Championship 2018-19: Week 1
Sat 4 Aug 2018 – 15:00: Millwall v Boro
It’s practically August and the start of the new season is almost upon us, no doubt bringing with it the anticipated feelings hope and despair in equal measures on Teesside. Well I say equal, but there are far too many fatalities of hope from seasons past that much of the Boro population now sits entrenched outside the circle of optimism in the Venn diagram of life and has long opted out of the empty set of realism. Instead, it remains in the circle of doom, predominantly huddled under the grey comfort blanket of pessimism with a lazy eye on the lookout for an unexpected pre-seasonal sunny outlook to warm their post-play-off spirits and encourage them out of their slumber of gloom. Although, I suspect few so far will have been motivated to reach for the SP Factor 50 to block out any potential harmful rays of optimism radiating from the Boro camp that may permanently damage their Teesside DNA. Many have had their fears confirmed by a string of unconvincing defeats in those all-important pre-season defining fixtures, which will soon be consigned to obscurity where only those attending even more obscure Monday evening quizzes in almost empty pubs need speak of again.
It appears the object of pre-season seems to have been defined by manager Tony Pulis as being about physically preparing his players for the long gruelling 46-game season rather than honing their footballing skills and teamwork to try and acquire that winning mentality. Ten punishing days in the Austrian mountains with triple daily sessions may have left some wondering if their Boro careers would ever make it to base camp. The gaffer’s preparations for an attempt to conquer the north-east face of the Championship this term without the need of oxygen may have had some gasping as they were run into the ground. With the opposition starting to run rings round the pre-season plodders as their creaking limbs started to seize up, desperate cries of “How do expect us to play football when we can’t move our legs?” were met with reassurance from the conditioning team that they’d feel the benefit one day – possibly April. I suspect if Pulis was asked why he likes mountains, he’ll probably just reply: “because they’re big!” Though last year’s pre-season summit fever quickly evaporated on Teesside after a less than sure-footed start to the campaign under Sherpa Monk. Boro followers will now be looking to tread more carefully before getting giddy in the rarefied atmosphere of heightened promotion expectations – indeed, most this season are preparing for a slow acclimatisation to the thin air of hope as the team sets out on the long journey ahead to scale even greater heights.
At least the World Cup under Gareth Southgate’s re-education of the English nation reminded us that we make our own history. The fear of failure shouldn’t prevent you contemplating success and achieving your personal goals – especially against average opposition or the pressure of expectations against bigger countries like Croatia and Panama with populations of 4 million and the huge nation of Belgium with its 11 million hoard of bureaucrats and purveyors of strange tasting beers. Southgate has shown that it is possible to compete with these teams and in some cases even win. Perhaps Tony Pulis has learned something from the example his Boro predecessor gave in Russia and maybe he’ll surprises us with a back three of passing defenders comfortable on the ball? Though possibly he will only seek to emulate Gareth’s style and make it his own with a matching combo of pin-striped waistcoat, baseball cap and white trainers – it could be a hard one to carry off for a mature gentleman, especially if he also opts for the beard. Whether the trend of dressing like the manager will mean we’ll also see an army of Pulis clones in the North Stand, frantically chewing gum and gesturing to hit it long remains to be seen – though it may be hard to ascertain if mature men in baseball caps and glasses have just come as themselves and that the doppelganger bandwagon has not in fact spread from Russia to Teesside – with or without love!
Indeed, anyone looking for their heart to marginally quicken, let alone skip a beat, or even contemplate salivation at the prospect of new signing will perhaps still be stuck with their bradycardia and dry mouth syndrome for a little longer. With the newly introduced smaller transfer window soon to be closed, it appears those trying to get in are being over-polite and are allowing those wanting to climb out to shuffle out first. Latest reports seem to indicate that only those fleet of foot or skilful are able to leave through the window, whereas the ones coming in need to be big and strong. It sounds not so much a window, as transfer trapdoor that is awaiting another heavy plodder to accidentally step on it and fall into the Boro camp. OK, we may have been over-sensitised by lazy press rumours linking anyone who is six feet or over to Boro. I’m not sure where this stereotyping of Tony Pulis has come from but I’m sure he’s probably just been misunderstood.
Anyway, the Boro manager appears to be quite fond of the idea of using big Rudy Gestede as the main striker this season – but perhaps the use of ‘big’ is a bit gratuitous for someone who’s only 6′ 4”. We also perhaps shouldn’t read too much into the signing of 6′ 6” Aden Flint from Bristol City – even if Ben Gibson inadvertently referred to him as a ‘man mountain’, it doesn’t necessarily mean the Boro manager is sizeist. After all, Pulis also signed the Sunderland midfield midget Paddy McNair and he’s barely over 6′ 2” in his Boro socks – plus what if Tony favours the 6′ 3” Ryan Shotton as right-back and shipped out the energetic Fabio instead. Surely the Brazilian being 5′ 8” didn’t even cross his mind when he was quite literally overlooked – in fact I believe he even called him a ‘smashing little lad’, which was also probably a little risky given that ‘smash’ has been on the club’s banned words list for some time now. The latest rumour is that the bar over the Boro changing rooms may need to be further raised as the manager targets 6′ 7” Gillingham keeper Tomas Holy. It’s all beginning to sound like a conspiracy against Pulis purely based on one or two small-minded hacks in the media simply measuring the size of players he prefers. I think we are going to need a lot more evidence before jumping to such conclusions and I shall personally remain open-minded on the issue until Boro’s bid for Peter Crouch becomes public or the club sign an unknown Croatian over 2m who lists basketball as his first love.
One of the highlights of the pre-season was the ditching of the Ramsdens Currency advertising hoarding that masqueraded as a Boro shirt last year and the introduction of the smart new kit from Hummel with the more suitably meaningless ‘Red 32’ logo instead. The ethics of promoting a online gambling outfit over a company that is essentially a pawn-broker is perhaps one for a late-night Channel Four discussion programme that few watched sober – though in the absence of being allowed alcohol or cigarette sponsorship it’s probably difficult for clubs to find suitable brands with budgets large enough to preventing them blinking at the opportunity. For the uninitiated, Red 32 is the next number on an European roulette wheel after the Green Zero, which perhaps is a wiser choice given that I suspect not many football supporters would fancy having a big fat zero on their club’s expensive replica shirt – although it could have had it’s merits as acting as long-ball target for Rudy Gestede with his back to goal.
Of course being associated with roulette is nothing new for Boro as you may recall Garry Monk’s team were quite fond of the Russian variety as they metaphorically aimed the promotion pistol at their feet before emptying the chamber. The problem for Monk was that he forgot that Russian Roulette was best survived without a fully-loaded pistol and his standing at the club became quite precarious after he ended up losing more toes than Sir Ranulph Fiennes’s ill-fated solo trek to the south pole in flip-flops. There is indeed a lesson for Tony Pulis from last season’s stuttering start and Monk’s failure to find any kind of consistency left him under pressure before ten games had passed. Any team with aspirations of automatic promotion will need to get close to that magic two points per game target – anything that falls significantly short requires the kind of runs that Fulham and Millwall managed in the second half of the campaign. However, the main impact of an indifferent start will be that the players will not play with confidence and then it becomes a much harder game – but until a ball is kicked we should remember that Boro are indeed unbeaten.
Since Boro only marginally improved their record under Pulis after Monk departed and then just edged into the play-offs, the club can’t afford to be complacent in thinking they have a squad close to one of the automatic spots. In fact as things currently stand, it is arguable that the squad is weaker and risks becoming even more so if key players like Adama, Bamford and Besic are missing. The long-running saga of ‘has he or hasn’t he?’ with regard to Traore’s exit clause has taken on almost Harmony Hairspray proportions in the Teesside psyche – have the club got a firm hold of the player or will he be one of those natural fly-away types who breeze out of the transfer window? It seems Tony Pulis has now answered that question by indicating that Adama has indeed got a release clause and there’s nothing the club can do to stop him talking to those who meet it but no club has triggered it yet. One wonders why he has publicly cleared up the mystery – is it because he’s running out of time to fund signings and is flagging it up that Traore is available at the right price? £18m is probably beyond Championship clubs, so at the moment only Huddersfield or Wolves have reportedly shown interest. Pulis will not want to be cash-rich with no time to spend it (or blow it as is often the case with panic buys) and if rumours that Britt is also available at the right price and seemingly out of favour, or Bamford can now leave as he’s not fancied either, then it could leave many of the faithful apoplectic if the manager drops the aces out of the pack while attempting a fancy squad shuffle.
Others may argue that many of our favourites have not really delivered often enough to turn down serious bids with serious money. Of course the problem is as always bringing in better quality players who have a proven record that will either accept the wages on offer or be prepared to play in the second tier. The truth is those who can play at a higher level will and that usually means there is some gamble of sorts in picking off the right players from that pool of too good for the Championship and not quite good enough for the Premier League. That is why often the loan market can be a safer option – however Boro have not looked an attractive option for loanees recently, with most barely getting a kick for their troubles last term. What seems to be left are overpriced journeymen or promising youngsters at big clubs with very little experience – the risk is that they don’t necessarily fight for place when they see the club as just part of their development. Although, Bamford was a Chelsea player when he won Championship player of the season under Karanka and Chambers a hopeful Gunner – much can depend on being part of a successful team I suspect.
It may in fact be a much better strategy to concentrate on the handful of Boro youngsters who are just on the fringes at the moment. The likes of Fry, Tavernier, Wing and Chapman are showing good form in pre-season and have the advantage of being already settled at the club and familiar with the setup. Promising youngsters from big clubs may take too long to get up to speed and as we saw from Fletcher last year – he didn’t cope well with his big money move and never looked comfortable in his new surroundings. He now perhaps looks a better prospect this season after some games under his belt at Sunderland and the pressure of making an impact removed.
As things stand less than a week before the opener at a Millwall side that just missed out last season, Boro appear to have plenty to do in order to convince the majority on Teesside that they have promotion credentials. Many of the shortcomings from the last campaign have not been addressed as yet and those players who were instrumental in getting us over the line may well exit the club too. News that Bamford is close to a £7m exit to local rivals Leeds will not sooth seething supporters feeling unimpressed with the way the squad is being reshaped. It’s basically getting our money back on a player, who when he was re-signed 18 months ago, it was claimed by some foam-fuelled journos in the local press that Boro had potentially signed a £45m player – well unless the add-ons have been under-reported (currently £3m depending no doubt on Leeds being promoted and Paddy bagging 30 goals) then he wasn’t. Having said that, in today’s market £7m looks on the bargain side when viewed relative to valuations and prices Boro get offered to purchase players.
Whether lightning-fast Adama’s shoulder dislocation in the lightning curtailed lacklustre performance against Sunderland will put off potential bids is not certain – though Pulis once again played down its significance and claimed he could be back within a week in what sounded like further sales talk. ‘First-choice’ striker, Rudy Gestede is currently nursing ankles strains, which was apparently caused by the stress of jumping and landing in what sounds a prerequisite for a target man – although some have suggested it was caused by too many sessions attempting to trap bags of cement in training. This now seems to have opened the door for Britt Assombalonga, who had appeared to have dropped down to third choice since his £15m arrival – he actually bagged a hat-trick against Hartlepool in his 56 minutes, though we know he can score against weaker opposition but has tended to struggle against better teams.
Many still remain unconvinced that Boro are ready for the new season and the First XI will more or less pick itself with some players likely to unpick themselves if their valuations are met. A back four of Shotton, Flint, Gibson and Friend looks certain – with arguably one of Boro’s best performers last term, Ayala back on the injury list and who knows when he will return. Midfield appears to be Clayton back in the holding position after a brief and surprising experiment as an attacking midfielder, which given that his one and only goal for Boro in 150 appearances makes George Friend look like a lethal finisher, then it was probably a wise decision. He’ll be joined by Howson and McNair with Downing hopefully supplying the ammunition – though it remains to be seen who replaces Adama if Pulis’s prognosis proves to be too optimistic or he indeed departs. There are strong rumours that Liverpool’s Sheyi Ojo is once again on Boro’s radar and prices seem to be quoted at £10m for a player who struggled on loan at Fulham last season and has so far managed just 6 goals in his 58 appearances – the words ‘expensive project’ spring to mind but if he arrives hopefully he’ll be the success he was sold as.
The supporters will be putting their faith in Tony Pulis and that he is experienced enough to make the right calls but there is a nagging doubt that maybe he is actually been better working with players that didn’t necessarily fit his template rather than building a stereotypical team in his image. The Championship is in some ways a brutal season of attrition where power and fitness will overcome most opponents – the risk is that Wolves and Fulham showed in the last campaign that playing football will perhaps trump mere physical strength alone. So Boro don’t just need to be fit, they also need to be fit for purpose and capable of outwitting equally stubborn opponents too. So ready or not, the season is about to get underway – there is thankfully no talk of smashing the league this time and perhaps Jonathan Woodgate’s battle cry of giving promotion ‘a real crack’ is sufficiently understated to prevent expectations exceeding potential.
Welcome back Werder
Never mind the club raising the bar for some lower league keeper you’ve done some bar raising yourself with that beauty of a new season blog.
But to answer the question you pose in the thread title definitely not. Certainly not as it stands.
Welcome Back to a new season Werder your literary prowess fresh and unabated
Well I’m not going to change my predicted score line
⚽️⚽️
OFB
It would appear after serving an apprenticeship as a column writer last season you have emerged as a professional who could grace any national publication. Today’s is a tour de force.
Just a couple of things. If population counts mirrored success then China and India would win the World Cup.
In the striker question and the question marks against Gestede, it’s worth noting that World Cup winners France had in Olivier Giroud, a non scoring striker leading their line. It’s not always about goals scored.
Thanks Werder for an excellent opening match for the new season.
I fear despondency has already set in and this season we will be a hard bunch of old tough nuts to crack. Certainly we are starting off in a black mood!!
Never mind – what would a season be without disappointment and frustration.
So up the Boro and keeping fingers crossed that we will be able to subscribe for the TV.
UTB
I will reserve final judgement until we see the squad but at the moment, unless the young ones step up to the plate, it looks to be a slow start in prospect.
A fine piece Werder to start us off.
Werder,
A really excellent piece, I hope you haven’t peaked too early. Talking of peaks maybe Mr Pulis likes them because you have to be able to kick or head a ball over them anyway on to Saturday.
I think a repeat of last season’s opener and it will be Them 1 – 0 Us.
If we are as disjointed as many fear it could ben even worse, no doubt you can feel the optimism flowing through me.
Will the roll of Lino lead the line or did he trap too many bags of cement? Where will our creativity in the middle come from? Will he play the youngsters as you suggest? A lot of questions but no answers. I’m putting a £10 on Bamford to score on his Leeds debut, mind you six weeks ago I put £30 on Boro to get an automatic promotion place so what do I know. I actually felt optimistic when I did that and even she who must be obeyed said ‘are you sure?’
Over to Redcar Red for his first report now!
UTB,
John
If only the quality of Werder’s opener could be repeated at the Den.
I think it will be a baptism of fire and the losing mentality will continue unless Woody’s U23’s play with Britt up front. They at least seem to have some level of confidence pre season even if it was against non league opposition.
Millwall just missed out on the Play Offs and do not seem to have been too disrupted over the summer break so I fear a 2-0 or even an eye watering 3-0 reality check. Should that be the case it at least allows a few days to address things in the market even though we have had all summer.
Of course we could bombard them with long balls and throw ins, Rudy gets a hat trick and we run out comfortable winners, one, two, three and I’m back in the room!
Tremendous article Werder!!
I have to agree with you RR that I fear an opening day defeat at The Den. As it stands today with a couple of weeks of the transfer window left to go I just can’t see the current squad finishing in the top six come the end of the season. There are still big question marks over several key positions and no indications yet as to how they might be addressed.
My bet for the top two come next May are Stoke and Notts Forest. Stoke have retained most of their Premier League squad and invested in quality additions and Forest have spent a lot of money and for all his faults Karanka will knock them into shape and make them hard to beat. There is a good number of other decent sides in the League including West Brom, Swansea and Villa and I don’t see the current Boro squad having the same level of quality.
As for how Pulis will set the side up to play, is anyone in any doubt that we are in for some less than scintillating entertainment this season?
I think that because TP had some flair players inherited from Monk last season instead of giants he was forced to adjust a bit and play to their strengths and had we continued on that trajectory I think we could have had the best of both worlds and pushed on this year with a few (and only a few) additions in key areas.
Maybe things will be rebalanced by 5.00 pm on August 9th but selling your best Striker for an amount that won’t buy one back with a similar contribution rate is sheer madness. I get that Paddy isn’t everyone’s cup of tea just as Bernie wasn’t or Viduka or Boksic for that matter but if you ship one out you invariably had something as good or preferably better than what you had just lost lined up. To do that is going to cost the Bamford money plus another £6,£7 or £8 million maybe more.
We still have the creative No.10 problem and the width issues, for me I’d rather utilise Chapman and Tavernier than Ojo or Canos. Then there is the RB and LB shortage and I don’t mean height. O.K. so we maybe needed to sell Paddy to get some others in (not a lot for £6.5M) but if thats who we are selling I’d rather we had just stuck with no incoming. As Ian says he will reserve judgement until the final day to see what we are dealing with but I’m struggling to be convinced about anyone that we have been linked with to date and less convinced that our recruitment team are going to shock us other than saddle us with more donkeys.
Reports say Wolves believe the release clause in Adama’s contract is set too high.
If true that is good news.
Any news on his shoulder injury yet?
Lions beaten as Wardrobe knocks in the winner.
0-1
Rudy gets a hat-trick?
An improbability, but not impossible. Records show that he netted one at Birmingham for Blackburn in 2014, and also at home to Forest in 2015. More than that, with Paddy and Adama’s help he was a thickness of a post away from doing the same at home to Hull.
What did Garry Monk ever do for us.
Well.
He brought youngsters in where AK* arguably wouldn’t have – Wing and Tavernier both getting their chance. He favoured attacking full backs (as I do) and he liked ball-to-feet, on-the-floor attackers like Braithwaite. His lack of favour for Adama and Bamford earned no favours from me, however. (Like AK, was pace just not really his thing?)
*To be fair to the much maligned Basque one, he did give Luke Williams and Bradley Fewster a handful of games, and Adam Reach played more times under him than he ever did under Mowbray.
We should not forget the progress of Ben Gibson either, stalled in the post-Agnew era.
We also should not forget, alas, that he was one of those coaches who felt more comfortable around his own men, in terms of players and staff. The same could be said of Steve Gibson. It was this Family Club vs. “Big Club” Model culture clash that ultimately sowed the seeds for doom.
The really irritating thing is that it didn’t need to. It’s like that conversation from the 1990s US sitcom Home Improvement…
Tim: I’m going to do things *my way* as long as we’re getting things done!
Wilson: Tim? (Tim shuts the door on his neighbour) TIM?!? Can we talk about compromise?
(No answer.)
The trouble is we now have a stereotyped manager who when he’s gone leaves us with a style of football that most of us find abhorrent. Many have said that they’ll accept that style as long as it is successful, whiich I guess means promotion, if not this season, then certainly next season. Not everyone liked Karanka’s style but it got Boro promoted though he failed in the Premier League through lack of experience of what was required. We seem to be hanging on to the hope that if Pulis gets us promoted he at least has the experience of keeping us up. But if he doesn’t, what then? His successor will have to start all over again. It’s probably out of my time scale now, but failure in the next two years is going to make supporters very bitter with how Steve Gibson has allowed this to happen. The thought of a team relying on the likes of Shotton, Friend and Downing fills me with despair; surely it’s time to give youth a chance, our youth, not Premier League loan projects.
Incidentally, good work again from Werdermouth. I think one leader article per week is sensible and gives room during the international breaks to continue with OFB’s interviews. As for my part I think the addition of the article I wrote on the Camsell years followed by the Fenton years (June 4th at 5.48pm) brings my historical record up to end of the Second World War. We’re all probably feeling a little bit gloomy at the moment to be reminded about the lead up to Boro’s 1954 relegation and the subsequent 20 years, the longest in our history of being outside the top flight, so let’s hope we’ll be pleasantly surprised at what might befall us in the coming months.
I notice that Bamford is fifth in the Bookies listings to finish as the Championships top scorer, one place ahead of Britt and 27 places ahead of Gestede. The ones ahead of Paddy are:
Drum roll please!
1) Benik Afobe 3.38 Appearances games per goal
2) Lewis Grabban 3.49 Appearances games per goal
3) Jay Rodriguez 3.45 Appearances games per goal
4) Matej Vydra 3.24 Appearances games per goal
5) Paddy Bamrord 2.92 Appearances games per goal
6) Britt Assombalonga 2.20 Appearances games per goal
Out of that lot only Vydra is potentially available but his wage demands are rumoured to be more than a tad excessive plus would be at least another four to five million quid more than Bamford’s alleged fee of circa £6.5/7M. Must be a hell of a striker we are going to land soon at a bargain basement price!
