done a fair amount of conservation work as a member of a fly fishing club, it is very interesting to look at what works.
The Tees has had a lot of salmon stocked in to it but other factors have an effect. Habitat and obstructions to migratory fish take their toll. I believe there are many seals in the estuary of the Tees, some as far up as the barrage. They do not live on Parmo’s.
I remember my wife and I watching a couple of seals chasing salmon near the Transporter Bridge. As for the signal crayfish the River Kennet is infested with them, they’re like little lobster but with a bad attitude waving their red warning mark/signal at all and sundry. I have seen chub regurgitate small crayfish so something does eat them. Well, apart from humans.
I hope they don’t arrive in your trout streams Ian.
UTB,
John
PS
Ian, who built the barrage without putting a salmon ladder in the structure?
UTB,
John
Ian
If the Seals are as far up as the Barrage that would probably make them Makem Seals thereby explaining the lack of Parmo induced droppings!
If they had been swimming near Conoco Phillips refinery they would probably be Oil Seals !
There was a seal playing around in the dock as we walked around the dock to our cars, after leaving the Riverside following the Preston match. It spent most of its time under water but occasionally lifted its head above the surface and glided slowly along before disappearing again. The water in the dock was as still and reflective as a sheet of glass.
Watched a replay of the England game and was struck by how much Oxlade-Chamberlain reminded me of Traore. Great on the ball but no evidence of cerebral activity and just as likely to screw it all up with him a bad pass or a mishit cross. He’s worth 40 million.
Just saying…..
UTB
Thanks, Dormo.
There are a couple of beawers in the small river going through my grand parents’ farm, my uncle sees the tracks of a bear about weekly near his cottage and we have a few hundred wolves in the country. They make some damages but it is usually a dog as we do not have so many sheep up here.
Lynx is difficult to see and have never heard to cause damage. Facinating how different our countries are. Of course our country is larger than Great Britain and just 5,5 million people. A lot of forests for the animals to hide.
I would not be scary to sleep outdoors as these animals try to avoid humans, though.
I was just wondering if there were beawers in Park End estate as Kamara was talking about them, like. Thanks, Nigel.
Up the Boro!
I try to learn. Beavers, beavers, beavers ….
Jarsue
Your post prompted a quick google. I knew a bit about the impact of the barrage on salmon, I have posted a link below.
There is a fish pass at the barrage and it appears salmon go over the top of the flood gates and through the navigation lock. The problem for salmon appears to be getting that far.
https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/news-and-views/blogs/the-fisheries-and-angling-team/tees-barrage-fish-pass-update.
I spent a lot of time in Berwick and there are always seals in the estuary but salmon run the river at higher tide levels and there is no blockage on the river so they can run upstream once past the seals.
Blockages upstream?
Sounds a bit fishy to me. Then again, when I say ‘fishy on a little dishy’, my daughter cant help but burst out laughin.
I cant say ‘castle’ proper either 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utkMQJeiK50&feature=youtube_gdata_player
I’m watching the reruns on Drama TV at the moment.
Ian,
Interesting, thank you. So some of the coarse fishing waters on the Tees could become salmon beats. Anyone tried the river at Rockliffe?
UTB,
John
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/sep/05/supporters-direct-fit-and-proper-people-test-club-owners
Urrahhh!!!
Supporters Direct campaign for owners that care & share responsibly, not binge drinking, vomit inducing fast greed merchants.
British values – dont you just love them?
Powmill reminded me about the South Banker I let get away – Vin Garbutt. Although not particularly my taste in music, I should have known better as he died recently and therefore should have been in my thoughts.
That got me thinking if I had missed out anyone else, and I then thought of David Alan Keen MP who died 6 years ago. I sat next to Alan in my third year at Sir William Turner’s Grammar School, and there was nobody more passionate about the Boro than him. I had always assumed he was a South Banker, but after a few months he invited me to his home in Grangetown to play table soccer. I used to play Subbuteo, but he played a similar game called Newfooty which he claimed was much better. So one day I cycled from Redcar along the Trunk Road to his home in a street just behind the Lyric Cinema where incidentally Paul Daniels’s father Hughie was the projectionist. I can’t remember the score, but he beat me, and we decided to have a replay at Subbuteo, but for some reason or another we never had the rematch.