I think OFB said we will smash our tranfer record for the replacement of Paddy B. So about 20 million me thinks.
Hence I suggested Mitrovic of Newcastle earlier. But as you, RR, said he looks now destined to sign for Fulham. Even that is not yet confirmed.
Up the Boro!
Jarkko
Sorry but Mitrovic has already been confirmed as a Fulham player and interviewed on Fulham TV so he is not coming to Boro!
Once again many thanks for all the comments on the opening article of the new season, very much appreciated as usual and I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to get back into the groove of writing after a few months break. Whether as GHW has so generously suggested the nationals will come in with a bid before the window closes may depend on them meeting the Diasboro release clause that includes a private jet to the Riverside every weekend 🙂 As for FAA’s raising the bar comment, well I was under the impression OFB was in charge of getting the drinks…
At least I can now look forward to the game on Saturday without wondering what to write on Thursday!
So
Great start to the season Werder and probably a better start than the Boro are likely to achieve on current evidence.
Don’ t count on watching the game on Saturday as MFC have still not advised us how we can do so with only four days to go!
Thanks KP – I was wondering what had happened to the MFC live streaming plans. There is as yet no indications on the website when it will be launched. It’s possible they are still working on it after problems last season with their streaming of the Augsburg pre-season game – I’d prefer them to have a robust system in place before launching. Although at least Millwall are themselves part of iFollow, so we should be able to get a Matchday pass from them – though no link on their site at the moment and it says the link will appear closer to the game.
OFB beats a hasty exit
Taking the eyes with him?
UTB
John
jarkko
It is a done deal now.
Ken is correct about experience, or lack of it.
What was it Mr Spock once said?
“He’s intelligent, but not experienced. His pattern indicates two dimensional thinking.”
At the moment, I can see it: Forest 2-0 Boro, The Wrath Of Karanka.
Though we may hopefully have some momentum going by then. Momentum, the biggest word in football.
You are right of course grovehillwallah in relation to Giroud. However…..
A) they had two strikers
B) they had a team full of superstars with goals all over the pitch.
C) there full backs were both very attacking and bombed into the box at every opportunity. (Shotton and friend?)
D) their midfield did not consist of a player who’s scored one goal in 150 games, a player who was sold to us as a goal scoring midfielder who scored three goals last year and a young midfielder who may get goals but is a converted centre half by trade and has only scored five goals in his entire career and that’s before we get on to Stewart Downing who has hardly scored or created anything for three years.
Where are the goals going to come from? Aiden flint and Daniel Ayala?
Agreed, but we’re not competing at the highest level. Just an observation.
I had a quick look at the Championship scorer stats, and if you include assists the striker who comes out top is……Martin Waghorn.
Just to add we don’t have the players to play pulis’s system, but now we also don’t have the players to play any system effectively.
How do you build a promotion winning team devoid of any technical ability?
There is no point in keeping Traore any manager worth their salt will triple mark him knowing there is not another player in the team who can inflict any damage (unless the ball’s being lumped in the box!)
I’m still aghast at the thinking of letting Bamford leave and for the fee involved. I totally agree with RR that had the fee been doubled or in excess of 10m as a starter then the club had more of a decision to make. If Waghorn is quoted at 8m after one decent season, then how on earth do we go lower?
Contrast Mitrovic and Bamford in 2018. Very similar stats once both played up front and given a run in a team. Similar ages and neither have much of a premier league pedigree but seemingly no comparison when it comes to value.
In better news, superb first article for the new season. This is the blog page that just keeps giving and giving. Thanks to Werder and all.
Paul
As for lumping it in to the box, I cant remember who mentioned it but Gestede has more flats than a dockers thrupenny piece. It s a random directional device.
RR
Welcome back, Smoggy In The Heed!
Cheers Simon. Looking forward to reading your new articles too!
Well the season has started and as ever a great article from Weder. You have clearly had a better pre season than the Boro players and all the training has paid off!
The weekly one makes sense, if only to keep Mrs Weder off your case.
If only Boro can replicate your performances then we will be sitting at the top of the mountain come May having conquered the climb. However, whilst I am ever the optimist, I have been following Boro for 50years so know that we will be spending time in the valleys and trying to ford every stream until we find our dream!
Saturday will give us all an early taste of what is to come although The first home game will be more telling perhaps.
I, like others have said, am concerned that we may not see many Boro goals and that Boro 0 , the otherlot 1 May be a regular feature. I really hope not but am finding it hard to get excited this season.
As for Bamford to Leeds, I can see some logic if he doesn’t fit the pattern although still feel he would have been a better option at number 10 than Downing. Also of Gestede is injured(highly likely) and Britt is off form(again) then what options do we have?
Time will tell and who knows, we could all be wrong…………
I’ve written a lot these last few weeks but it’s all scattered. No structure. Once you find an intro though you tend to fly.
With a bit of luck I’ll turn those into not two, but three talking points for August and September combined.
Come to think of it… Scattered? No structure? That’s how our team feels. AKBoro 2014-Jan 2, 2016, and March 2016-May 2016 were anything but. That is what we miss.
I’ll reserve judgement ‘til Millwall though. My favourite memories from there are the 3-2 and 3-1 wins under Mogga (2011, 2012), AKBoro’s 5-1 win with the Vossen hat-trick. And the win that kickstarted AK’s reign – Carayol* gets injured, Manu Ledesma comes on and scores as we win 2-0.
*AK may well have been hard on him but if his attitude is not the right one, then what else can you do? The paradox is that for we fans, talent may be enough – for the coaches, it isn’t. See also: Roy Keane and Pablo Counago.
Thanks Werder for a brilliantly entertaining opening piece.
I agree with RR. I’m finding it very hard to get my head round Bamford bring flogged to Leeds. I’ve been trying to think of a similar piece of such terrible mismanagement by Boro, but am struggling. And goodness knows, there have been some lunacies over the years. I think the only one I can equate it to is getting rid of Boateng, Cattermole and Rochemback and replacing them with Digard and O’Neill. Relegation was the obvious outcome, you will recall.
I’m not suggesting for one minute that selling Paddy hints at relegation. I do think it’s a dreadful move and I think it will anger many fans. As RR says, who are we going to get to replace him, and at what price?
And in answer to Werder’s question, are we ready? I’m not optimistic. As I said on the previous thread, there are too many gaps to fill and we haven’t solved the pressing problem of creativity and making chances. I hope I’m wrong, but I feel the squad as currently constituted suggests mid-table. As for Saturday, I’ll settle for a point, but that may be a struggle.
As the squad stands it is dysfunctional and more imbalanced than when TP took over. There will need to be some drastic surgery between now and August 9th otherwise mid-able could be seen as a blessing. I’m already thinking of who would come in to sort the growing one dimensional mess out that I fear we could be left with and its not even August.
Cast your minds back to April and imagine losing Besic, Fabio, Bamford, Traore and Gibson and being left with Gestede, Johnson, Howson, Downing, Fletcher, Braithwaite and de Sart to start the season with. Whats worse is that over 18,000 of us have spent good money to watch that lot. Something has to break surely, this can’t be part of any plan and if so then my despair deepens. If Waghorn pops up then I think a trip to trading standards over misselling will be in order.
I read this morning that Bamford to Leeds wont be announced until later today.
Its like watching a movie hoping in vain for a last minute reprieve for the condemned man.
Could there be a last minute hitch?
Patrick Bamford is the type of player we should be looking to recruit, not off load.
where is our recruitment team and what are they doing? Leeds are building a decent squad that will compete at the top end of the table while we are whistling in the wind.
I cannot understand what MFC are hoping to achieve this window, the squad is lightweight and disjointed and many of the “”remainers” are unfancied by the boss, or unsuitable for the “system”. I have no optimism for the season ahead and I wonder at what point the “R” word appear? It happened to Sunderland and it can happen to us. Saturday should be the easiest three points Millwall get all season.
Unless there is late activity we start the new season with just one recognised full back. I would expect a pub team to have at least two. if I had purchased a season ticket I would be demanding a refund.
I have to admit Old Billy that for me 31/07/2018 feels like a very defining moment in how the future of this club is shaping up even to the point where I’m now wondering if there is some sort of a sales commission structure in place?
I agree RR, and it is happening so quickly.
I was in favor of TP and thought he was a good appointment.
Not so sure now. But what do I know, Boro may run away with the league. Maybe I am clutching at straws………….
Cardiff last season!
Hopefully the Kids can spare our blushes. It may be our best option to give youth a chance.
Thanks for the write-up Werder, I’m looking forward to another season reading your previews and RR’s reports.
There is a good chance I am going to be away for a fair few games this season and I wondered if any of the foreign-based contingent (particularly in Australia) could let me know how I might be able to watch the games online? I will be holidaying/working, so not in a position to have a bank account wherever I am, but I don’t mind paying a small fee if I can do it from my UK account.
Suggestions and advice appreciated!
Vanteis,
you may be stuck without an overseas credit card as I assume Ifollow use the credit cards bank address and the customers IP number to verify the person lives overseas’.
only other way I can think of is to steam illegally.
Unless you can find a friendly Boro fan prepared to have you over on Match days.
If you use your Hotel address in say Timbuktu your UK credit Card should work so long as you are using a VPN or of course genuinely accessing from wherever you are outside of the UK.
You wonder if Bamford leaving will affect Traore’s attitude, they did seem to get on well together.
If he was a local lad you could play the ‘give it a go and if we are not challenging we will let you go” card. But he isn’t a local and he is a footballer who will want to play at the top level.
Soon be the 9th but there are two matches before then.
The effect on fans attitudes is bad enough just a few days before the season starts (accepting that it is not all fans) but if the squad has a similar split then it will soon manifest itself on the pitch and judging by pre season performances I’m wondering if apathy has already raised its head?
I would like to offer a caption for the middle photo in the header bar.
AT: this shirts a bit naff, think I will take the offer from wolves
PB: I will be out of here long before you, I WILL be top scorer in the championship
AT: give us a kiss you legend!
Any other offers?
AT: The Wolves shirt will look good with my highlights.
PB: I will look great in all white.
AT: Farewell kiss.
PB – you were always a wanderer!
AT – And you always wanted a United line
Kiss the badge?
Off topic, but today’s BBC Rugby League podcast might give Boro and Wigan Warriors fan Martin Bellamy some comfort.
Latest news is that Boro want to pay £7m for Waghorn – Redcar Red choking on his mid morning coffee.
Also Wolves offer Adama was rejected and the max they will go up to is £12m. Keep hold of him and dont sell at that price.
Ian
I agree on the AT front, my only concerns are how unsettled he may have become by the news of the bid and how much is his desire to play in the PL as opposed to staying under the guidance and hopefully further development from TP.
Not sure on his injury front how long he could be out for. Some have mentioned as long as two months by which time our promotion hopes could be dead in the water. In which case £12M may be a good offer.
Many thanks for the continued comments on the article, hopefully it helped take the edge off some of the pre-season worries. Bamford’s imminent departure doesn’t appear to be one to file under a ‘good piece of business’ but I think I said in an earlier post that often the players who are sold are not always the ones supporters would prefer moved on.
There’s still 10 days before the window/trapdoor closes so I imagine still plenty of business to be concluded. Whether some suggestions in the media that Pulis has been told to sell before buying is a slight worry given this is supposed to be our final season with parachute payments – especially if you considered Pulis also declined to spend last January too and concentrated on trimming the squad instead.
OK, if the manager decides Bamford is not his type of player and will likely occupy the bench then he may see the logic in cashing in – the difficulty comes when he too can’t move on the players he doesn’t fancy and then suddenly loses a player like Adama a few days before the close of business. Braithwaite appears to be an expensive sub too, but unless one of the French clubs meet his valuation it’s unlikely Boro will sell him cheap (I think we paid around £9m for him). Even Assombalonga was rumoured to be on the exit list if his valuation was met – but with Gestede doubtful and Bamford gone, it may mean he won’t be sold to another play-off rival.
Having said that, panic buying and price inflation will no doubt enter the market as the deadline approaches. Boro probably need to buy sooner and perhaps flog a few later at a decent price. Also whatever happens in the first few games may determine if the prices go up as sellers spot the desperation in Neil Bausors eyes if Boro struggle to impress.
Pulis is making big calls and he will be hoping the players he moves out don’t start the time with their new clubs looking like world beaters – especially if his own team look off the early pace. Football is about making decisions not avoiding them – the problem is sometimes they come back to haunt you and you pay the price – occasionally you get them spot on and your’re a genius (for a few games at least).
Sergi Canos from Brentford on Boro Radar
OFB
Sounds like a good one for us as his goals and assist stats have deteriorated over the last three seasons!
More musings on forwards.
If you’re going to rely on a poacher, you’d better be sure he’s good enough to rely on.
Most teams, I think, don’t build their teams around poachers for that reason: while there will be spells where the poacher cannot miss there will also be spells where his confidence goes and he’s as good as a passenger.
The extra man in the box, or the winger in close proximity, that the poacher consistently requires will simply not be as available to him so frequently at the highest level. Intelligent defending will see to that.
What also matters is how the poacher, or forward, handles the pressure. The sudden leap from a smaller club to a bigger one can be too much sometimes. Look at Peter Davenport once he joined United. He never reached his Forest heights again. And it wasn’t necessarily that United “ruined” him, more, perhaps, that he couldn’t adapt at a club where he no longer felt so comfortable.*
Intriguingly, it was United who boasted my two favourite poachers of the twenty-first century: Chicharito and Van Nistelrooy. There was a situation against Bayern where Danny Welbeck missed a one on one, where, it was claimed, Van Nistelrooy wouldn’t have. I hand you over to Roy Keane…
“When Ruud was going through, one on one, I never doubted him. Some players would be going, ‘*Expletive* hell – hard and low? Or dink it over?’, but when Ruud was through, there might as well have been no goalkeeper.”
High praise indeed.
I always felt that way about Boksic in a one on one situation. It was never in doubt but maybe these glasses really are rose tinted.
Except Boksic was more than a poacher, he was a genuine visionary. Great in the air with dead ball prowess to envy…
…when he felt like it. The nickname “Boksick” was all too common.
Re Vydra, when I asked my Derby fan about him he guessed he was on £25-30k per week. The rumour is he asked for double that at Leeds which is when their interest cooled.
All just gossip but that is what we do to fill the minutes before the football starts.
And the Waghorn story gets stronger, where is Redcar Red when you need him? His he combusted yet?
Just in case you missed it…..
I had a quick look at the Championship scorer stats, and if you include assists the striker who comes out top is……Martin Waghorn.
I’m coming to the conclusion that if Waghorn arrives and delivers, Bamford will not be as missed as we fear.
The catch is, he’s 28 while Bamford is 24. The second catch is, he’ll need time to find the chemistry with Boro that Bamford already has.
(To be frank, every forward needs time and it’s up to the rest of the team to help him settle.)
But on the plus side he appears to be finding form at just the right time. Unlike Kris Boyd and, to a lesser degree, Scott McDonald, he has seemed able to carry his form from Scotland to the Championship. Form he’d never really equalled until he joined Rangers.
Simon
Just read on line that he is 29.
We, as a club simply cannot afford to sign 29 year old, it is a fact.
It is no different to you having a friend who is constantly showing you his new motor, and it’s always a ten year old banger, his life will, be a constant trip to the garage with some problem, and he would not dare to go to London in it because it would crash and burn.
There are hundreds of players out there, some rules should be set before any player is considered, it’s not brain surgery.
Surely the price we got for Bamford should have given us a clue that Waghorne is a no no.
Agree with Clive. I too am struggling to remember a worse piece of business in the club’s recent history than the Paddy fiasco. I was heart-broken when Cloughie went to Sunderland,and it took me a long time to get over the two occasions when we moved on TLF. Ken,too, listed a number of former Boro heroes who were transferred to the general consternation of most Boro fans.
But there are two features of the Bamford deal which make it, in its own way, far worse than anything that has happened in the past.
Firstly, I can recall no previous deal where we made a present of such a valuable asset to one of our direct rivals for a lucrative promotion. Mark my words, we will feel the pain of this deal every week of the coming season. If Leeds have the sense to build their attack around Paddy, he will quickly find his feet, become a cult hero, and one of the Championship’s top scorers. Meanwhile, we will moan, week after miserable week, about our general lack of attacking quality and our struggle to nick even that single goal which will win us games. No other deal in the past has had the potential to rebound back upon us with such immediate, continuous and devastating effect.
Secondly I can recall no other occasion when we sold one of our best players, and one whom most Boro supporters consider to be a prize asset, at less than half of his market value. I fully expect Paddy to be valued at around £20million plus by the end of the season.
Far worse than ‘bad business” then. A uniquely terrible deal on at least two counts.
Len
A great but depressing summary of the PB fiasco because that is what it is in my view.
Good management is all about getting the best from scare resources and despite my full support for TP’s appointment, I feel he has a long way to go to prove to me that he can manage a team effectivley and gain promotion from this league with limited cash resources.
I am beginning to fear that he is a one dimensional manager who is still living in the past and places too much value on running/cycling up mountain tops than all the other attributes that go toward making and improving a footballer.
I said some three weeks ago that I was uncomfortable about the way pre-season and our transfer dealings were shaping up and I am now fearing the worse.
I do not believe the current squad is fit for purpose and can see us getting a mauling at Millwall. If we don’t have a good result at home to the Blades teh following Tuesday then by the time GM turns up at the Rivdeerside on Saturday 11th of August, the atomosphere could already be turning toxic.
CoB/TP prove me and my fellow doubters wrong!
Len
Another thing about PB was I think he definitely loved the club and the fans.
I saw him at every home game after the match happily signing autographs and getting photos taken with the fans not all of them do that
OFB
Werder, once more you have raised the level of your writing skills. As GHW said you could grace the pages of a National Newspaper and be up there with the best scriptors. Love your black humour too.
Not liking though what I have just seen on the internet about paying more for a one season wonder. Plus we already have one donkey.
Pedro
Donkeys often work better together!
Unless in the unlikely scenario TP breKs with his longstanding ethos and plays the kids on Saturday, we will be glad to escape with a draw.
A lack of pace and creativity hasn’t been addressed and we are ever more reliant on our trebuchet back line to sling in goal attempts from set pieces.
I can already hear the hollow laughter when Millwall score the only goal of the game from a corner.
I hope I’m wrong.
*breaks. Sorry.
Chris
And you will be there to see it all unfold!
Some of us will be hopefully watching a stream of the game, probably from behind the sofa!
Still no news from Boro TV
Well thats it then. I’m going back under my tent and not coming out until the start of Millwall match. That way I wont have heard the latest sad/bad news. It is just getting worse every day.
I really hope [there’s that word again] that we win on saturday.
I would have kept Bamford above Gestede ,but maybe Tony is thinking in terms ,of Waghorn to give him seventy minutes of hardworking up front which he will, then bring on the big fella late in the game.
Sometimes signings are made for tactical reasons,this could be it.
He used Walters and Crouch at Stoke the same way?
Bamford many times was ineffective in games,when he didn’t score, and he as bounced around for a reason.
I’m more concerned at the fullback positions,
GT
The very idea of selling any player because he was good at the football but we wanted a hoofer( age 29) is the stuff of nightmares.
I got the idea that Paddy did not feature in many games under Pulis, he certainly did not far to start against Villa’s crocks( twice)
So at idea that he was not good enough rather falls to the ground.
I think that we can safely assume that we have got ourselves a donkey as manager, he is at the moment destroying this team and this club.
We had another donkey in the past. Donkey Gook Lee, as I called him. (Boro and forwards.)
The best we can say, and I am scraping for optimism, is that if the Waghorn deal goes through, Pulis is spending the money available to replace a fan favourite, like Big Jack didn’t do when John Hickton was on the wane.
One difference, though, and it’s a major one, is that Paddy is only 24 and can get better still. Whereas Hicky had been with us for ten years and everyone knew he was fading. (Second hand knowledge only, admittedly.)
AK’s supposedly rotten recruitment is looking better and better with time. Note that three of my favourite players from last season – Fabio, Adama and Bamford (twice!) – joined the club under him.
I’d go a step further and say Chalobah was one of the best we had in the engine room. I think he had it in him to set the tone of the game like all deep-lying playmakers should. For all Clayton’s qualities, Chalobah was never really replaced.
I am fuming once more. Gazette reports say Boro are close to signing Waghorn for 7 million. What an absolute joke this club has now become. Just to remind you. Glasgow Rangers got him for free, where he then he scored 7 goals for the club. Rangers sold him for 250,000 !!!
Leeds must be laughing at us.
The circus with lots of clowns have arrived at Boro HQ.
I need to take a tablet to calm down.
£18,000
£170,000
£1.7m
What’s that I hear you ask?
The fees paid for Jamie Vardy.
Interesting to note that this time MFC are publicising that the sale of PB to Leeds is a deal worth £10M.
No confidentiality clause regarding the fee! Are they trying to spin it as a good deal for the club and that they have made money on the sale?
The argument going around in favour (yes!) of this Bamford transfer is that Paddy was on PL wages, so we can redistribute that on a flying winger and a more traditional, more heavyweight centre forward (Waghorn?).
But doesn’t this make the team more one-dimensional? Far better, for me, to have an attack with a mixture of styles successfully blending. Like with Fabio (gone), Bamford (gone) and Adama (won’t be with us much longer, surely)…
Simon,
If he was on PL wages then he has either taken a pay cut (unlikely), or Leeds have suddenly struck Gold.
I thought we were the best resourced club in the league.
We have parachute payments that Leeds could only dream of.
Simon,
That post lifted my spirits. Talking of spirits it’s early but I have some Tullamore Dew in the sideboard…
UTB,
John
You might be right of course, but if I was Martyn Waghorn being bought for more or less the same fee as the player I was replacing, and my agent didn’t get at least the same deal as he was on from my new employers then I would be looking for a new agent post haste.
Unless of course we have stumbled upon the Albert Schweitzer of the Agents world.
Good point…
Simon
I agree and made a similar comment in my post at 2.45, that TP is a one dimensional manager and without a mix of styles, teams soon get found out and it becomes easier for the opposition to set up against them/us.
Read MFC article. What we dont know is how much we paid for him and the way payments were structured. Nor do we know how his value was shown in the books, was his cost depreciated over his contract?
That is all academic, I stick to my guns, I would have liked to see him in the no 10 type role playing behind a workhorse.
At first viewing it looks a poor piece of business never mind whether Waghorn arrives or not.
The scores on the doors will tell all.
Some Leeds fans see Bamford in the no.10 role rather than a striker. A pity we didn’t persevere with him in that role.
So the deal is done and Paddy will wear the number 9 shirt.
At least he will now play consistently in his best position.
Cannot believe that 3/4 Boro managers have not done this.
Watch Paddy score for fun.
We have all said it for years, play him up top and he will get the goals.
Alas , these goals will be for a white ( dirty) shirt.
Thanks SG, TP and the rest of the De- cruitment team. You have ruined the season before a ball has been hoofed
I’ll donate £20 to be paid to Zoe’s Place if Bamford scores more than Boro’s top scorer this season.
GHW
I will match your donation if Boro,s top scorer outscores Paddy. As things stand I am expecting Flint to be top scorer.
My donation may be in Aussie dollars and I hope I am wrong.
I reckon Ayala could well be top scorer. £20 from me too. I’ll drive up from Norfolk and hand it over too. As long my passport to leave Norfolk is valid that is.
UTB,
John
Well he’s gone to Leeds but I wish him well and hope he’s successful in the regular number 9 position. In reality it’s football, the Leeds manager could easily change based on recent history and then what?
As I said it’s down to another to polish the gem we had but seemed to roll under the sideboard. Talking of sideboards, wardrobes and rolls of lino who will wear the Boro number 9 shirt.
As always UTB,
from a fed-up John
Superb opener, Werder. No lack of creativity in your engine room.
I had idelusions of Boro emulating England this season with Flint in the Magiire role, Fabio as Trippier, Adama as Sterling and Bamford as Kane. I felt that we had most of the pieces to pull that off.
Failing that, and as a long standing hope since Pulis’ arrival, I was hoping that Pulis would reprise his high-octane Palace side in Boro colours. We looked just a direct left winger short of that at one stage.
Now, however, it looks like Gestede ahead of a static and cautious midfield with fullbacks that venture no further than their centre-halves. How on earth we intend to score the goals to mount a promotion challenge I have no idea.
If it’s via set pieces then we’d better keep Adama for those too given that he was the only one capable of finding a red shift last season.
A little surprisingly, we scored a reasonable number of goals under Pulis last season but weren’t as tight as you might expect at the back. We’d better hope we’re Karanka-esque this year because there surely won’t be many goals.
Boro should have learnt the mistake of not playing the best finisher up top.
Stuani………..
Old Billy,
I think those mistakes were, or are, viewed as someone else’s mistakes not those of the present manager. They see things in players as a way to bend them to their style instead of just doing the bleeding obvious and playing to their player’s strengths.
Never mind judgement comes and there’s nothing like starting with tough match in a hostile atmosphere to show how clever you are.
Possibly.
UTB,
John
Boro, especially in the Riverside era, have history with paying over-the-top wages to guarantee the services of high quality or high profile strikers.
Knowing that Ravanelli was earning £7k/week at Juve and didn’t seriously think we’d be crazy enough to actually fork out a wage six times that, well…
A belated “the usual” Werder.
Still in the land of the depressed at present. Hope something turns up lift the gloom soon.
The bottom line is.
You are in the business of buying players, we will come to the selling later.
Why would you buy an old player, they come to the end of their playing lives, and we know what that ( about thirty)
Yes, all players will tell you that they can play until about thirty five, but any young player who gets ten years has done well.
We have gone back ten years, and they were not much fun.
Just to read or listen to the transfer talk is sickening, a long list of old crocks, boasting that our own good young players are not ready, and will be loaned out.
The managers stated love for his ( very tall). ‘ striker’ is revolting,to even speak of him in the same breath as paddy exposed the whole shoddy edifice for what it is, a complete abandonment of the desire to move on and join the real world of modern ( foreign ) managers who know how to find and secure young decent players, and how to sell them at a profit when the time comes.
Talk is that Adama is likely to be out until September.
Waghorn scored zero goals when he played in the Premiership, his total of 8 games for Sunderland over four (yes four) seasons yielded absolutely nothing.
Prior to last season his record in the Championship with Charlton, Millwall, Hull, Leicester and Wigan is exactly 100 games played and 13 goals scored that’s a goal every 7.69 games at this present level.
His Rangers record consists of scoring against the likes of Dumbarton, Raith and Brechin etc. 44 goals in 78 games is phenomenal and if we are playing sides of that ilk he will be a sensation as we know only too well from the last time we signed a Rangers scoring sensation in Kris Boyd.
Now last year, Waghorn did hit 16 goals in 46 games for Ipswich which is exactly one reasonable season at a reasonable level in his entire career. Another Darryl Murphy from the Tractor boys so well done to them for pulling it off twice in the same decade, I wonder what their secret is, there again Murphy’s subsequent goal fests have proved he was worth every penny…..not!
Last season’s record is good for this level at 2.88 games per goal and on par with Bamford’s entire career at 2.90 games per goal. Waghorn’s career total is 3.38, boosted unfortunately by those mighty defences in Scotland so impressive in fact that he went for peanuts just 12 months ago such was his value. Now after one reasonable season in his entire career a player who will be 29 in January is now worth Millions apparently?
So we have undersold Bamford, kept the garbage and the Donkeys and are now about to sign possibly our biggest Turkey since Dong Gook Lee. If I wasn’t so stunned by this I could find words but due to vulgarity and my suspicious mind and liable laws I will keep those thoughts to myself. Suffice to say I think the Club has performed very badly, very badly indeed and have been misguided, so badly perhaps even deliberately mislead by a party or parties unknown. Approaching 29 years old with no sell on value whatsoever, whoever takes over from TP after this squad overhaul has my utmost sympathy.
I place no value on assists because it’s a Sky TV “Americanism” phenomenon for youngsters. We don’t talk about Camsell or Mannion or Viduka or Ravanelli in terms of their assists or Charlton, Keegan or Shearer. An assist is only an assist if the Donkey on the receiving end makes something of it, as an example Assombalonga’s atrocious misses against Forest last season meant someone missed out on a load of “assists” simply because he couldn’t hit a Cow’s backside with a banjo all that game. I can’t wait to see how many assists he gets playing with Gestede! This makes Strachan’s signings look credible if it comes off and that’s before you look at what Paddy was sold for and what we eventually pay for this £200K Striker.
As Andy R said above we had the makings of something potentially great to watch but balanced and with options. Now it looks about as predictably bleak and dull as the A19 covered in black paint in both directions. Normally its the 10 game rule before natives get restless, we had better get of to an incredible breath taking start because right now a disappointing opening four or five games could turn ugly very quickly.
As I have mentioned a few times on here one of the best pieces of Management advice I was ever given was “You don’t get yourself into those situations in the first place.”
Spot on RR.
RR
A good appraisal of the situation but it mightn’t seen so bad had we a better ‘beanpole’ than Gestede, say Crouch (ducking for cover!!!!).
Unlike others,not having seen Waghorn play I can’t comment on him.
However I have watched Bamford and therefore my opinion is based on what I’ve seen.
If everyone is so sure about his stellar performances for Leeds, I suggest relieving the bookies of some of their money.
Perhaps the bets could even be placed with Paddy Power…
For this blog to be as critical, vitriolic and negative before the season even starts is a worrying development. I know some are keeping your opinions and powder dry but for how long?
Have we, the collective been as depressed and caustic as this before? I think there is an undercurrent building and if this is a reflection of Boro supporters I don’t think that those white trainers will work on the tightrope.
Maybe we’ll be proved wrong and the cunning tactics to not reveal your hand to the rest of the Championship will work. It’s worked with me anyway please don’t let Traore go before the seat slams down.
UTB,
John
For the record, I’m a fan of Bamford and thought he had that intelligence and ability that put him in with a chance of becoming one of those rare natural goal scorers. When watching him play he looked to anticipate what could happen and always seemed to know what he wanted to do with the ball before he received it. He tried things that didn’t always come off but he rarely seemed to be put off by things not working.
I think his problem at Boro under Pulis is that he wasn’t deemed physical enough to be a lone striker or have the pace to be preferred as a wide player. I just don’t think Bamford fitted in under Pulis and even though he got a run in the team towards the end of the season, it was by default as Mitrovic failed to arrive, Gestede was injured, Braithwaite wanted out and Britt’s form dipped drastically. Perhaps he saw the writing was on the wall for his Boro career and maybe was even told so by his manager. I wish him luck as he’s also one of those nice guys who has time for the supporters too and seems to keep positive.
The send off for Paddy from MFC:
https://www.mfc.co.uk/news/patrick-bamford-completes-leeds-united-move
Make your own minds up!
Pathetic really. I read that as we want rid, I know I’m a Bamford fan but, no not pathetic utterly graceless really. PB I hope you make a success of your move and that hurts me to say it about Leeds.
UTB, and UTBamford,
John
Absolutely no class at all in that statement sadly but seemingly its how the club are these days and why a few of us on here refer to MFC and Boro as almost two distinct entities.
I dont think Paddy suits the role of the lone striker hence his disappearance at Palace, Norwich and Burnley.
When he was rescued from Burnley he struggled to get in to Ak’s and then Agnew’s teams. All playing with a lone striker.
I think he recognised what he needed to do and came back after a couple of weeks of pre season to do speed work and bulk up.
To no avail, By the time Monk left he was largely up in the stands.
He got more opportunities under TP whether by default or not. Fletcher and Braithwaite were exiled.
I still dont think about him as a Drogba, and I repeat, more of a Sheringham or No 10.
TP is not daft, he is not anti skill – Adama a prime example. He had Pennant and Etherington in the same team at Stoke. I dont think Bamford offers what he wants as a number 9.
My personal view remains the same, I think it is a mistake to let him go but sometimes it is best for both parties to move on.
If he scores a sack full for Leeds good luck to him, I think that will depend on how he is deployed.
We will know soon enough.
From his post-signing interview it sounds like after the initial press speculation firmed up, Bamford was sold on the idea of a move to Leeds.
“I’ve been needing to play up front and wanting to be the main man somewhere for a long time and Leeds have offered me that opportunity so it really is something I grabbed with both hands. It means a lot that they’ve put their trust in me – the manager’s put his trust in me and the club’s put their trust in me.”
OMG talk about over reaction, I thought the Teeside live (Gazette) were the most negative posters but this site has over taken it by streets. Maybe the site name should be changed from Diasboro to Negativeboro, a ball has yet to be kicked in anger and already people are insinuating that it is time for SG, TP and even players who aren’t here, should go.
I will contact Middlesbrough council to open the steps to the top of the Transporter bridge, so please form an orderly queue, for those wishing to get their money back from season tickets, the new number is 01642 929421.
Some of the posters comments do not surprise me as I am used to their bleak outlook to anything Boro but some of those I thought more rational, seem to be caught up in the wave of despair. Now instead of the minimum 10 game judgement, it is being insinuated that the revolution be started if we are not top after 4/5 games. Exactly what people think they are going to achieve is beyond me, it’s not as though it’s in a playground and they can pick up their ball and take it home.
Who actually started the ball rolling with the Bamford transfer, maybe this article might provide a bit of insight:
https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/patrick-bamford-says-victor-orta-14975049
No matter which player comes into MFC, they will get my full support as a Boro player and I will not pre judge them before they have even kicked a ball, unlike some have already done with Waghorn. I cannot understand a supporter wanting to stir up a bad atmosphere in the Boro crowd before the first match of a new season.
Come on BORO.
I can’t understand a Football Club (be it a solitary manager or owner or a collective of individuals) wanting to stir up a bad atmosphere in the crowd before the first match of a new season.
I have no axe to grind with Waghorn other than I think he is the level of the sort of signing that we had had to make do with in the recent past like Emmanuel Ledesma, Sami Ameobi, Adam Hammill and Alex Nimely and a few other budget buys in the hope that they would be good enough. The club is not in that position now and to buy a player right here, right now of that ilk to replace a younger and better player isn’t good business.
Waghorn’s assists seem to be mostly as a result of him being a set piece taker which perhaps explains the unusually high level but that in fairness could be a plus because our set piece takers are frankly poor and have been for a few years.
Now of course the Waghorn speculation may be just that and in fact it may even be a smokescreen while the club pulls off a sensational signing from under competitors noses but I doubt it.
I’m with you Exmil on This
OFB
I can see where you are coming from Exmil and I guess as long term Boro supporters we are in the “Typical Boro” mindset!
I will admit to feeling somewhat disheartened by the pre season goings on and wondering what TP has in store for us when Saturday comes. After last season, I am somewhat fatalistic and of the “it is what it is” mindset. However, ever the optimist, then I could be wrong and will wait and see. I will be at the first home game and will allow the players to show what they are about.
Exmil
I see where you are coming from, we sea dogs must stick together. There are a lot of views about Bamford, some cant see the problem with him leaving, The same balance appears to be the case of Leeds fans.
I stick by my stance that I would have liked him to stay but doubt he would play the role I think he is best suited for. As I am not a football manager lots of experts wont go to bed and wet themselves because of my views.
I just wish him well. That doesn’t mean I think it is a good piece of business.
Ian
From the blogs it seems that the Leeds fans cannot believe their luck, seven million, when thirty year olds are being quoted at twenty.
You know what I don’t really care anymore. Says all there is to say really!!
Yes I know there are some people who will carry on supporting regardless of the dross that is served up before them.
They’ll carry on watching even if all the silver wear is sold off.
They’ll carry on watching as we plummet down the league.
They can be smug about the fact that they are the real fans; the fans who’ll support their club through thick and thin. They are loyal, not turncoats they carry on supporting regardless.
But for me it’s too painful, it hurts too much. Seeing the club you love ripped to shreds by a manager who clearly doesn’t have a clue, a manager who is clearly the antithesis of the idea of the beautiful game.
And while the smug supporters who loyally follow regardless, mock those who don’t attend as “fake fans” or “glory supporters” or “pessimists” they can take heart that there are probably five thousand other supporters like them who’ll happily hand over their money to watch Gestede and Waghorn combine all the way down to the first division. I mean we could have had Assombalonga and Bamford but instead we now have Gestede, fletcher and possibly Waghorn. I mean……really!!!!
Paul, can I just check, you seriously believe we’ll get relegated this season?
As our squad stands then I do believe we will be fighting a relegation battle. If traore goes then I think we may well get relegated.
For me, including traore if he goes (not that I’m saying he will just that he might) we have got rid of our three best players from last year. Bamford, Basic and traore. Downing who has not been fit for purpose for three years isn’t another year older. Probably the next best player, in my opinion, is assombalonga who TP probably won’t play. We have three central midfielders none of which have an ounce of creativity between them. As it stands, and I appreciate the transfer window isn’t shut yet, boro will hardly ever score through open play, ever. That is not a template for a successful season.
Do think we’ll be relegated? Probably not. Do I think we’re heading in a one way direction…down most certainly as does nearly every season ticket holder I know including myself!
Martin
Last season the relegated clubs were tipped by most experts to finish in the top six ( and that was the pessimists!
Results? Sunderland down, Hull, season in the bottom three,
I wonder whether the negativity is coming from the Boro side and the positivity from the Dias crowd,. I liked Bamford a lot but he wasn’t the Messiah and, even without him, I definitely hope for the best for this season and certainly haven’t written them off.
I look forward to Paul’s conversion when they win a few games.
UTB
I’m confused is the deadline this week or next?
Unless fees go silly, I’m expecting some surprises, and what you might think may not be what it ends up, for instance don’t be surprised if McNair ends up at right back, he was being groomed at Man U for the role.
Redcar Red: Your first para, it is not MFC but people like yourself (read your own posts) wanting to stir a bad atmosphere, and you are entitled to your own opinion.
Paul: The sale of one player (or a couple) ripped the club to shreds, I really ask you ! A manager who doesn’t know what he is doing, yet respected by Guardiola, Mourinho and the likes of Klopp against your football management experience, do I need to say more.
The reason I made my post was because for days I bit my lip after reading post after post, each one spurring the next one on. I was in the Army for 29 years and done things I would not expect TP to even contemplate, so there is no way that I would presume to know what is going on in the club that TP is aware of. By that I mean financially, on the training ground, players attitude, future planning, attempted transfers let alone “wish list”, outside influences affecting players and the list goes on.
What I am saying, if we (as in MFC) pay a guy to do a job, which his reputation stands or falls, then let him get on with it unless you are experienced enough to know better ( are you Glen Hoddle or a pundit of your choosing).
I do not mean to upset or disrespect anyone with this post.
Come on BORO.
Boooooo!!!
Shocking piece of (mis) management imo. Let’s see where we go from here then.
Ex-mill
You make some very valid points. Maybe we are getting carried away but our memories are littered with “typical boro” past nightmares and we are probably just preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.
There are still 8 days for Boro to pull some rabbits out of the hat so all is not lost at this stage. OFB may be able to offer some hints on this.
I hope Boro smash the league but I am still unhappy about Paddy leaving, because of the missed opportunity and “what might have been” and the lack of spark left in the squad.
The club statement did not even thank Paddy for his service.
Due to the reaction on this blog and social media, it would have been good PR for the club to release a statement explaining their point of view. After all, the supporters are clients of MFC. The silence on this issue is deafening.
Having made my point I will still support and encourage every player that pulls on a Boro shirt and watch the first game through my fingers.
https://youtu.be/ZHlIKRxT6EQ
Mr Waghorn at your request.
I don’t see Waghorn as a replacement for Bamford. More like a replacement for Braithwaite. Waghorn is not a centre forward if I understood it correcly from a Rangers supporter, Jeff Winter.
So I am still expecting a real goal scorer coming. There is eight days left before the window closes.
BTW, I think we scored in every match bar the last play-off game versus Aston Villa. I don’t think there were any other 0-0 draws but OFB remembers better!
We are still the bookies favourites to finish second. Let’s hope the team lives up to the expectations this season.
Up the Boro!
My. I’ve been reading and taking in the moods of posters this last period, but haven’t really for.ulatef the words to capture what I am thinking about all this.
So first. My thanks to Weirder for a great leader article yet again.
Re young Mr Bamford. I am one of the ones disappointed to see him go. I hope he realises his potential, even if it is with one of our closer rivals. I do think he gave all the best examples of how to behave and how to apply yourself, even when he has clearly never been near the top of the pecking order for some time.
But he has gone. End of for me.
Re Millwall on Saturday. I honestly don’t know what to expect. That is the sad thing about a start to the season. Not having the usual flush of unsubstantiated rose-bespectacled belief that this is going to be our season. Partly I think we have to blame the world cup.it always does change the way I feel in a close season. There isn’t long enough for any of the usual come down and build up again, let alone clubs having to deal in a very restricted (time-wise) transfer window.
I get the feeling of lost opportunity for so many in here. But then again, we have all seen it before. In fact, it really is part and parcel of being a Boro fan that we perpetually in that state.
It is fair enough to express the concerns in here, always thoughtfully even if emotionally driven. Let’s all remember, whatever our side of any discussion is, we are expressing it here because we care. That is what we all have in common and overrides any differences of opinion.
The bottom line is that the proof of the pudding will be in the eating, be that after 4 or 5 mouthfuls, or after the more standard 10 mouthfuls.