At Sir William Turner’s School Wednesday afternoon was for playing Rugby Union which we both hated so we once scived off to Ayresome Park to watch a game between the Football League and the Scottish League. Anyway come February 2nd 1952 we were both disappointed that Boro’s FA Cup match at home to Doncaster Rovers was postponed, and the rematch was to take place the following Wednesday, and Alan and I decided we’d scive off Rugby again to see the match. On the morning of the match between periods we were making such a din that the teacher in the adjacent classroom marched in, and knowing his reputation for discipline feared we might have to return after games for detention thus scuppering our chance of seeing the football. In fact all the master said was “The King has died” and then left. Now we then wondered if the match would be postponed again, but Alan said let’s risk it. So off we went, and it was Boro’s worst performance we could remember. We lost 1-4 to a team fighting relegation from the Second Division, and we missed Boro’s last minute consolation goal having left in disgust before the end.
I remember reading an article about Alan in the Daily Express about his being Neil Kinnock’s PPS, and later at an Old Coathamians gathering at Redcar Rugby Club had hoped to see him again. Paul Daniels was there, and so was Sir Rex Hunt, an old boy, and the former Governor of the Falklands during the conflict, but unfortunately not Alan.
So Alan Keen wasn’t born in South Bank, in fact he was born in Lewisham but spent his childhood in Grangetown. He became an MP in 1992 as did his wife, and apparently had been a scout for the Boro for 18 years and instrumental in Boro’s signing of Graeme Souness. Having lost touch with him, I hadn’t realised his association with the Boro, and it’s just my mistake in initially thinking he was from South Bank.
Now unless anyone can come up with another name, I reckon Alan Keen must be Grangetown’s number one celebrity.
Ken
A fascinating insight into old Middlesbrough and you should really send your anecdotes to now and then
You will find a link on the gazettee website to upload your articles and they should be read by a greater audience
Regarding the signing of Graeme Souness I must recount the tale that o heard directly from Harold Shepherdson MBE
I used to referee for Shep at Hutton Road for all the Boro trial matches and Shep was the England trainer and assistant manager to Sir Alf Ramsey
Shep also took on the role of acting Boro manager when Stan Anderson left mid season and before Big Jack arrived
Shep told be that during an England coaching session he asked the England players if they knew of any young up and coming midfield players
The spurs contingent were quite adamant that Souness was the player to go for and was only going to be released by Spurs because he had a lot of friction with the manager Bill Nicholson
Shep persuaded Charlie Amer to part with some cash and Souness was signed.
When Charlton arrived the first match he played Willie Maddren in midfield but Bill Gates got injured and Willie moved into defence Souness came on as sub into midfield and the rest is history
This is not hearsay Shep told me and the other two referees personally and he enjoyed making such an astute signing
OFB
Ken, what years were you at William Turners?
Boroexile, 1949/54.
It always amazes me when I walk out of Middlesbrough station to the taxi rank that I can still hear the sound of the bongo drums after all these years.
It’s the call of the jungle !
Ken
That brings back memories, My dad told me about a Doncaster match in the cup, I missed it as I was only 5 months old at the time. I assume it was the same one.
He reckoned it was one of the most one sided matches he had seen, He said you could see the footmarks in the snow from the Rovers attacks because theyw ere that infrequent.
As an Acklam Hall alumni, Turners were nearly our arch enemy, the same level as Grangefield. The true enemy were the High School.
As for Mackem salmon, they are great Yorkshire salmon it is the sneaky Macken seals at fault.
I don’t doubt your story about Shep, Bob, but until Alan Keen’s obituary in the Gazette I wasn’t aware of his involvement with the Boro at all. Since checking on Wikipedia I see that Alan was described as a “tactical scout” whatever that means, so he was presumably on Boro’s payroll. You’ll know better than me how that works; I do know that Steve Gibson attended the funeral along with other members of the Boro staff so Alan was obviously an important contact in the London area. It wouldn’t surprise me if SG and Alan were political allies on Teesside before he became an MP. Anyway thanks for your kind comments.
Another lad in my school class was Harry Mead who later wrote non-sporting articles in the Northern Echo. He was not particularly a friend of mine, but was a great raconteur, and we all knew at the time that he was destined for a great future in journalism. However, I’ve not heard anything about his career since.
Just signed up with bet365 so I can watch the Bolton match on Saturday and now realised that Mrs P and I are at our friends golden wedding anniversary celebrations so won’t be able to watch!
Yet another senior moment!
Take the iPad or laptop with you !!
There’s always the next one …….
Well we’re still in this ‘dam’ international break and while we’re talking of beavers… Simon has been busy beavering away writing his latest Talking Point where he’s been looking at moving on in football and has highlighted forgiveness, acceptance and re-acceptance during periods of transition for football clubs…
https://diasboro.club/2017/09/05/talking-point-acceptance-and-transition/