As for me. I really don’t know and I’m going into the season not with high or low expectations, just with no expectation. Maybe that is a good thing.
So, Millwall something and Boro something else is my prediction for Saturday.
Well put Powmill – sort of how I feel
Despite my “negative” comments, I always have and always will support my team. I’m amongst those who get fed up of the “missed opportunities”. As I keep saying, I’d love to be proved wrong.
If the buyer of your young player is doing handstands and screaming in delight, you had better believe you have got it wrong.
If you see your poor club buying a thirty year old for a big fee, be afraid, very afraid.
If you see your own young players getting noticed nationally, then hear your club talking about sending them on loan to some god forsaken spot, then despair.
No well run club hires a manager, then tells him to do whatever he likes with the club, even to dragging it down to ruin.
Just saying.
Can we expect a ‘Martyn Waghorn goal machine’ banner at the Riverside?
Only if we smash the league this time around.
Let’s see how this team will perform after a pre-season under Pulis. And a week to go before the transfer window will close.
Up the Boro
ExMil, you’re not upsetting anyone. Not me anyway.
The explosions of online agony and wailing over the dismissal of one coach, the loss of one player, a defeat or draw in one game (especially when we’d won many of the others), the absence of one, maybe two, strikers, and one goalkeeping mistake sparked off ranting from me during the AK years which I still regret to this day.
Mainly because if clubs like Burnley can accept the level they are at and have the wisdom to learn from mistakes and near-misses on the road to eventual success, why can’t we?
As that Burnley fan I quoted (almost smugly, it seemed) stated: “What annoys Derby and Boro fans is, we’ve spent money we’ve earned, on players who have worked out for a manager who has been given time and security to build. It shows up their clubs.”
I mean, Ings, Trippier and Keane moved on, but so did the club, and now they’re in Europe, so there you go.
Alternatively. Some say “moaning” is just the Boro way – it even happened regularly during the Road to Eindhoven. But it simply stems from a desperate longing for the club to do well, from people who want the best for Boro.
The nature of the criticism may be off-putting but it’s only because they care so much.
Had we sold off Gestede for £1M taking the hit on his original fee there would have been the inevitable snipes at the recruitment department yet again but most I think would have accepted it as inevitable. With Braithwaite I think most of us will be surprised if we recoup the original fee but if we did then breaking even is more than most of us would expect despite his World Cup pedigree. Fletcher I think is too young (and too expensive) to write off just yet plus he linked up well with his team mates in pre season so there are flickers of hope that he may come good.
Bamford and Assombalonga were our two best and most prolific strikers. If Britt was/is worth £15M then in my view Paddy was equal to and is probably better than him but regardless is certainly worth more than what has apparently been paid even without the fact that some of it may never be realised. The long term irony is that if the full £10M is realised then it will like as not prove that the £10M was way undervalued.
No club makes money on all its transfer dealings but its normal to maximise where you can and minimise losses. Moving out two of the first group of three and taking a hit in the process makes sense, freeing up two sets of wages and bringing in some cash at least. Bringing in say Waghorn to replace two of that first group of three as a squad player makes sense if the price reflected his true value and not his artificially inflated rate. I doubt many on here would have an issue with that.
It may be that at the end of the Window two of the three have been moved on, Waghorn comes in at say £2.5M plus add ons (still way above his value) and we also sign a “headline” striker. If so myself and others may have to eat humble pie and be happy to do so albeit I still don’t think we should have remotely considered selling Bamford.
TP got us into the Play Offs and its arguable if his predecessor would have managed it, thats one thing we will never know. The main change around in our fortunes to me was down to three players Besic, Traore and Bamford. TP brought Besic in and once settled and fit influenced games, the upturn in Traore’s form was undoubtedly due to TP’s coaching. Bamford I feel was down to Gestede injuring himself and Paddy’s consequential run of games and goals helped boost our league standing. Thats two players that were solely down to TP and one who I think was begrudged at best and judging by Yesterdays press statement “begrudged” is maybe even too kind a word (although I’m sure TP didn’t write it and for the record wouldn’t have). Ayala and Gibson were two rocks at the back that steadied the foundations (and chipped in with goals in Dani’s case)
We are now around 60 hours from starting the new season and as things stand no Besic, no Traore (either injured or gone) and no Bamford and no Ayala through injury. No new RB, no new LB (Fabio gone), no additional pace on both flanks to add an option and back up to Adama. The Play Off tactics were highly questionable in both legs and the Pre Season just seems to have physically knackered everyone but with little sign of cohesion or understanding being built out on the pitch. Those are reasons for pessimism just as last season the arrival of Assombalonga and a Danish international plus Randolph and even the money spent on Fletcher all gave reasons for optimism albeit misplaced. Maybe on a 180 degree basis the pessimism is equally as unfounded this year?
Arguably McNair is the new Besic although two totally different style of footballers and Flint is the new erm Fabio? Maybe and its a big maybe (but one that I think would be welcomed by many) TP has decided that Chapman and Tavernier have shown enough to be at least in part a solution to the wide berths and that Lewis Wing is maybe the playmaking No.10 even if only from the bench.
The links to Freeman from QPR, Canos from Brentford and Ojo from Liverpool will all likely decide the fate of Chapman, Wing and Tavernier for this season. Right now this side doesn’t look ready and nor does it look an improvement on where we finished last season which is not how I anticipated to start this campaign as all points are precious in this League.
Time will tell but my overriding concern is that buying and selling Players is no different to stocks and shares, timing is everything, you sell high and buy low to be successful and as we reach the desperate end of the window I fear we may end up losing out further in selling (discounted Traore and Gibson deals just as we did Bamford) but we shall have to wait and see what and on whom we spend and who goes and for what.
There again as Mrs Red says “why are you bothered its not your money”? followed by “don’t explain”!
I daren’t mention to Mrs OFB that Traore might still be going to wolves and Ben to Everton !
I don’t think Boro supporters are a lot of moaners, we’re just a cross-section of society. Were all Arsenal fans moaners wanting Wenger out? Are Manchester United fans happy with Mourinho? I read a lot of sports forums on cricket and Rugby League and not only do they have a large selection of moaners, but sometimes the vitriol spewed out not only about the clubs they supposedly support, but to anybody who doesn’t agree with their opinion is appalling. I don’t see any of that on this forum. Some of us may have rose-coloured spectacles and others might be like Private Fraser “we’re doomed”. But we all have our own opinions and those opinions are respected by almost all bloggers on this forum. No incitement, concern sometimes, but encouragement which makes this Diasboro unique in my experience.
There’s an old hymn “God is working His purpose out as year succeeds to year”. At times one wonders what that purpose is. Perhaps Tony Pulis is working his purpose out as season succeeds to season. We may wonder what that purpose is at the moment, but eventually it may become clearer. I, like many others, don’t like his style of football but if it gets Boro into the Premier League, and more importantly keeps us there for a reasonable length of time, then that is probably his ‘purpose’ and endorsed by Steve Gibson. Let’s wait and see.
Well said Ken
I endorse the sentiment. That we are a good set of bloggers on this site !
There are some silly bloggers
Some moaning bloggers
Some foam hand bloggers
Some wind up blogger (ahem !)
Some bloggers who can see no wrong (Jarkko )
But all us bloggers agree on one thing !
UTB!
OFB
TP played his part, but I no longer believe any coach masterminds a player’s upturn in form entirely.
Adama circa 2016-17 was a bit like the Class Of ’92 in 1994-95. You watched him and you knew he’d make it. He and the fans were keen to say, “I’m/He’s ready”. The head coach was quite correct in being just as keen to say “not yet”. By 2017-18, with TP’s help, he’d found his way *and* was trusted to dictate the attack. Which made sense, with Gaston long gone.
It is common for players, especially attacking players, to need time to get up to speed and find their way at a club. I was mocked for the “patience” cries, but there is sense to them. For as long as the results are the right ones, or not far away from being the right ones, who cares? Sometimes, especially for a club of Boro’s stature, success is success and that is that.
The alternative arguments – and they sadly applied in 2016-17 – are as follows. (1) As Paul Clement found, the sort of time managers/players need to “figure it out” isn’t realistic these days. (2) Fans don’t want to wait until “next year”. And (3) The Class Of ’92 were at United, and we were Boro, and we didn’t have the kind of quality to deliver the goods in Adama’s place.
I am still waiting for the record braking striker OFB has heard rumours about! That in addition to Waghorn, of course.
And I am pleased several young starlets were given squad numbers. Like:
20. Dael FRY
25. Nathan WOOD
26. Lewis WING
27. Harry CHAPMAN
28. Marcus TAVERNIER
If Gibson stays as well as Adama, then I am happy. But of course I have never lived on Teesside, mind!
Up the Boro!
I would probably agree that as it stands, Boro’s squad appears to be weaker than the one that got into the play-offs in May. Although, this squad will probably look quite a bit different by the time the window closes at 5pm on 9 August. We will go to Millwall missing four of our best-performing players of last season’s run-in (Ayala, Adama, Besic and Bamford) and that has to be a concern.
However, what we shouldn’t forget is that the type of players that Boro are in the market for (and currently have) are not those who generally perform regularly to the highest level and so bring no guarantees. The squad on paper last season was viewed before a ball was kicked as the best in the Championship by many observers – it wasn’t as it turned out and we won’t know if this season’s squad will be better or worse until it’s tested in the field.
What will become of Braithwaite, Fletcher and Johnson or even Adama and Britt? Around £40m of potential as paid for by the club that may well be moved on – whether reluctantly or not. Pulis won’t be buying guarantees in the coming week, he’ll be gambling on players who may or may not reproduce their best form in a Boro shirt. The money aspect is a red herring at this level as the price of getting known quantities is much higher – we are simply working on probabilities instead. Indeed, it may be just as likely that Tavernier or Wing will prove to be the right player as those touted in the £10m bracket.
Also if there’s one thing we learned from Southgate’s England is that the big name players weren’t missed – what was important was selecting players who fitted into the style of play and could do the job they were there to do. Pulis may get it wrong or he may get it right – it may not be pretty but it could still be effective or even exciting. Monk’s error was not being able to fit the parts together to make them a greater sum than that of which he paid for them.
Still as things currently stand, I don’t think Boro look ready to go and that in itself may prove to be the undoing of the season if we start badly and need to play under pressure to get points on the board. Anything is possible with Boro, though an opening win would be nice – if a little unexpected…
Waghorn to play left side and also sign Hugill from West Ham as target man
Werder
It’s fine as far as it goes, but the money is anything but a red herring.
If you are not a money hound but a money does not matter sort of club, then you are dicing with extinction as a club.
We have got ourselves into a mindset where dropping 2-3-4- million on one ( worthless) player is regarded by both management and fans as a mere bagatelle.
This is perilous for us as fans.
As for the standard response of ” what would the average fan know about buying and selling?” We have eyes to see and ears to hear,
Anyone who watches good players on a regular basis, plus the constant dealing by all clubs, has a very good idea of what constitutes a good buy.
If you cannot join in when it comes to good players, then you must make the level below your play ground, making yourself an authority on all the players in your band.
There is an enormous pool of young players who do not regard themselves as written off and are longing for a chance at the big time ( yes, that would be us)
Just to point out the bleedin obvious, I watched on sky, film of the England centre back playing heroically for shef united, quite wonderful stuf.
Burnley quietly bought him for less than we spend on aged has beens( about three million since you ask)
final point, we make about five million a season at the gate, AK has put about thirty-forty million into our kitty, need I say more.
I know, I know, I know…. I promised to keep away from doom and gloom diasboro but it seems that we are like minded souls whose company is hard to go without.
Anyhow sent an email to MFC asking bout BoroTV – as as usual last minute doubts were beginning fester and then I got an almost immediate reply
“Good Morning,
We are currently finalising certain elements of the provision and anticipate that full details of the live streaming service will be made available to supporters within the next few days via mfc.co.uk and social media channels.
Kind Regards
Megan ”
So there we are…. good news and well done MFC.
Something in me though tells me in a few days we may miss Millwall – but…… you never know.
Anyhow very impressed with the prompt reply as hadn’t expected a reply until Sunday. [ha ha] Maybe they are improving and things are going to look up for this season after all. Anyhow again Thanks Megan – from all us expats. Also this season UK can also watch the midweeks too!!
UTB
I will miss the Millwall match but let’s hope the Sheff United match in on Boro TV or what ever it is to be called. I am abroad for a few days next.
My prediction for Saturday: Millwall 1 Boro 2. Goals from Assombalonga and Howson. And top of the league after five game.
Up the Boro!
PS. Thanks Werder.
Interesting goodbye message from Ben Gibson to Patrick. To me it proves that there was no problem within the squad of players, just with Mr Pulis and not fitting his system.
Whether we like TP’s system or not, it is what it is. However for his system to work he still has to have to right fit players in the team. We have lost PM and are seriously looking like bringing in Waghorn at an inflated fee and no future return on it. Well that is unless as GHW thinks he will score the goals to get us promoted, that is more goals than PM.
Now the rumours are adding Hugill to the list, with OFB supporting that, hopefully only tongue in cheek?
But where is the creativity that will supply the above two if that is what happens. Without it we will struggle just like last season, Adama or no Adama. I won’t even go on about the full backs situation as RR pointed out.
In a week we will have loaned out Braithwaite once more as we fail to get a bid above six mil euros, Johnson and at the death Britt will go out on loan also.
As for loans of course we can bring in loanees up until the month end I believe. Not sure whether we can still loan out our younger players such as Wing and Chapman until that date.
Remember Wolves and Fulham played the loan market exceptionally well, will our Recruitment Team headed by Bevington be able to do the same?
By Friday morning we will have a better view of how the team is shaping and we will have played two games also.
Well, someone above referred to keeping powder dry, i’ve certainly been in that camp and have hardly posted all summer.
I feel underwhelmed. I think the Bamford sale is a big mistake and I can’t believe that someone with his goal record – when given a run upfront – can’t find a place in our team. Clearly Britt isn’t Tony’s first choice either so it looks as though we are going to replace an intelligent natural finisher with a big lad. I’ve seen a few season reviews and they almost all suggest that this is classic or typical TP.
I have to say, last season gave promise that we might not go down the TP Big Lads Model (TM), but it turns out he was only biding his time until the opportunity presented itself.
For a club that at one point fielded Ravenelli and Juninho, I am a little disappointed in the direction we are heading. Even AKs functional team had room for 2-3 flair players. It looks like Boro are going to go for route 1 and crosses to the big lad.
Will I complain if it works and we sweep the league bullying all before us? No, I’ll probably laugh about how we managed to batter teams into submission. Could there be a more entertaining way? Certainly.
Anyway, a ball is yet to be kicked and this is all speculation. If Boro become a goal machine, scoring 2-3 per game and off almost every corner or free kick we’re given then we will all be jumping around and celebrating. Some thumping headers and set piece domination can gloss over a lot of other deficiencies if they get results.
Always a difficult dilemma- winning games and points v attractive football! Yes, i want Boro to win and ideally with panache and style but will take a hard fought 3 points where required.
To be brutally honest and i may be shot down for saying it, but i am not sure i want to see us in the Prem anymore unless we can really compete. And i am not sure SG has the cash to spend to do that. Maybe a yoyo situation is best where we go up one year, then down again providing we go down in style and not like last time with AK.
Supporting Boro isn’t the easiest of hobbies, there are many teams whose games Won, Drawn and Lost stats over the last hundred and odd years are far better than Boro. Those who do support Boro know that fine margins, sometimes very fine margins are the difference between survival, getting by, treading water or maybe even having a good season or two. Our historical games won and lost tallies are pretty similar, deep down we don’t expect too much but we do expect to try our best. Thats all we expect, we know we aren’t going to top the Premiership or appear in the Champions League for a straight ten years.
Signing a few flops is easier if you are Manchelskiarsepool United. They can be lost among the reserves or sent out on loan for the next four or five years and maybe even sold for a profit at the end of it. Of course they have their dissenters pointing out a South American flop or a French fancy that never delivered but two Premiership titles an FA Cup or two a League Cup and a couple of Champions League semi final appearances over the next five years and those disappointments are largely forgotten about.
On to Middlesbrough, a small town with a very short history on the edge of the North Yorkshire moors. Its main populace, descendants of low income, dishevelled Miners from South Durham, South Wales and Irish Navvies desperately looking for any kind of work just to feed their families. The Town has enjoyed some better rather than really good times with employment in the Ironstone Mines, Steelworks, Shipyards then the Chemical Plants which followed albeit all of them at a huge price of appalling pollution which claimed many unfulfilled lives at a very early age and still does to this day.
Never having had much or much of note, expectations are slightly lowered than in other more prosperous or “politically preferred” regions resulting in unusually elevated levels of joy at the merest hope of success or achievement. Whether it be the hope of second hand refurbished trains from down South or one trophy in over 130 years for their local Football team.
Arguably things today are not much better than they were 100 years ago. The levels of poverty are amongst the worst in the UK and probably Western Europe as TV schedulers like to remind us. Whether its Teessider’s inability to pay their rent or loan sharks providing so called “reality entertainment” or more recently the state of Stocktonians shortened life expectancy. Many of us on Diasboro are slightly more fortuitous than the plight of many others on Teesside but thats blood still runs through our veins, its only a few generations away.
Life expectations are generally low and what is realistic for Teessiders is not the same as for those in more affluent regions. When things go wrong the consequences are usually far deeper reaching and of more serious impact. Having three months salary banked away just in case may be great in the SE but on Teesside three days to buy food is a luxury for many today. Middlesbrough Football Club is one of the very few things that provides hope and joy albeit momentarily for many. That joy can last only a few hours after a mid season win or a decade if we include nights like Steaua momentarily removing people from the world around them.
Whether a Teessider from Wynyard or Stockton, Nunthorpe or Berwick Hills that mentality of clinging on to what you have, is still to the fore. To risk losing is unthinkable, its in our DNA because for many and for the best part of a hundred years or more we had very little to lose and a set back could be terminal for many. Great Granddads passed it on to Granddads and from them to todays Dads and Sons. Look after your pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves. The fortunate ones today with a nice house and flash car can’t change the psyche of a hundred years of breeding. The less fortunate sadly can’t contemplate what “worse” could actually mean so simply don’t.
“Typical Boro” is more than just about a Football Club, its about an area that has had to fight for everything it has, work damned hard for and in many cases still not get the just rewards and more often than not gets continually shafted on jobs, welfare and education. Being passive isn’t in Teessider’s DNA and for a very good reason, its about survival, who we are and what has it made us today, good and bad.
Being fobbed off is something we can smell from 300 miles away, its a skill well honed down the generations. A heightened level of distrust and cynicism keeps us alive, without it Teesside today would not exist. That it transcends itself into all walks of life shouldn’t be seen as negative, its the blunt truth and Teessiders don’t usually sugar coat things nor do they want it sugarcoated, it rots what few teeth we have left. If we weren’t Teessiders we’d all be Man United supporters.
What a great piece of prose RR – better than many journalists put together.
Pretty much sums up the Teesside psyche and the reasons it is that way. Middlesbrough is a small town in Europe(for now anyway) and when we are successful, it always feels that we are punching above our weight or lucky.
I only spent the first 4 years of my life in the area although that mentality you mention had been passed on along with the Boro DNA (also onto my Boro suppporting kids who are even further removed).
My Dad (born and raised on Costa Street) always started every season with “this year” and ended it, with some noteable exceptions with ” well there is always next season!” Sadly he didnt live to see us winning a proper trophy or our European exploits although he would never have expected it!
Yes, we all moan, it is the joy of being a football supporter, but I for one would rather be a Boro fan rather than any other club which buys success at vast cost.
Good post RR. Says it all more or less.
Some post that there RR, well said
RR oh God, words fail me.
For any intelligent person to write in those terms of a perfectly normal town, full of normal people, quite shocking.
If you lived in London with it’s criminal activity on a grand scale, it’s invention of new and more evil crimes on a daily basis you would have something to complain about.
You will notice that the media say nothing about such things.
If they want to do a piece on food banks, or benefits, or murder, they naturally send a team out into the sticks, with cameras and mic’s.
They could of course point their camera’s out of the windows of their studio and start talking, but you do not knock your own area when you can do down some other place.
Excellent piece RR
Chapeau, for those words RR. I’m sitting outside our Campervan with a tear in my eye (and not just because I’ve spent the day trekking round Countryfile Live in the searing sunshine!)
Being from Middlesbrough means such a lot to me. Way back, my folk arrived from Barnsley to to try and make a better life and I guess you’d probably say it’s worked out for me. I feel for those back Home, though, who are struggling to make ends meet.
Wow, powerful stuff RR. I will copy that, print it and frame it for posterity.
Many thanks that sums up what a lot of feel, only you have now put itno [very nice] words.
AJ
Am I correct in thinking there is no iFollow stream for the Millwall match.
According to their web-site, it says no match pass available for Millwall v Boro
Pedro
I have just signed into the Milwall FC site and gone into fixtures then into live match centre and you will then see on the right hand side that you can purchase either a match pass or a season pass.
I am still waiting for MFC to get their act together and hopefully either tomorrow or Friday be able to purchase a season pass from MFC. If MFC fails to deliver I can always purchase a match pass from Millwall on Saturday.
Thank you KP
RR,
Nice one and it sums up Teesside, Teessiders and the Boro supporters rather well. I for one get sick of supporters, or hobbyists as I prefer to call them, of the axis at the top of the Premiership. ‘We haven’t won a cup for two years’, the ‘Europa Cup is garbage, second rate’, well it is until they’re in it. So called entitlement. Much wringing of hands. Some of our friends call my attitude a chip on the shoulder I call it a badge of honour, it represents Teesside.
I’ve explained to a few people about community and a small town that for many guarantees a hard life and no remittance from it. The Football Club is damned important to the vast majority of the population of Teesside. maybe a few at the club need to realise that? I don’t know.
When my father dies in 2002 our son came up to help sort the garden and house out. Six thirty came and he went for a pint at the local. When he came back he said ‘you can’t have a quiet drink up here dad and now I know the difference between the North East and South, here the people talk to you and are interested, back in the South they don’t care and don’t want to know. Unless they’re telling you about them.’
Community makes such a difference.
Well written RR.
UTB,
John
Brilliant, RR. Absolutely brilliant.
It could well be that something similar exists in the Irish psyche. In a response to a Paul Doyle piece in 2002, which accused Ireland of settling for low standards after 100,000 went to the Phoenix Park in Dublin to welcome their heroes home after a second round exit from the World Cup, Ronan Barrett wrote:
“I do not agree with Paul Doyle that those that made the trip were basking in mediocrity. It’s true to say that our players, most of whom are very ordinary, might have gone further. It is also true to say almost every other country is thinking the same thing.
“The people who did go to the park may have done so for any number of reasons, the most obvious one being to thank the players for giving everything and entertaining us along the way. For many kids it was just the chance to see their heroes.
“Showing support for your team is what supporters do, and Irish fans have always appreciated it when a team has given their all. Just because Roy (Keane) doesn’t like it doesn’t make it wrong.”
David Long would have backed him up.
“The insistence by the self-appointed modernisers that the Irish team abandon their obsession with ‘the craic’ and the plucky underdog mindset is becoming tiresome.
“These distinctive characteristics are key ingredients of the team’s success. The unquenchable team spirit and almost mystical bond with the fans are products of informal sessions in the bar and shared folk memories of communal suffering. England may turn its back on these traditional aspects of the people’s game; Ireland would dispense with them at their peril.
“…Doyle’s criticism that (Mick) McCarthy and his team accepted defeat too willingly borders on the libellous. The players and the management were gutted after the Spanish shoot-out. However, their post-match statements were sensible and realistic assessments of the team’s progress, not, as he suggests, predictable rationalisations for expected failure.”
I see that rumour has us now linked with Jordan Hugill in the usual tittle tattle websites like HITC and FLW (as well as Waghorn of course) and interestingly N’Diaye for central midfield who made 33 appearances for Wolves on loan from Villareal.
Ben Gibson was linked throughout the early part of the Summer with West Ham and West Ham are unlikely to get their money back on Hugill (try as they might). TP I suspect signed Flint early on expecting to lose Ben so I’m wondering about swapping one Teessider for another Teessider with an undisclosed cash adjustment. That cash adjustment could be enough for say Freeman and Canos or a Waghorn and A.N. Other maybe even N’Diaye?
Your reasoning is just what I’ve been thinking as well
OFB
KP……..it must be me but my problems from last season continue.
I have just tried to purchase my Millwall ticket but my email and password is not recognized as valid. I no it is correct as I have it written down.
Is best just to reregiter using Millwall as the default team. I did think I had registered direct with iFollow last season. Must be wrong.
Computers and old age do not sit well together
Hi Pedro
No it is not you. I had similar problems a few weeks ago.
If MFC do not deliver in the next few days then you will need to go onto the Millwall website and register as a new customer for iFollow choosing the “Free Pass” option. Once registered you will then be able to log back in to their website and purchase a match day pass.
Hopefully this will not be necessary and you will be able to do it via MFC.
If not, then until MFC are up and running you will need to go onto each club’s website and register as a new customer as above.
I have done it for the majority of club’s using iFollow as I was of the mistaken view that MFC would not provide a streaming facility which hopefully we will have details on how to register/pay for in the next day or so.
Hope this is all clear. Regards KP
Thanks once again KP
As Redcar Red writes, being a Boro fan is in one’s DNA passed on from generation to another. One might have marvelled at the Wolves team of the early fifties and proud that they beat Spartak Moscow and Honved, but without envy because they were English. Same goes for the Busby Babes leading up to the Munich air disaster, and probably Manchester City last season, but one wouldn’t be a ‘supporter’ of those clubs because geographically one had no affiliation to them or indeed their location.
Today if a child wasn’t born and bred in a town with a Football League club he or she is drawn to the Man Utd and Liverpools of this world because they’re been seen on television time after time, and they’re relatively successful, and in there eyes who wants to follow a club that isn’t successful? Well I do to a point. If Boro had won the league or FA Cup every other year I’d be proud for awhile, but subsequently be bored. In my opinion it’s been much better having witnessed the bad years because the good years then become more enjoyable. To be a Boro supporter is for life, even if one doesn’t watch them anymore, but the same goes for being a supporter of any team, it’s not just exclusive to Boro supporters.
In my lifetime Boro haven’t been what one would call a yo-yo club. Generally established for a reasonable period like 8 years in the top flight, 20 years outside of it, joy of another 8 years in the top tier, the eighties and nineties slightly against that trend with 4 years in the top flight intermingled outside of it, another 11 years in the Premier League followed by 7 outside it until 2016/17. There have been times when successfully fighting against relegation has been almost as enjoyable as just missing out on promotion. That’s the Boro, the good times and the bad, enjoyable and frustrating in almost equal measure, and I personally wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Here here!
RR,
Two brilliant pieces at 12.09 and 2.23. Work of this quality would have taken a journalist a week to compose. You have done it in just over 2 hours.
I scarcely look at the Gazette now, still less the clueless, chaotic, click-bait, adolescent ramblings that largely constitute Collated Boro News.
This is because no other source contains the high levels of literacy, reflection, thoughtfulness, experience, argument and discussion that are now commonplace on Diasboro, and of which your own contributions, along with those of Werder, Simon and OFB are outstanding examples. But I am equally struck by the sheer volume of high quality posts that regularly appear on here from a wide range of different perspectives. This thread alone provides a perfect illustrative example. It puts to shame the Boro’s own website, which could well have been produced by a robot, so lacking is it in any form of human engagement or emotional content. Less PR than a scarily accurate representation of the qualities lacking in the club, perhaps.
i discern no “moaning” here, but a great deal of principled and committed argument. What appears to matter most to contributors is not so much other people’s opinions, and whether we agree with them or not, but the vitality with which they are expressed and the strength of the evidence used to support them.
And that includes from yourself as well Len.
So very true Len.
I look at the Gazette website everyday, but it’s so repetitive I seem to be reading the same stories over and over again. I’m getting bored about all the speculation not only about the Boro, but also about other Championship clubs usually recycled from the National Press or Sky Sports News. Thank goodness then that the season is about to start and there’ll be REAL news to report. Even then the Gazette summaries won’t hold a candle to Redcar Red’s reports.
Millwall is probably the most unwelcoming, inhospitable and intimidating venue to start Boro’s campaign though surprisingly Boro’s recent record there is quite good with 4 wins and 2 defeats in the last 6 visits, so maybe most of us might settle for a point on Saturday no matter what team we’re able to put out.
Here here
I’ll go along with those sentiments as well Len
Well said
OFB
Pedro
Re my post at 9.16, I have just noticed on the Millwall site that when you register as a new customer that you can purchase a match pass as one of the options, and don’t need to register for the free pass.
That option was not available when I registered as it was before the TV games had been chosen and match passes were not available at that time.
In my post at 16.06 I forgot to mention, when ranting and banging on about Teesside ‘Community’, that it’s a pity that the Evening Gazette, as it was, doesn’t get back to its roots. Roots that were firmly and deeply embedded in the community.
I’m sure that everywhere that newspaper group peddles a local newspaper, as it once was regarded, the relevant local population feel the same. The great internet and corporate disconnect where everyone around the conference table knows what the local people want without knowing what the local people want to read. They should just call it the local ‘cut and paste’.
OK delayed rant over, time for a drop of my birthday Glenlivet. Ah, I feel better already.
UTB,
John
Reading the posts on here reminds me why this is my first port of call blog wise every day. In fact several times a day if I’m honest.
There are differing opinions and those with differing views never descend into name calling or such like no matter how passionate about a subject they feel.
And then RR puts up that brilliant piece that pretty much sums up what being from Teesside and a Boro fan is all about. Outstanding.
Now my literary prose is nowhere near the standard of many who post on here, I’m more of your Ernie Wise type of writer, but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy the contributions that make this blog what it is.
I agree with you about the blog but you don’t have to be a literary genius to put a point of view.
That’s why I like doing the piece wot I wrote about In2Views
OFB
OFB,
Get it right please. ‘Wot that I wrote’.
UTB,
John
RR
Absolutely amazing piece of writing about what in means to be a Teessider and a Boro supporter. It is most definitely in our DNA. I left Teesside when I was 9 and my son was born in the Cayman Islands, yet he came round the other day wearing a newly purchased Boro shirt.
RR that was great.
I dont need to keep my doctors appointment as I now know whats wrong with me!!!
Did anyone else read a few weeks ago that BORO valued Paddy at 16M……
Was I dreaming or was it just journalistic guess work?
Talk is that we are switching from Waghorn to Hugill as a target. Hugill is a local lad and of course has scored against us.
Just based on age, then Hugill has to be a better option in my view unless it does involve the swapsy with Ben to West Ham.
Ian,
dont mean to be smart but Waghorn is a local lad who has scored against us.
I’m puzzled by Boro’s squad numbers issued yesterday. It’s good to see some of our youngsters included for the first time, but Dimi at number 1, Braithwaite at number 10, Ripley at number 12, etc. really? Is there some reluctance to change players’ numbers due to some superstition, or is it a cost-cutting exercise? I’d much prefer that numbers 1 to 18 were allocated to the first team squad, but of course I’m old-fashioned.
The Gazette has urged fans to compete in a speculator for the first 5 matches. I know it’s regarded as a bit of fun, but they may as well ask fans to go the whole hog and predict the results of all 552 matches. It’s one thing to speculate the final top 6 or bottom 3, or to join the Ex-Mill challenge towards the end of the season when one is aware of current form, but I doubt anyone could guess accurately the results of all the opening 12 fixtures this weekend, never mind the first 60 fixtures. In fact I’d be surprised if anyone could accurately predict the result of Boro’s first 5 fixtures never mind those of our competitors. Maybe a bit of fun for some of us, but in my opinion just another attempt to fill column inches in a dying newspaper.
Old Billy
Close but not close enough.
Hugill comes from Middlesbrough and is a Boro fan. Waghorn comes from South Shields and joined the Mackems.
One is a local lad the other comes from Tyneside.
Ian
Coming from Tyneside doesn’t stop you being a Boro supporter !
OFB
Or from Stockton😎
I stand geographically corrected!
OFB
I agree but he joined Sunderland at the age of eight! I somehow doubt the family were Boro supporters. He is a lad from the North east, Hugill is a local lad.
On another topic, did anyone go to the Tony Pulis Q&A session?
As long as they kiss the badge eh
PS The Q&A is on MFC later, it will be worth a listen.
https://www.fansonline.net/middlesbrough/article.php?id=5265
Summary from FMTTM of the Q&A
Great post by RR yesterday about what it means to be Boro supporter from the perspective of the people of Teesside – maybe I can find a way to incorporate it into Diasboro’s ‘About Page’ as it does capture the essence of what it means to support a club like Middlesbrough and why it remains in our blood.
Football for many people in the north-east and other industrial areas is not simply a pass-time, it’s an important part of who they are – which may help to explain why many are so emotionally involved in he day-to-day events and why nobody at the club gets a free pass when it comes to decisions and choices. Steve Gibson may own the club but he also knows he’s the guardian of it too – I’m sure he doesn’t expect to escape criticism from the locals as he’s one himself and will know what Boro means to them.
Reading the report of the Q&A, TP said agents can unsettle players. The hint was that Leeds had contacted the agent. He wanted Paddy to stay.
I will have a watch when it is available and see what transpired.
Can’t agree with that Ian.
If so, Boro could have said “no chance”.
He was. under contract with a valuation alleged to be 16m.
Why then did he go for 7m.
So everytime a player’s head is turned the club sell for less than half of their valuation?
There is more to this than TP is letting on.
Teesside Live reporting that MFC are about to sign keeper Andy Lonergan on a free transfer. This puts Conner Ripley’s future at club in doubt.
Does nothing to inspire youngster’s going through the academy if few if any make it to the first team in my view.
Hope this is not one of the three players TP mentioned he was looking to bring in during his Q&A session at the Riverside!
I think TP probably not unreasonably thinks that relying on Dimi should Randolph get injured is a bit of a risk due to his age and perhaps lack of flexibility. Dimi never struck me as the most agile of Keepers despite being really good for us, perhaps that is the mark of a great Keeper (I personally detest the “Hollywood glamour” save types) when they make it look effortless but time waits for no man. as most of us on here know. Dimi will still probably be happy to shuffle around in the background as a number three and assisting in training and developing the younger Keepers not ruffling feathers.
Ripley to me looks like another Jason Steele, competent but nothing special. His loan performances have largely been good but he couldn’t force himself into a relegated Burton side and ended up finishing the season at Bury. At his age there should be a list of clubs chasing him and hopefully there will be. Good luck to him if he goes and I hope he will refocus and end up playing for Manchelskiarsepool United and England. Then and only then of course can we say “Typical Boro”.
Old Billy
They are not my words to agree or disagree with. I am only passing on what has been written elsewhere. I await the actual video with interest.
Where does the alleged valuation of £16m come from? I didn’t recall TP or anyone at the club stating that figure.
.
I think there will always be some sort of blurred reality to this deal until someone comes out and tells all in their memoirs providing of course that there isn’t some sort of NDA in place.
MFC have become very controlling and sensitive of information as we witnessed last season with the Gazette. I’m not saying that the Gazette lads were entirely without blame but there did seem to be a circled wagons mentality along with their newly launched website at the time which was to be the source of Boro news and information that it sadly hasn’t quite lived up to. You are either for the State or an enemy of the State is certainly the impression that I have been given although others may differ in their interpretation but the bottom line for me is I don’t think it’s been overly healthy, helpful or good for PR.
Initially Gestede seemed to be TP’s preferred Striker until injury struck. Paddy’s goals fired us into the Play Offs but his concussion seemingly knocked him back down the pecking order even when fully recovered despite a prolific record in that short period which I believe equalled Bernie’s best run of consecutive goals/games? His starting omission from the Play Offs I’m sure didn’t help his mind set or belief that he was getting a fair crack of the whip. Ian (I think) then remarked on here last week on his relative lack of game time in the pre-season friendlies.
Vydra was clearly signing for Leeds until he got silly and greedy over his wage demands, he was even pictured sitting outside a café in Leeds City centre so the rumour that he was in discussion seems to be have some validity. When that fell through the clubs Director of Football, one Victor Orta stepped up his search for presumably proven Championship striker/s that may be available within the same budget parameters. I doubt anyone will be shocked that his little black book contains the details of players he has signed previously or been involved with at other clubs.
What happens next is the bit that’s blurred. Was Paddy “tapped up”, who on here hasn’t received phone calls from head hunters and recruitment specialists or from former colleagues? (assuming that most of us don’t have intermediary agents):
“All right mate, long time no speak, hows things? I don’t suppose you know of anyone maybe looking to move on that would fancy a stint at Leeds? We are completely overhauling the Club and have some serious investment now and aiming to be playing Champions League football within five years”
There again maybe LUFC made a formal approach through the proper channels (either before or after any alleged contact was made). How many times were we hoping that AK’s relationship with the “Special one” would curry us favours? We were understood to believe that MFC wanted £15M for Paddy when again allegedly his former boss AK and Forest came calling (one of those many clubs that he apparently failed so badly at that Chelsea paid £1.5M for him when he was 16 years old).
What we don’t know is what happened in the discussions that led to an asset valued at £15M just weeks previously sold for less than half or two thirds of that valuation including future add ons. Something doesn’t stack up and something somewhere is getting lost in the detail (or lack of it).
There are rumours that he is a bad trainer (yet came back early to train alone previously to hit the season running last year). There are rumours that he has a bad attitude and doesn’t get on with people yet anyone I know who have met him (mainly around Yarm) have said what a polite, courteous and well-mannered young man he is (including OFB’s better half). If he doesn’t get on with team mates why did Karl Robinson sing from the highest mountain about how he will always keep in touch with Paddy and what a fantastic job he done and urged the MK Dons fans (when Chelsea recalled him not because he failed but because they thought he was too good and had plateaued at that level) to give him a warm send off? Why did Lewis and Britt (his main competitor) go on Holiday with him? Why was Ben Gibson his Club Captain and SG’s nephew calling him “Bro” in tweets after he had signed for Leeds? I’m confused, I really am because there appears to be some very dark arts at play somewhere and once bitten why would Orta want such a bad egg again?
Anyway regardless of the blurred details Paddy apparently wanted to join Leeds to be the big No.9 rather than be sat on the bench in a predicted automatic or a Play Off spot with Boro behind Gestede and his mate Britt (who apparently has a high on a hill top blurred summertime story of his own no doubt under copyright). I understand Players wanting to play, in a way it’s probably a good job that they do considering the career they have chosen but at what point in the tale did Paddy “want” to join Leeds? It is perhaps only a moot point for some but it is one that intrigues me because that’s how I read into things, never believing in or accepting the obvious much to my son’s annoyance growing up trying to talk and spin their way out of several misdemeanour’s. A mixture of parenting experience and that old Teesside DNA!
So when the whole story comes out will it be set to music on the Darlington to Saltburn overland Express or maybe in MFC’s Drawing Room or perhaps Rockliffe Hall’s Library with Pulis and Orta headlining in a tale of deception, intrigue, deflecting mis-truths, and mystery (incredulous I know but you can try to believe it)? Did he fall or was he pushed and who’s Fingerprints will be found on the Lead Pipe or perhaps it was the agent all along with the Candelabra?
RR
Dark arts indeed. MFC have become like the Politbureau, a far cry from SG’s highly emotional outpourings last year about wanting to “smash this league”. The silence is deafening.
They’ve annoyed a lot of people in corporate today who put a lot of money into the club
Boro have today reduced the level of services to be provided whilst already receiving the payment for those services which were agreed some months before
Are the Boro short of money ?
We seem to be intent on selling all the Crown Jewels
OFB
Ian,
Admittedly the valuation was bounced around by the press but the player was under contract so if the club wanted him they could have said “jog on”.
MFC have just announced fuller details regarding the streaming services, including prices. https://www.mfc.co.uk/news/stream-boro-games-online-with-riverside-live.
Subscriptions will be available to purchase from Friday 03/08/18..
Live audio commentary
Seasonal pass: £25
Single game: £3
Live video streaming: Overseas
Seasonal pass: £150
Single Riverside LIVE home game: £10
Single away game: £5
Live video streaming: UK and Ireland
Single game: £10 (home or away) as per EFL regulations
Does any one know if this streaming service has an “on demand” option? Preferably with out knowing the match result.
MFC say there is no on demand option.
Good that we can see some games in the UK.
Redcar Red
We dont know what has gone on, any of us. We dont know the valuation of Bamford on the open market. We dont know what he was depreciated to on the balance.
I was very careful when I posted about the Q&A. I wanted to see the video to make my own judgement.
Ian
The only test of any players value is on the open market.
What you paid for him has nothing to do with it.
What is a fair price is out the window.
It is fair to say that we are a soft touch.
To have Wolves daring to say that Traore is worth only 12 million is typical of our reputation throughout football ( that would be ” a soft touch”)
One gathers that they told us that they were activating his release close, then told us that they had no intention of paying it.
I wonder if teams are telling Leicester that as they only paid twenty million therefore it is unfair that they should want 60 million. Do not think so, do you?
RR
By the way, I still think it was not a good piece of business.
I think it’s time that a line was drawn under Bamford he’s gone now. Regardless of how he performs at Leeds.
RR wrote very eloquently about what Teesside DNA means but I think sometimes we are in danger of wearing all the negativity about Middlesbrough as some kind of badge of honour. In a way this opens us up to being easy targets for the media and programmes designed to accentuate the more disparaging views of the area.
I have been fortunate to travel the world in my working life, and the one thing that strikes me is that people are the same the world over. We are no different to any other economically deprived area, whether it be home or abroad.
The only difference being an unbeatable talent for holding a grudge. There are more important things to worry about than a football club selling a player.
As my father used to say, “before you get all wound up and angry, ask yourself, does it really matter?”
Very wise words GHW.
Come on BORO.
Grovehill
About time someone mentioned the abject whining and complaining ( and exaggerating) about a perfectly normal town in Yorkshire.
Can we be clear that there is nothing extraordinary about the town, it is not swamped with beggars ( that would be London)
It is not full of high rise slums ( that would be London)
It is not without law, it does not have terrorist attacks, including the seat of government ( that would be London)
It’s children, if they wish, can go through college, and or University without leaving the town.
Ian
The £16m figure was attributed to TP when Forest supposedly enquired, according to TeessideLive at the time.
Regardless of the fee, I agree that it was not a good piece of business to sell a prize asset to a close rival.
As RR says, the whys and wherefores may emerge eventually but the announcement of his departure on MFC website was terse to say the least, which suggests bad feeling or a complete disregard for the convention of thanking players for their contribution and wishing them well in the future. Time will tell.
Steely
Sounds like a grudge against AK
The fear of his talent in the market.
That, and looking foolish.
GHW
I do accept that we have to move on. As already documented by others, we’ve had a history of selling our most talented from time immemorial for various reasons.
What is irking people, I think, is that, with the season now upon us, we have not addressed our ongoing problem of lack of creativity and we have the prospect of Gestede (or similar) lined up as our main target man.
Hopefully, I’m wrong and the next week will see the required acquisitions arrive.
Steely
Lets see what TP actually said.
Maybe the statement could have read
‘MFC announce the sale of Patrick Bamford after the traitorous swine’s agent was tapped up by Leeds United. We would like to thank them for putting us in an invidious position just before the start of the season.’
That of course would be very poor form, whilst written with my tongue firmly in my cheek you never know…….
None of us know what happened.
Just don’t start me on the ignominy with TLF and Steve McLaren when he was despatched to Celtic which was probably only matched by the following ineptitude of Martin O’Neil in playing him in a role and in a system he had never played in during his entire career.
I find it strange how many Football Managers can produce some wonderful results and performances and then shoot themselves in the foot through the most inane and poorly thought out strategies and decisions or even pure pig headed stubbornness in many cases.
Ian
We are only too aware of what happened, a twelve plus million pound player ( who we needed in our team) was given away for peanuts.
The rest is sound and thunder.
Just to talk about Traore is to realise that we have no clue about trading players.
Having made a monumental blunder by putting a release price on him, we are simple( highly appropriate) bystanders as he is removed surgically from us.
in the name of God why don’t they set a fifty per cent add on as a condition of sale.
That would be a possible 40 million coming our way at some future date because the way the market is moving, he could very well be moved on for 100 million to one of the giants, ( a 34 year old went for 110 million a week ago)
Redcar Red
Yes, TLF was driven out by Schteve.
It was so bad they played all the new stars in the first half pre season at Preston. TLF came on second half and by all reports played an absolute blinder.
MFC basically ignored the second half in it’s report.
Never did get to see him play with the likes of Viduka and JFH.
Ian re Bamford
Not sure we are going to find out what TP said as it did not appear to be covered in the Q&A session I have watched on MFC.
It appeared to me that the Q&A may have been edited and we are only privy to part of it.
I am not sure if it was just me but I had difficulty in picking up some of the questions from the audience as the sound quality was poor; an issue I have raised with MFC in the past when they talk to journos and then post on the website.
Rumours circulating that Burnley have put a derisory offer in for Ben to test our resolve. I suspect it may alert a few others especially if he goes for sub £15M or looks like he might. In Premiership terms that represents little risk and a huge opportunity for a big mark up so I hope that considering we turned away bigger offers twelve months ago (allegedly) if he does go we insert an add on clause.
TLF seems more and more to McClaren what Downing was to AK.
More Gibson’s returning hero gift to fans rather than a player who fit the manager’s plans.
PS I *wish* I had never gotten wound up. It’s led to some of my worst comments in the history of UntypicalBoro and DiasBoro. Even when I apologised and tried to smooth things over, I feel that by some I was never really forgiven.
The joys of – and here’s my bombshell – growing up on the autism spectrum. My early years at grammar school were not fun at all.
It took a long time for me to get to where I am now.
Si
Don’t apologise at all
be proud of your achievements and your writing which has given all of us talking points and discussion to while away the gaps in the season
Well done
OFB
So…what he said!
That meant to say Si, what he said…. Why does this bliddy thing decide it knows better than me when I am typing it….aasassrrrrggggghhhhhhh
Bob summed it up perfectly Si.
Sincere apologies here KP…………….however. I have re-registered with iFollow through the Millwall web page, given my card details and been accepted earlier today.
I have now logged back in on to the Millwall site, clicked the Matches drop down, clicked fixtures and then scrolled to the Boro match where there are four options, clicking “live match centre”……but nothing pops up to let me buy.
Any ideas anyone???
Do it through the MFC website tomorrow morning after 0900 hrs and put the money into Boro coffers.
Come on BORO.
Apart from, buy tickets, which is only for the Millwall online purchases.
Pedro
Have you clicked into Live Match Centre (white box with football on it) this then takes you to the page where you can buy a match pass on right hand side.
You will be able to purchase via MFC from tomorrow but it will cost you more if you are buying on an individual match basis £10 MFC as opposed to six euros via Millwall iFollow.
Hope this helps.
Additional.
So apparently we’ve rejected an £11 million offer for Ben Gibson which, if Twitter is to be believed, has been raised to £12 million? And it’s from our “old enemy”, Burnley. In a world where Keane and Stones are apparently worth £80 million combined that sounds small, but would we accept it? Especially now Pulis has spent money on Flint.
Additional, additional.
The smart Burnley fan I quoted before recently came up with another genuine gem on the verge of the Clarets’ European qualification. That being…
“I know the head says that staying in the Premier League is better, and more important, and an Europa League run is going to stretch resources.
“But… football is about emotion. To even have the chance for European football is amazing enough. If you want to be sensible, give up football and take up competitive accountancy.”
I think, with our memories of Schwarzer’s save at City and the Road To Eindhoven that followed still fresh, we all understand. Never mind the £12 million loss and those tiny attendances against Xanthi, Dnipro and Litex Lovech. Even Basle, I believe, brought in “only” around 24,500.
Watched the abbreviated ‘Audience with TP’.
Didn’t tell us much but in the absence of any attendees we have to take FMTTM’s comments at face value.
The truth is that Bamford has gone and we move on to a new chapter. Good luck to Paddy and we await incomings.
Focus on a trip to the Lions Den. Fingers crossed.
Just read about the sale of Gibson, no, you could not invent it.
It goes something like this.
Burnley. We offer you 12 Million.
Us. No way we are not selling for that, Utd. Have just offered 60 million for the England defender, and been knocked back.
Burnley. Well we still want to buy him.
Us. It’s impossible, we will need either 15 million or 20 million, (doh! My head hurts).
The truth is, these people should not be out on their own.
When Wolves come crawling back with their tail between their legs, why don’t we insist that there is no deal without a fifty per cent add on, and of course stick to it, no, repeat no, bargaining. He is our player and we decide what the add on is, and that is it.
Plato
I agree with you except there is the little matter of a contract which includes a clause that says if a club offers £18.5M, then the player is able to talk to the club making the offer.
Bamford for £7m, Gibson for £12m (bid). What is going on!? From the AK years and last season where we seemed to receive some decent fees we seem awfully keen to flog some of our better players for peanuts in current money.
Ok, so players want away, that happens. But you didn’t see Leicester cave in and let Mahrez leave for £30m, nope, they held on and got a bloody ridiculous amount.
Now Paddy. He’s gone, but tell me this. Ross McCormack went for £11-£12m, Snodgrass similar, Hugill (!!!) for £8m off one half a decent season, Mitrovic £20m, Waghorn quoted at £8m! Now, are you telling me that probably one of the most consistently high scoring strikers in the Championship is not worth £10m up front at least? Something is odd there. Perhaps MFC dare not admit it but they are preparing already to ensure they don’t end up in FFP Problems when the parachute payments dry up. Villa were in deep crap until an investor bailed them out. As MFC is Gibson’s show, perhaps we are seeing the sort of Mogga belt tightening again?
Certainly TP is having to raise funds to fund incomings. Waghorn out of the Paddy money, McNair from Fabio plus Barragan, which means we’ve only spent the Flint cash. That would easily be recouped by selling Ben for a decent amount.
What is decent by the way? For me – £20m. He is a left sided English defender. There aren’t too many of those, apart from Harry Maguire who is now, what, £40-£50m? Anything less than £20m is an insult, £12m is what we made for Downing over 10yrs ago!
Hmmm I think there is more to it than meets the eye, maybe its a Bulkhaul/Brexit issue and considering that Gibson O’Neil kept the club afloat during a dark era maybe its now time to pay the Piper for whatever reason? I also wonder if Rockliffe is keeping itself afloat and hitting break even?
Maybe its all totally unrelated and just the musings of an “irritant” (I’m sure there are better adjectives in use) but there does appear to be a willingness to jettison which is being sniffed out by circling Wolves (literally). There again maybe its just a case of some damn good sales commission being earned?
Right now its looking like we could be missing Ben, Adama and Britt as well as Paddy at the Den if all the rumoured courting continues unabated. If that is the case the fees we accept will tell a story in itself. I’m sure that MFC have a contingency plan and we shouldn’t be concerned.
Anyone have any idea why we have signed Andy Lonergan?
I rated him as a decent keeper many years ago when he played for Preston. But he appears to have completely lost all of his confidence, and last season produced probably the worst goalkeeping performance in the Championship for Leeds against Brentford. It was a televised game, so the poor bloke had nowhere to hide when he dropped a bog-standard lobbed centre and put a goal on a plate to give Brentford the lead, before making another mistake to hand the game to the opposition. After that performance he never looked like completing even his short 2 year contract as Leeds tried to find some mugs to take him off their hands, just as Wolves had done the previous season.
A completely pointless and mysterious signing, then. When goalies lose their confidence they rarely get it back. Everyone is just waiting for their next mistake. Is there anyone out there who can make any sense at all of this acquisition?
Certainly not me, Len. It’s obvious, though, that TP doesn’t fancy the unfortunate Connor Ripley.
Back to the Bamford saga, the details are shrouded in mystery but I can fully understand why Paddy left and I dont blame him.
Its one thing to love the club but he has been shafted one way or another by the last four Boro managers. He would probably have been given assurances by Leeds that he will get game time in his favored position. How tempting would that be after years of playing out wide, warming the bench and playing second fiddle to Gestede.
On the occasions that he was played up front he nearly always delivered.
Good luck Patrick Bamford, you deserve your chance.
Boro TV
If Boro want ten quid for a home game then it would be cheaper to pay for the oppositions coverage as it will probably be the same cameras and commentary for 5 quid.
It doesn’t quite work like that as Boro are not part of iFollow so you would only be able to pay for a match pass direct from MFC – it was the same last year for games at Fulham who also charge ten quid I think and someone else, who I’ve forgotten, where you needed to pay nearly £20 for a monthly pass to watch one game.
£150 for a season subscription sounds like good value – which probably comes out at around £4 a game once TV matches are removed. Plus with 4 cameras and commentary, it’s going to be one of the best on offer. Also interesting to see that they’ve made it available to UK based supporters, I hadn’t realised that was possible.
Werdermouth
Birmingham were the team you were thinking of – they charged £16 for a month pass so had to pay for one match! I am with you and think what MFC is offereing is value for money and for home games should be a better offering then iFollow.
Werder……Not for the Saturday afternoon matches.
Firstly, thanks to everyone for the quality of articles and comments that are turning up. RR’s poignant ode to all things Middlesbrough really struck a chord. In my own case, I left Boro at 15 when the family moved to London and I’ve lived and worked in many parts of the world but nowhere else calls to me in quite the same way.
i was disappointed to see that Ripley is being allowed to leave but another side to this came to me which is maybe worth thinking about.
Pulis seems like a decent man and perhaps he is acknowledging that Randolph is far and away the number one keeper and, barring injury, it’s unlikely that Ripley will get a chance this year or even next year. We have other young goalkeepers out on loan and so maybe the decent thing to do was to give him a chance to make a proper career for himself as a first team player somewhere else. One could use the same argument for Callum Cooke who was never going to get a gig behind the first team squad including players like Wing, Tavernier and Chapman.
The Boro academy is renowned for turning out solid players and part of their role must be to find a way to get these lads established in a proper career in football.
Maybe OFB could try to get an interview with Dave Parnaby. He’d have a story to tell.
I see that the Boro streaming service is now available. Does anyone happen to know if it will have a delayed view function? It’s OK for the moment when games start at midnight Sydney time but it goes to 2.00am when the clocks change at the end of September – in different directions – and that’s getting a bit tough to stay up.
Anyway it will be Pds 150 to MFC and the chance to watch as many games as I can.
The offer of a new contract to Traore is an interesting option. It is something that I was thinking about last week. It could even just be a way to get round the release clause. If he signs a new contract, the release clause would lapse – but not the % due to Villa – and we could hold out for more money. On the other hand it could be a serious option. A new deal could be, say, another Pds 5k a week to Adama with a guaranteed lift on promotion or even a new release cause for January. Anyway, fingers crossed.
The whole Ben Gibson saga is sad but inevitable and the purchase of Flint suggests that everyone knew all along that this was likely. However, it’s also absolutely clear that BG could become the subject of a real frenzy next week and so anything under Pds 20 million shouldn’t even be considered.
Any suggestions on the likely team for Millwall. With Traore injured – I assume – then do we play one of the young wingers. I’d like to see Chapman given a go. He just might be something special. Other than that, it’s surely going to be the obvious back four – Shotton, Fry, Flint and Friend – with Clayton, McNair, Howson and two others. That then leaves the question of who plays up front and, playing away, I’d be inclined to go with Britt as Millwall are likely to come at us and leave channels open for him and Chapman.
What does the Brains Trust think?
UTB
Selwyn, I asked MFC about an on demand function. The reply was there isn’t one. Watch it live or wait until replay is allowed next day.
Selwynoz, I think the team more or less picks itself at the moment. We have three missing, two who would certainly have started if not injured with Ayala on the bench.
So it is what it is. Not sure what will happen if Ben goes, does Shotton slide across? But then we have no right or left full back subs unless TP slots in McNair.
The squad is definately weaker than last season now and if we get any more injuries then we will have problems.
Also see that Williams has gone to Stoke, will that mean Everton needing an additional CB to add to he one they are seeking already.
As for tomorrow, no predidiction apart than I cannot see Boro getting anything from the game at all.
Philip Tallentire has been speaking to reporters of the other 23 Championship clubs asking their opinions on who they think will be the likely promotion candidates this season. Not surprisingly 14 think Stoke City will be Champions and another 8 have them as runners-up. The good news is that 3 of the reporters, including the Stoke City one, have Boro as Champions, 13 as runners-up and 5 to win the playoffs. Collating all these opinions indicates at least that most reporters think Boro are a major threat in this league. I just thought that this might add a little cheer on this forum.
Incidentally the review suggests that Derby County, West Bromwich Albion, Swansea City and Nottm Forest are likely to fill the playoff places. These forecasts are also probably in line with bookmakers odds, and in line with my views. So let’s hope that the survey negates some of the gloom that seems to have occurred recently!
I see that the speculation continues on Gibson and Traore and whilst there may be something ion it, journalists are not known for their accuracy but have pages (or web sites) to fill!
I Also read that TP says he has to balance the books and in my mind this is SG wanting to keep the finances as tight as he can. No smashing the league statements this year and I have a suspicion that the plan is to try for automatic promotion/play offs and if we are not promoted, then TP will be away and further cost cutting seen.
Should AT go for £18m then it will be interesting if we buy anyone else. If BG is to go, then I would prefer Burnley where he will get games although not for less than £20m and ideally not all all.
Would prefer to sell Braithwaite though no one wants him, we are still haunted by GMs spending spree in the sweet shop.
As for tomorrow, I will post up my prediction later on when I have conjatated and deliberated!
Listened to TP’s press conference.
Very interesting, you certainly dont get meaningless platitudes with him. I am no lover about some of the football his teams have played but it seems he tells it like it is.
Sounds as if Ben may be going, Adama the same.
One more sleep then a nine month roller coaster of highs and lows beckon. Can’t say I’m very confident for the coming season but I’m glad it’s back.
“It’s coming home, it’s coming home, it’s coming, footballs coming home”…. oh hang on a minute😉
With the speculation that Ben, Adama and Britt could all be off imminently it will be interesting to see who plays at Millwall tomorrow. To get to the opening game of the season and be in such disarray is incredible. Paddy McNair who spent a huge chunk of his time at Wearside on the treatment table is now back on it again and unavailable.
TP will have no choice but to play Players who probably none of us would select for the squad let alone the starting eleven tomorrow. The same applies to Tuesday night against the Blades which will probably be lighter still if some deals go through over the weekend. Whatever we get for Ben, Britt and Adama (assuming that they do go) will then need to be very hurriedly and desperately spent elsewhere by Thursday 5.00pm to bring in new faces to fill gaps. Considering that the gaps haven’t been filled from last season there will now need to be an awful lot of filler used to cover the cracks.
My fear is that we now end up with a few Guedioura/Gestede type purchases and our season sees us in mid table or worse. TP likely leaves next summer (if not sooner) and we will have a squad that is far worse than this time last year, purchased to fit a particular style of football and of little use to a new incoming Manager with the parachute payment pot drained Strachan style. Might have a daft tenner on the return of Mogga!
Woodgate
Totally Agree RR.
Burnley supposedly back in with increased bid for Ben of £13m.
Dyche was up to his tricks again last week, bemoaning the fees being paid and pleading poverty.
Don’t listen to him SG.
Perhaps the lack of incoming, injuries and imminent departures will offer opportunities to some youngsters and they’ll do well and the rest will be history as they become the mainstay of the team this season.
I would imagine transfers are similar to being in a chain when purchasing a house. Once one goes through the rest follow. Probably a case of who blinks first.
Pulis looks like he’d do well in a staring contest.
I’m not a betting man, not even on the Grand National. And I haven’t put a bet on a football match for years. But I there are one or two occasions when there is an investment in football that looks as enticing as anything on the stock market, and for which we may have a degree of insider knowledge.
After Strachan’s spending spree, and the bookies made us hot favourites to get promoted out of the Championship, it took me only 2 games into the season to see what rubbish we were and how silly and out -of- touch the bookies’ odds were. Consequently I sold our points total on the spreads, cashing in when Strachan was sacked and we appointed Mogga, and made enough money to pay for a luxurious family holiday in Barbados.
It looks to me now as though there may be another such moment. Currently we are the bookies’ 2nd favourites and projected to get around 73.5 points for the season. That’s about as many as Preston last season, and would have us finishing at worst just outside of the play-off positions.
The point about this is that if we do live up to outsiders’ expectations then there is some downside to selling at this number. It’s a downside that can be limited by taking a small loss and terminating the bet if we start off like a house on fire or at any other stage of the season if we look like getting our act together.
But the upside is much bigger if we finish where many of us suspect we might at around mid-table or lower. Mid-table would see you returning 20 times your stake. Flirting with relegation, 30+ times your stake, as happened under Strachan.
I’m not in the business of encouraging anyone to gamble. It’s a mug’s game. And no one should ever invest money in the stock market or in any other enterprise that they can’t easily afford to lose. And if the bookies are right you will lose.
But I thought that there might be some interest in this, even if by proxy. I’ll be looking at the possibilities over the next few days. if I dabble, I’d be happy to keep the blog informed.
Ah well here we go.
Extremely disenchanted with what I expect to be served up this season. I grudgingly accept that in this thud and blunder league, sending out a team resembling the Grenadier Guards might well be successful but, is it football? Granted, there is an undeniable excitement in getting the ball in the box, ooohs and ahs from goalmouth action, but it’s a style of football that has held us back at national level and just as it appears that the national team, perhaps influenced by foreign sophisticates in the Premiership, are trying something different, we are embracing it more firmly. Horses for courses I suppose, I don’t have to like it, just pay up and sit quietly in the NE corner.
In fairness, it is a step up from AK’s mentality which seemed to be that if nil-nil is a good result then nil-one is the next best thing, I do think that TP will put a greater emphasis on winning rather than avoiding defeat.
As Len and many others have so eloquently argued, the two teams that went up last year that seem best equipped to survive and possibly thrive, were the two who could actually play a bit. My conclusion is that if we go up, we will be faced with a massive rebuilding job.
Alternatively, if we don’t go up then I expect that TP will be off into the sunset and we will appoint a new manager, perhaps with a new philosophy, perhaps not and be faced with a massive rebuilding job.
I found some of the answers given at the “Audience with TP” a little disingenuous but I suppose history is written by the winners, it was ever thus.
I hope that Ben goes, at the right price of course. I think one more year in the Championship will just about finish his career. He will be forgotten as younger players come along and his development which in my view notably slowed last year will stop completely. It will be difficult to regain momentum as it is, but almost impossible from a standing start. At least we can be confident he won’t hold us to ransom over the price.
I expect us to be top eight minimum and probably around the play-offs, depending on who comes in. I’m not expecting a great rush of incoming next week, playing the loan market and trying to force the hand of bloated Premiership squads in the loan window might be the sensible course in the end but will require nerves of steel.
I might get my wish to see the kids come through after all.
What is interesting is the way TP is talking of the amount the club spent last year.
Most of the fag packet maths on here and by the likes of AV showed us in an apparently very good position. If I remember rightly our net spend last summer was about £8m.
Now it looks like selling is the priority then recruit.
Will Ben play tomorrow? Adama would be unlikely in my mind whether leaving or not, a bit of a risk of his shoulder popping out again.
You could ne right Werder, we may see the kids.
I’m hoping its the youngsters.
I’ve already suggested Chapman in for Adama, With McNair injured do we get Clayton and Leadbitter and play for a draw or does he give Wing a chance to show what he can do.
UTB
Meanwhile England are throwing the test away having wasted chances on the first two days.
Catches win matches
Personally i would be happy if we gave the fringe players a go from the off and see where we are from there otherwise there is no point having them in and around the first team squad. There is only one way to find out if they are ready and can produce. That said, and as an example, Tavernier was shipped out very quickly once TP arrived so i dont think that this is the way we will go. TP, like Strachan before, likes men in his team and those that he would have in the trenches with him and tricky wingers dont have the physicality. Which is maybe why he took such a shine to Adama because he is built like the proverbial brick hit house.
I do think that our aproach to business lacks a lot of business sense. Anyone can see we are balancing our buys and now selling to buy and if the money comes in for Gibbo or Adama then clubs will put their price up. Added to that the declarations from TP that we are ‘desperate’ to get people in and we will have to pay over the odds.
Not everyone has Sky. Could I ask posters to refrain from giving out news of sporting events until after the highlights programmes have aired.
Shades of the Likely Lads.
Sorry, I am listening on the radio.
Besic rumoured to be coming back permanent
Just paid my £150 to MFC for my season pass and let’s hope that we get some value for money.
Can’t see it as the current squad is weaker than last season and could be even weaker in the next week as I think that BG and AT will move on.
Whilst TP is looking to bring in replacements, I am not sure there is anyone available to us that are an upgrade on PB, BG and AT.
I don’t like to be so negative but all that is happening at MFC leads me to believe that the horse has bolted, we missed our opportunity last year and we are now preparing for a lengthy period in the Championship.
Players are no different to supporters and if they see talented colleagues not being retained then they are also likley to take the view, why should I not move on when an offer comes in. BG could have probably gone one or two seasons ago but didn’t and I don’t think we can expect him to stay for ever, particualrly as AF has been recruited.
As far as tomorrow is concerned, I expect a mauling Lions 3-0 Boro.
CoB prove me wrong!
Well I know this won’t go well with some, but I did say.
We have not even kicked off in the league and McNair is injured. You just could not believe it. Well I could.
Reported that Burnley have dropped their interest in Rodrigues from the Baggies and now looking at Britt.
Tight dyche just wants a job lot .
Buy one get one free.
Hope we tell him to BOGOF
Has anyone in the UK been able to purchase live streaming of the home game against Shef Utd, if so advice would be appreciated.
Come on BORO.
Exmil,
Sounds like it may be easier for you to move overseas and pay the 150.
Exmil
If you are looking to purchase just a one off match pass, then if it follows the iFollow model, you will not be able to do,so until probably Monday of next week.
Then you will need to log into MFC using your MFC Digital Account. Then go into Fixtures & Results where you should see the match listed and in red “Listen Live” click on “Listen Live” and it will then bring up the page with the various purchase options i.e. Listen, or Watch, Match Pass or Season Pass depending upon your domicile.
Hope this helps😎
Just gone in to get my season pass for live commentary. No option to buy a match pass for Tuesday.
My understanding is that as I live in the UK, under EFL rules, I can only watch matches outside the Saturday 3.00pm slot and not televised by Sky.
The only match available for UK supporters is the home match against the Blades next week.
Ian
Yes your understanding is correct and as I mentioned to Exmil above the match pass for the Blades game should be available on Monday.
Apparently Monk wants Fletcher.
Any truth in this OFB?
Old Billy
He may want him but BCFC are not allowed to register any players so that is a no go.
Yes
It should be sorted by end of weekend
OFB
Besic would be a good addition, he is a known entity and would settle quickly.
The big danger is when you have wholesale, late changes which take time to bed in. It is ok with the odd player but if you have too many it can disrupt performances as happened in the play off season under AK.
Having spent the week near Chester on a family holiday, I’m now in Beverley, East Yorks, with the in-laws.
I’ll be driving down early doors to London to meet up with two of my brothers to watch the match.
The youngest of us, barely into his forties, is full of optimism. The other two of us are expecting a combative luxury free encounter, and are dipping into our bumper book of gallows humour in preparation.
The heart says nil all, the brain says one nil to the Lions.
I will settle for an OFB prediction
Love the news that McNair is injured, amazing, truly amazing.
This club is blundering from crisis to disaster to shambles, with no stops in between.
It very much looks like we hired a veteran who had played the veteran card for years ( you know, giving with the wise old head sayings and clichés, keeping a very moderate club in the prem. ( but only just)
Then it ended, as it was bound to, they crashed and burned, he decide to retire to Sandilands?
Enter the dummies, no more idea of how to pick a decent manager than my dog( and I have no dog)
We are at this moment on our sixth? Manager.
With one exception they have been pitiful, they got rid of the one winner because a couple of the old lags got upset, it seems they did not agree with the promotion, they certainly did their best to stop it.
It is, at this moment, pointless to decide which things he got wrong.
The list is endless, even saying that he has dismantled the team is not quite correct because he has not finished yet.
He has no idea of values, or of players talents, what his next blunder will be no one knows.
We have at this moment four very good young players, but I fear for their futures under this man, he might play them, but only after he has lost the first six matches, and then it will be away to the runaway leaders.
Our habit of hiring a completely unsuitable manager then firing him only after he has swung the wrecking ball for six months or longer must surely be brought to an end, they can do too much damage to a club in that period.
As you might imagine I expect nothing from Millwall, I would think that the team spirit must be shot to ribbons together with the confidence.
Seems a lifetime away now. The perfect team goal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKyJq_FV4cQ
Heart says 1-0 Boro, head says 1-0 Millwall.
Lions 2 – Lino 0
I see you are feeling a little flat about things then 😉
Just fearful that we will be a walkover
SSN reporting MFC have agreed fee of £15M for Ben Gibson. Gutted but wish him well and thanks for all his dedication and some excellent displays.
Silver nearly all sold!
What a buy
I look forward to the time when we can buy a young injury free central defender who is the right profile, I.e. Height, weight, experience, track record, character, intelligence.
He has gone to a very well run club, with a good manager, so I am glad for him, I hope and expect him to take to the highest levels of the game, and I do not exclude
the international arena.
‘Selling the family silver creates an opportunity to make huge economies on costs of silver polish.’ The MFC recruitment department.
Wiggy’s mate,
Nice one, and an excellent analysis earlier.
If we can get Besic that would be a good move. Everything revolves around who we can manage to recruit over the next few days if the club is to avoid a long spiral into decline.
We have already gone a long way in a single season from being one of the aristocrats of the Championship, flush with Premier League payments, into becoming just another of that long list of clubs whose best days appear to be behind them and who struggle to balance the books and keep their heads above water.
I too would like to see the kids given a chance, but a few defeats would soon alter fans’ perspectives on that, and it’s a bit much to expect a serious promotion challenge over a long attritional season from a young and inexperienced squad. In any case, as Smoggy in the Heed has shrewdly observed, that is not Pulis’s way.
Len
The big problem with good young players is, if they are too good for their contemporaries they cannot progress as they should.
All fast developers have got to be exposed to senior opposition and sink or swim.
The most urgent example is facing us right now, and I am talking about Fry.
If we are not careful some well run club will simply tell him that he will be playing in their first team every week. And that will end the discussion, and who would blame him.
Wing is another one who is ready to take wing( sorry) he has battled in non league and is 22, so having had the bottle to pick him up and seen him flourish, I think it would be highly appropriate to get him in the team, we do not want to die wondering.
Millwall are a very hard start for us so I would not mind seeing us play the above players, better to find out at Millwall than at home.
Just read an assessment of Notts Forrest, be afraid, be very afraid, the rebuild is done, the foundations are laid, the right words are being said, checkout their price for promotion. Remember these words.
Oh A K where are you when we need you so badly.
Dan wardy joined from mags
Good luck to Ben. I was hoping one of the bigger clubs, Everton for example would come for him and give Ben a bigger platform. But there does not appear to be any other real interest, so you either take it or not. 15 mil is well short of a year ago.
What is Dan Ward going to bring to the table???
Comment from Neil Harris Millwall Manager ” gis a clue, gis a clue, who are ye, who are ye” when he sees the Boro team sheet tomorrow.
‘ It gets worse every day ‘
The club selling our best players for next to nowt ! Seems like Ben and Paddy are deserting a ship full of holes. Plus no doubt a few others will join them.
We will end up buying also rans and pensioners. I class Downing as one of them.
SG might not have said it this year but ‘ smash the league ‘ obviously in his mind only this time we will smash our way down the league ! TP will leave and JW will take over with SD as his sidekick ! Time for the last two tablets I have in my valium bottle. Back to the Docs on Monday.
Lions BeWitched and Wardrobe gets the winner.
It’s a big chance for Fry
I just hope he is played in his natural position as a central defender and not pushed to full back in place of Shotton or into a makeshift midfield.
OFB
Out of the Frying pan in to the fire.
The problem I can see is that clubs will have seen the reported money for Paddy and Ben and will inflate any fee.
We should sell naming rights to the Riverside, maybe Poundland or Primark? Can a remnants box be a sponsor?
Dont blame TP. He is here with a remit, that sets what will happen at the club.
Still 6 days until the window closes, the disappointment is that Natalie Sawyer has left Sky so Jim White will have a different partner, hopefully our Hayley.
Exmil
When I posted about Bamford missing the Hartlepool match you asked what about the others who didn’t play.
Ten red shirts hanging on the pegs, ten red shirts hanging on the pegs. If one red shirt should accidentally fall there would be nine red shirts hanging on the pegs.
Nine red shirts hanging on the pegs, nine red shirts hanging on the pegs, If one red shirt should accidentally fall there would be eight red shirts hanging on the pegs.
Who knows? Is Agatha Christie still alive? A case for Poirot or Miss Marple.
🙂
Ian
I’m afraid TP’s statement that we’re desperate for signings is another signal to sellers to inflate the fee.
What a fine mess we’ve got ourselves into.
It is a long time since I have been so apprehensive about the start of a new season. Two of my favourite players sold with more talent likely to be shipped out, signings that don’t enthuse me at all, only one player – Traore – left in the squad who can excite me and he is likely to leave and all the signs that the style of football that is going to be served up will be pure Pulis.
Based on what I see today there is absolutely no chance of escaping the clutches of the Championship. How have the powers-that-be at MFC allowed things to get so bad?
As for tomorrow, I expect that the tone will be set for the rest of the season with a very poor performance and a dismal 2-0 defeat.
Boro exile
It is easy to talk about Pulis football, the truth is he uses what he has available. If we sell Bamford and Adama he cant play them and for all the complaints of why he played them and the disciple of progressive football, Monk didn’t, they got time on the pitch. ncomfortable reading for some I know and it doesn’t agree with their preconceived views – mine were similar.
TP is only the symptom. The club decides who they will sell for commercial as well as football reasons. The clue is the fact the talk is how much Steve Gibson spent last summer.
That is the reality of our situation, it is nothing to do with TP. If we bring in replacements that enhance the squad that is great. Otherwise, it is a long season.
Still need a left back
OFB
Yes we do although Johnson can probably do a job there.
Anyway, if the Gibson deal goes through and Fry establishes himself then we can chalk up PDS 15 million to the credit of the Academy. Not a bad return.
However, I don’t understand why we are looking at Dan Ward when we have our own young kids.
UTB
I think that we’ve had Dan Ward on trial, he played for the Under 23’s at Whitby last week and is probably like Lewis Wing a signing for the future after his release from Newcastle.
OFB…..and a right back and a winger(s) and another CB when Ben leaves as Ayala is not reliable, unless Shotton slides across.
Then there is still the need for creativity and then Adama. If he has any sense at all, any, then he should jump now from the sinking ship that is MFC.
I see the pessimists have taken over the asylum.
Come on BORO.
Personally I would be delighted if someone would set out any grounds for optimism at the present time. The best that anyone has offered so far is blind hope. All of the evidence that has been accumulating over the past couple of weeks has pointed the other way. What are we to do? Ignore it, give a little whistle, and carry on forking out?
I think that we have to be patient to see what the end of the transfer window and loan window will bring. 10 games in is the accepted threshold for deciding. I’ve already posted that I have no expectation of this season as things are today. However, I do think it is wrong to be pessimistic about what will befall us. Players come and players go as seasons come and seasons go and favourites come and favourites go as part of that cycle. If today’s favourite doesn’t go, then we will never have tomorrow’s favourite. By all means let us express our concerns, but we would be wrong to prejudge the outcome before a ball had been kicked in anger.
Ps. I’m sticking by my Millwall something, Boro something else prediction for (what is now) today’s match.
As we start to scrape the bottom of the barrel in response to Len’s plea for optimism maybe we will see a Rioch type season when the Frys, Tavernier’s, Chapman’s and Wings start to fly.
Out of adversity comes opportunity according to a certain Benjamin Franklin apparently.
I am prepared to nail my colours to the mast and say that I remain very hopeful and accept that this may come from my distance from actual events.
If you want logic, then I start by saying that I will be surprised if we concede many goals and if you want optimism then I look forward to the next generation coming through along with 2 or 3 signings over the next few days.
UTB
Well I’ve just purchased my Boro season pass for the streaming service so, like Ben Gibson, I’m now ready to go. It appears his value has halved after a somewhat indifferent season in the Championship by his standards – though the biggest loss will be his leadership and the symbolic connection with his uncle the chairman. Although at 25 his career is in danger of stalling if he continues not to play at the top level – he already missed out on the World Cup and there perhaps is a danger he will be overtaken by the next crop of defenders. He could have waited for another season but it seems the club are keen to cash in their assets this year if they think there is a replacement available – let’s hope there’s nothing more behind this unexpected strategy other than bad timing.
As things stand the squad is well below what most would have expected for the kick-off and Pulis will need to get some business done pretty sharpish after Millwall if Boro are going to be strong enough to mount a promotion challenge – especially if Adama is next out of the door. The Boro manager is desperate for new signings and it looks like he’ll need 4-5 good quality ones before the window closes. The First XI today will be missing Gibson, Ayala, Besic, Adama and Bamford – plus new signing McNair. Not many positives to add to that list and Boro are going to need some luck at the Den to come away with anything against what was a good team last season.
Time to turn typical Boro up to eleven and roll the dice – though I’d settle for a 0-0 right now until the cavalry arrive through the window! Hopefully the club don’t play the waiting game for too much longer and also don’t panic and waste the cash raised.
I’m busy until kick-off working on a new drive laying and carrying several tonnes of stones – did 12 hours yesterday in temperatures that hit the mid-thirties and have never drank so much water in my life. Let’s hope I’ll have something to drink to come 5pm – though not of the drowning of sorrows variety…
Personally I think the fees we’ll receive for Gibson and Traore are just about right on last season’s form and the current market. It’s the timing that makes things difficult but we probably knew that deals would happen so late anyway. Boro have made a healthy profit on both players but are likely to face a heavy loss on Assombalonga if he goes. The difference between being a Premier League Club and a Championship Club is that the former can add a premium on their young players’ sales for potential (West Ham on Fletcher), whilst the latter can’t in most cases. One of the big problems Boro face is offloading players not now deemed fit for purpose especially those that Gary Monk bought in at inflated prices. A draw at Millwall would now be considered a bonus, but the opening day of the season often brings out unexpected results so maybe Boro might cause a surprise.
Good luck to all our local teams, Hartlepool at Maidstone, Darlington at home to Curzon Ashton and for me personally, Redcar Athletic as they start the first ever season of a Redcar club in the Northern League away to Easington Colliery. I must add that 4 wins and a draw in their 6 pre-season friendlies is a better return than Boro have achieved in theirs.
If Ben Gibson does leave, then good luck to a great and local lad who has more than done his shift. Unlike Paddy B, there is a feeling that that the time is right for him to move.
But Burnley and for 15 mill? He should hang out for something better, Everton or Leicester if he can wait. David Wheater got it badly wrong when he left and has wasted his career. Ben should not risk the same.
The fee too is not right. Ben did have an indifferent season last year but is worth more still. He might consider also that he seems to be Burnley’s third choice of centre back this summer, no great endorsement. You can do better Ben.
As for our season, I can’t recall feeling as downbeat. Maybe the early 80s.
Sell the family silver if we need to and regroup with the kids if we can, just don’t buy in more low quality dross. The club needs to firm up its identity once more – of course Ben and Paddy are just the type of people we’d like to do this – and start again. It’s what we do.
What we also do now, is sack managers regularly and we should do it once more. TP is not the man we need for a rebuild.
Traore aside, and I can understand him wanting to go so, this team is one paced and plodding and promotion is a no go. Bottom half, bottom six is not an impossibility.
Just very sad.
Richard
Why not Burnley? They finished 5 and 7 points respectively above Everton and Leicester last season, that’s why they’ re in Europe. When Boro finished 7th in the Premier League and qualified for Europe we bought in big names, why shouldn’t Burnley try to do the same? Does this fixation about Burnley stem from the ‘Stan Collymore’ syndrome that a town of 85,000 population isn’t worthy of a place in the Premier League? According to him neither are Bournemouth, Brighton, Watford, Huddersfield or indeed Middlesbrough. Sean Dyche has proved himself a fine English manager and worthy of admiration from Boro fans particularly and along with his predecessor Eddie Howe successfully managing Premier League clubs.
If we’re looking for positives then we have the following:
1. In Ayala and Flint, a clear threat from set pieces
2. In Assombalonga, a striker who can score a lot of goals when in the groove
3. In Fry, a highly promising local centre back whose time is now
4. In Tavernier, Chapman and Wing, an interesting crop of youngsters who can play without fear and add some much needed zest
5. In Clayton, Leadbitter and Howson, very solid Championship experience in central midfield
6. In Pulis, a manager who knows very well what it takes to grind out results
The reality of course, as Pulis has candidly admitted, is that this squad is nowhere near what we’d all have wanted (and expected) going into a tough opening fixture.
If, somehow, we can get a couple of results and get some sort of feel-good factor, then add two or three new players to that momentum, we may surprise ourselves.
However, on the assumption that Traore will shortly depart, our chances of mounting a serious promotion campaign look likely to depend on at least three of Fry, Tav, Chapman and Wing having pretty stellar breakthrough seasons. The odds on that are slim and any expectation of it is unfair.
I’m not sure how or why we’ve got ourselves into this position. There didn’t seem to be any indication last year that failure to get promoted would lead to a firesale.
Now though, we have to prepare ourselves for a season of mixed results, hope, but not expect a play-off push, and support these young players as they grow.
My expectations for the season have been completely recalibrated. It’s sad but I can find some solace in hopefully seeing a crop of academy graduates being given a chance.
Millwall 2-0 Boro.
As I posted above if we bring in players to enhance the squad that would be great, if we dont it could be a struggle.
We may well see some of the Academy players coming through and seating a place in the squad and team. That would cheer everyone up, in truth it is time some more players broke in to or were allowed to break in to the first team squad.
Well TP always said he likes a small squad so “be careful what you wish for” comes to mind.
I hope there is no truth in the rumour that TP has brought a Medium with him today to help select the starting eleven………”is there anybody there?”
My head says 3-0 to Millwall but my heart hopes that there will be enough with those who do start to have enough passion, belief and desire to get a result. Just wondering if there will be any one else sold off before 3.00pm 🙁
Len posted previously questioning about the Andy Lonergen acquisition. My view was that as Len suggested he always looked a decent Keeper a few years back so provides experienced cover.
I was in Brighouse yesterday and got talking to a Leeds fan and to say they are ecstatic about Paddy for £7M is an understatement. They are convinced he will get 25 goals this season. Sadly I had to concur and agree with his enthusiasm which really stuck in my throat. The conversation moved on to Lonergen and he told me some real horror stories about how he has lost it and is error prone and not the Keeper he once was with his confidence now shot after his serious injury.
I sincerely hope he is wrong and its just sour grapes but in fairness to the lad I took him as being genuine and he wished me and the Boro well even hoping we finish second and get two Northern Teams back in the Premiership.
My son has just rung me to say he has been on the MFC website and in the comments section someone has posted the team for today’s game;
Randolph, Shotton, Ayala, Friend, Clayton, Howson, Chines Alan, Dave, Steve from the fish shop and up front Dave’s mate. We have both been crying with laughter,Teesside gallows humour, gotta love it.
Geoff,
To be both fair and optimistic, Steve from the fish shop deserves his chance. Unlike the rest of the squad he spent the whole of the Summer practising with a ball, rather than shinning up mountains He’s 6′ 8′, and takes no prisoners. Even though he lives in Sussex, he’s a local lad who is prepared to commute, and he does do a lot of charity work. What is there not to like? Rumours that TP has demanded a bung of free chips with scraps for the rest of the season can be filed under Fake News.
Get him in.
I have it on good authority that Dave’s Mate is garbage, been injured most of last season potato picking with a supposed bad back and is far too small at only 6ft 1″. No chance TP would risk him. Besides I heard a rumour that his agent was talking to Morrison’s who have offered him the chance to be Head Trolley collector and TP has said he wouldn’t stand in his way, if the lad wants to go, the lad wants to go to further his career. He only wants spud collectors who want to be here.
Well I think we are in for an encouraging season. After all anything other than a bottom six place will be a bonus…..
At least my relegation spread sheet is tried and tested…..
UTB
BTW
Millwall 2 Boro 0
Geoff
John Powls has been in to his loft to try and find his boots, if he does he is catching the 10.01 from Reading.
Or even from Boro Becky Dad – this iPad keeps losing the details and in a fat fingered moment, I hit the wrong button!
I have a good chuckle this morning at the comments made. You’ve got to laugh otherwise you would cry!
Like others have said, I am not sure how we have got so where we are and starting a season when we appear to be unprepared having lost several players through injury and also by selling. The words of Lady Bracknell come to mind, “ to lose one handbag/player is unfortunate, to lose two is careless”
I am not going to predict a team today as it could be a case of pick 11 from 13 and maybe The southern supporters team could provide some players to help the cause.
So as Boro enter the Lions den in an attempt to tame the beast in the style of Daniel, then I am going for an unlikely 1-0 win for Boro with the main man being Gestede in the dying minutes from a long throw from Shotton. Thus pride will be restored and the only roar from Roary!
Better wake up from my dreams now!
Thanks, gentlemen. Some brilliant and valiant attempts at optimism. Less a case of the glass being half-full than staring at the dregs at the bottom and hoping they don’t give us a hangover that lasts for years.
Hangovers, of course, are invariably associated with having enjoyed a particularly good time beforehand….. So let’s hope we are all in for an unexpected good time this season and then the hangover can take care of itself…..
The loan window stays open until Aug 31,so don’t fret.
That would mean we would have half a side consisting of players who don’t want to be here assuming that they would prefer to be at their Parent Club surely? TP has always stated he only wants Players who want to be at this Club so it would smack of desperation which of course is where we are right now.
It has overtones of a few years ago when TP was at West Brom when we played them in that infamous bore draw and he was complaining about not having enough players and was forced to blood a young teenager Sam Field.
Afterwards he said “”I have said before we need five players to come in because there are players here we need to move on who aren’t going to play”. Must seem like deja vu.
Red
I’m thinking an overseas player ,loan with option, or even a home based in?
I would have said we needed five, four minimum (RB, LB, creative CM, RW, LW) before the exits of the last few days and coming few days. Now we could end up on Tuesday night with only Gestede and Braithwaite as Strikers and for width and speed relying on Downing and Johnson.
Step forward the young lads!
Have I got to keep drinking till then?
They say it is darkest before the dawn, every cloud has a silver lining, as the chairman of long defunct furniture store, MFI, said; ‘as one door shuts, another drops off’.
We need points from unexpected sources.
That quote about MFI kitchens made me smile
Gerald Ratner comes to mind.
I have been chuckling away at the humorous posts this morning. I don’t know why this is the Boro we are discussing and it’s serious😂.
Amid all the doom and gloom, England make a great fightback in the cricket to lead 1-0 in the series.
CoB
Arggghhhh!
Just had a look at who the referee is for today.Interestingly its a Premier League official- Kevin Friend. His last two Boro games Man City home and away in the Premier League. Both of which we unexpectedly drew. Would take the same again today.
Team news:
Randolph, Shotton, Flint, Fry, Friend
Leadbitter, Clayton, Howson
Braithwaite, Assombalonga, Downing
Come on BORO.
The ref is a friend he could have sent Clayton off for two yellows !
OFB
Very young bench
Wood, Wing,Tavernier, Johnson, Chapman, Fletcher and of course Dimi
Come on BORO.
Exmil,
That is good to see, hopefully a couple will get some game-time too.
UTB,
John
Well just finished my 8 hour stint of manual labour in the blistering heat. showered and sitting comfortably with a beer ready for the entertainment. Team selection is no real surprise as it’s basically all the fit senior players starting with the youngsters on the bench. I suspect Pulis will go for a tight opening 45 then maybe bring on some kids with energy for the last half hour – wonder if Boro have been practising set-pieces with all those big men in the team – I guess Downing will be on the deliveries but with Grant in the team again he may get over-ruled. In the spirit of the general optimism I’ll go 2-1 to Boro with goals from Flint and Howson.
What a surprise, can’t get the live stream as the MFC server is currently unavailable – this is exactly the problem I had last year with he club’s one and only streaming service – poor stuff!
Boro a goal down after twelve minutes…
UTB,
John
I have it working an a tablet through the MFC App
All things MFC, one nil down, no stream and Millwall all over Boro
Well this is useless no stream whatsoever – in fact the only page on MFC that I can see has Boro winning 1-0 – if they can’t even get the score right then god help us!
Live audio commentary went just before their goal.
Off to a bit of a disappointing start all round. I am no techie but you suspect the server maybe cant handle the traffic
Checked NewsNow. SkySports are saying the MFC server is not at the ground, it is having a medical at Hartlepool, season long loan agreed
Do people now understand when I said a midfield with Clayton and leadbitter and howson is not fit for purpose? Not an ounce of creativity between them. That’s before you get into our attacking midfielders (what are those I hear you ask) It’s an absolute joke!!
It wouldn’t be worth watching anyway I was listening to it on the radio and turned it off!
OFB
Very strong rumour that Martyn Waghorn has signed for Boro for £8m today. Hope this is true
Sold from Glasgow Rangers for £200,000 now Boro are going to pay 8 million. What a joke.
Well still no connection and now two nil down.
This is absolutely rubbish and not unexpected. Grant, Howson, Clayton and Downing, what do you expect, saying nothing about the defence.
They had actually started to settle down a bit but the second goal was an absolute disgrace. This is not doing a lot for my optimistic approach. All i can say is that the stage is certainly set for someone to make a name for themselves.
Paul
I doubt anyone didn’t understand it before. You cant play all three, it is one too many.
Clayton/Leadbetter plus Howson is ok but the third needs to be a more attacking player.
Looks like a damage limitation exercise, maybe 2-0 is damage limitation.
I was contemplating signing up to Millwall to get a Match Pass that actually worked – though having seen us go 2-0 down it will probably be throwing good money after bad! I wonder if the club have used the same company to set up their live streaming service that failed to make it work last year in the pre-season friendly. Clearly they’ve not learned the lesson from that experience and why do all the other clubs manage to deliver a live stream without problem? I’m pretty annoyed at this avoidable technical cock-up once again.
Werder I had the same problem – no stream with 10 mins to go to kick off so decided to spend another 6 euros and bough a match pass from Millwall albeit it has proved, as you said, good money after bad!
Havce I misread MFC instructions? They talk about a Digital Account but I already have one and use to log into the website to watch videos etc. Do we need anpother one for live streaming? Totally confused in Spain!
No you don’t need another account, the problem seems to be that the MFC site can’t cope with the predictable online traffic that needs to connect to the site to get the live stream. The closest I got was to the streaming page but only said that the stream will start when it’s available – it never was and subsequently the site became slow and most pages were also unavailable, including the one to contact MFC with any problems. It’s just amateur stuff, clearly the IT company haven’t upgraded the bandwidth to cope with increased traffic that comes with offering such a service – I’m not sure they know what they are doing and have tested properly before launching. We are just guinea pigs who paid our money in good faith.
We apologise for issues affecting the live stream of today’s game
Subscribers are advised to watch via the MFC Official App
Android 👉 bit.ly/2Oe34pZ
Apple 👉 apple.co/2MlvEov
Thanks OFB, I don’t have a tablet or smart phone but just got the app set up on Mrs Werder’s Blackberry and am now watching the game 🙂
Having paid 150 quid I was not happy but I paid a fiver to Millwall and saw most of the first half. Boro are going to piss off a lot of folks,
Some needs a good rogering
Both goals were pathetic,
Will keep popping back to see if anyone gets on.
Currnetly showing 1-0 to millwall now
What a bunch of tossers
I have paid 150 pounds to mfc.
And 5 pounds to Millwall .
Not happy.
Ian, and that is the problem as we all know but Mr Pulis has ignored.
Clayton, Grant, Howson and Downing are not going to get you in the top six never mind promotion.
This squad has mid-table at best written all over it.
Pedro,
The optimism is slowly returning!
UTB,
John
Oh dear
Sitting back when you are useless is not the thing to do, because these teams are not like us, they shoot on sight and keep shooting, after all one might go in?
In fact two have ” gone in”
It might be better that we find out just how bad we are right now, in the first match.
It might be a case of radical surgery. How we can carry on playing Downing, when he is cruising through matches in bottom gear makes one wonder, have we got a manager,? And if so should he be kept away from sandlands any longer?
Stream is still working via the App but I cant tell that Howson or Braithwaite are even playing. I’d bring on Wing and Chapman and give them a go. It cant be worse than this.
I don’t think any of that midfield should be playing, whatever combination. None of them are good enough. Clayton the crab. Leadbitter the lobster and howson the hermit crab!!
Cant tell the formation but at least we have been attacking with Wing, Tavernier, Fletcher, Braithwaite and Assombalonga all looking to go forward. Created a few chances as well.
Well I never, a goal!!
thanks to good work from Tavernier in the box – 5 mins of injury time too – Boro look dangerous and Millwall hanging on…
Wow!!! unbelievable and with what must be the last kick!!! Yes it was – fantastic come-back 🙂 And even saw it thanks to OFB.
2-2 (Braithwaite & Gorgeous George): how ON EARTH did TP pull that rabbit out of the hat?!!! Needless to say, I’m over the moon, as the saying goes…
I don’t believe it. Nonstop attacking and we scored again. Is there a message here. Who said optimism was wasted. What were the odds on Braithwaite and Fletcher being Boro’s first two scorers this season.
That was plumb crazy but for the last twenty minutes we were all over them.
UTB
Selwynoz,
There’s certainly a link between attacking and scoring, the only problem is managers don’t seem to start with a team that can do it. The BBC had Boro with way more possession even when we were losing 2-0. Presumably the possession was all in the ‘we don’t want to hurt you midfield’.
A point is a result we would all have been happy for before the game and the youngsters proved their worth and their value too.
UTB,
John
Good to hear the kids coming on.
Points from unexpected sources rule ok.
Maybe it was Friend and not Fletcher but just as unlikely.
Braithwaite assisted by Tav, George by Wing (who picked up a yellow seconds after going on the pitch – who cares? He contributed! :): the youngsters “done good” (*cringe*). 🙂
Which channel has the EFL highlights this season?
Quest channel 144 on Sky.
Come on BORO.
Thanks Exmil. It’s 167 on freetime
Quest (Freeview channel 37, +1 channel 38), apparently. The programme will still be presented by Colin Murray.
Well. That goes to prove that I know most. I predicted Millwall sonething and Boro something else, but it was them some thing and us the same at the end.
I’ll take being wrong in those circumstances any time. Unbeaten after 1… What is not to be optimistic about….( Don’t answer that anyone😉)…
Well done. Let’s see who starts against the blades now…. COB
Bliddy autocorrect… I typed that goes to prove I know nowt, not I know most …
This is the ugliest point I have ever seen.
Quest GHW.
Come on BORO.
Will MFC give me my 150 back?
Oh yes of little faith lol.
Come on BORO.
Ian,
You’re dead right. Tavernier in particular has given them impetus and they are moving forward through the middle instead of sideways which must at least in part come from Wing.
I have no idea who will play on Tuesday but I’m pretty sure that it won’t be Clayton and Leadbitter together. I might still play Clayton as cover but I’d let the rest run loose.
This last twenty minutes may have been quite significant.
I’m going to bed!
UTB
Let’s hope that this is a steep learning curve for pulis. That starting eleven should never have been on the pitch together. They wouldn’t have scored a goal if they’d played all day and all it does is invite pressure. A bit of pace, energy and youthful exuberance made a world of difference. A get out of jail free card let’s hope we don’t repeat these mistakes again at home.
Correct Paul, and exactly what the consensus has been on here all week. Concern about the quality of the basic squad, with the sole source of any optimism being the possibility of the kids being given a chance. That dichotomy perfectly exemplified by the vast difference in quality, energy and enthusiasm between the first and second half performances. As you say let’s hope that TP has absorbed the lessons prefigured here some time ago.
Quest is on free view channel 37, Sky 144, BT 37, Freesat 37 and Virgin 173 to watch the EFL show.
Come on BORO.
Not pretty but at least in the second half we had a go and just for a change we scored late as opposed to conceding.
Still a long way to go and as the Milwall commentators pointed out, our passing often lacked purpose, pace or tempo for much of the game.
Now to vent my feelings on MFC and try and get the 6 euros back I paid to watch it via the Millwall site. Even that was not without problems as at the start of the second half my screen when into different colours and pixilated so I need to log out and back in – what a day!
Let’s hope MFC resolve the technical issues before Tuesday night. The rest/team will take a lot longer!
Well I am amazed at that – I had given up looking on BBC at 85 minutes and retreated back to garden. I predicted a last gasp winner but will take the point which feels like a win.
Now feeling better about the long drive to the Riverside on Tuesday!
When mainstays like Clayton and Leadbitter get the hook, closely followed by Downing, and being replaced by youngsters would indicate the manager is not best pleased.
Tactical master stroke from TP?
When’s the last time Boro landed a sucker punch?!!! OK, it wasn’t a win, but it got us out of jail! 🙂
GHW, a tactical master stroke would have been not to pick the starting line-up that he picked in the first place.
The question mark was firmly in my cheek.
What’s that deafening noise on Teesside, ahh it’s the sound of knives slipping back in to their sheaths.
Brief highlights (basically the goals) already available from Sky:
http://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/11461058/millwall-2-2-middlesbrough
Suggest the opening two be skipped, the second in particular a real howler!
Yes, GHW, but best that we don’t get over-excited I think. The first 70 minutes were at least as bad as the worst served up in recent years.
The last 20 minutes were much better but there is limited evidence that TP sees things the way that people on this blog do or recognises what works and what doesn’t. As a result he may well revert to the same starting line-up as today which will have the same result. Let’s all hope he doesn’t!
OK not going to give up on the 5 quid payed to Millwall…… but it was definitely worth it to hear the panic in their commentators those last 10 minute,,, Soooooo sweet.
Off to bed.
Give the youngsters the chance….
Well at least got some of my monies worth with the last twenty minutes, however before Mr Pulis brought on the youngsters we could/should of been 3/4 down.
If he does not ship out those three subbed we will be going nowhere. One paced (snail pace) and no vision what so ever.
At least the subs give it their all, then aided by the other lot. It will not work week after week though.
A clearout is really needed however the only players leaving are the good ones.
OFB…..do you think we will get a refund from MFC?
Yes you should get a refund for paying for a streaming service that didn’t work.
Can I Get a refund for paying top whack for a season ticket only to see all our best players being sold !
OFB
Redcar Red has already made sense of Boro’s opening game at Millwall and the last gasp victorious draw – Match Reports this season will appear as a separate post but to make a comment on RR’s report please return to the Week 1 Discussion Page (where we currently are) – Note: you will find a link back to the last comment a the bottom of the page.
https://diasboro.club/2018/08/04/millwall-vs-boro-match-report/
If the “right” signings don’t materialise next week, I’d rather see the kids given a chance than the old guard, who are just not up to the task.
“veteran Keeper Andy Lonergen to compete with Dimi for the Voltarol. ”
As fine a piece of writing that you are likely to see that is. Well done RR – chapeau Sir!
Better report RR than the match it self, safely up to the high standard you have set yourself. Still a better result than I thought we would get.
UTB
From the radio, the story was plain to see.
The players we all wanted to start the match Finaly got on the pitch, Tavernier , and Wing.
They made the difference, one attacked into the box, and Wing delivered the through balls which made the difference, two which produced the goals, and one which was missed, he also spent time screaming for the ball( and being ignored)
These players must be played until they disappoint us, why, because their skill must not be left to rot whilst we drop off the pace.
Plus they play a different game to the old hands, so let’s find out what we have got in these few young players.
Agree Plato.
The youngsters have nothing to lose and everything to prove whilst the old guard are relying on past glories and aging bodies.
Whilst I will reserve judgement until I have seen the players in action this year, even based on last season, Downing and Leadbitter (good servants over the years) are probably past their best and need to be put out to pasture, only to be called upon in case of emergency.
Let’s hope that TP can see that. Also agree with Ian that Clayton, Leadbitter and Howson should not be seen in the same starting 11!
Only 39 ish points required for safety now!!
UTB
I was listening to Radio Tees commentary whilst watching Ladies Rugby League Challenge Cup Final on BBC TV red button, but unfortunately fell asleep with Cas beating Leeds 14-6 and Boro losing 0-2. I woke up just as Boro scored to make it 1-2 but missed all the second half of the Rugby. Couldn’t believe it when Boro equalised but later found out that Cas Ladies lost 14-20. Damn these drugs though, can’t sleep at night but fall asleep in front of the TV – so frustrating!
Is it possible to have some unbiased views about the turnaround without ore conceived views,
I listened when I could through the interrupted coverage. The impression I got was that we didn’t cope in the first half. In the second half we were a bit better then continued improving as the substitutions took place.
As I didn’t watch, from those who did, some questions. How much was due to Millwall running out of steam, Millwall becoming complacent, the input of fresh legs, the fresh ideas, superior fitness, the willingness to be progressive, plain luck?
I would like to hear genuine views, I do not want ‘I have never liked Pulis’. ‘Grant is past it’. Howson is useless’. ‘Britt is lazy’
Some genuine comments as befit this forum, please, Consider what you have seen, write your post, re read and consider, then post.
We used to joke in Derby that the Evening Telegraph had Riggott in the star ratings when he was still in the treatment room following an operation.
If possible, no preconceived views.
Ian,
We started with the same tempo as the Villa games and looked and felt a bit flat. Millwall are very good at what they do and many a top side will come undone at the Den just as they did last year.
The team selection was the most experienced eleven TP could field compounded by the areas where we know we haven’t addressed from last season plus the injured and departed few. Our tactics were uninspiring but in fairness Millwall sat back, watched and then pounced, chasing, closing us down giving us no time to settle into a slow motion sideways passing game which a lot of the starters have cut their teeth on for a few years now.
We looked ponderous in many areas and Fry and Flint didn’t compliment one another although Fry seemed the most composed of the two. Like any partnerships it will take time to bed in and the sale of Ben will have unsettled TP’s preparations I suspect. All those factors taken into consideration there were still too many performances that looked well short of where they need to be. Its easy to blame the older players saying that they are past it and over the hill and they certainly done themselves no favours in that respect but Flint for example had a bit of a mare and certainly isn’t in the group classed as over the hill.
We had no outlet in the first half and I was surprised TP didn’t change it after 45 minutes. I’m guessing he was in two minds, his tactics weren’t working and about as penetrative as they were against Villa but with less able players to select from. Throwing the kids on then might have resulted in a Cricket score doing no one any favours and was probably are the front of his thoughts. Eventually he seen enough and put on the kids who showed zeal and no fear or respect to the Millwall players or the atmosphere.
While TP has to take the blame for the first 65 to 70 minutes he can equally take some of the plaudits for the last twenty minutes or so. I have no doubt some of the Senior players will have their part to play but too many of them altogether at the same time looked a bit wooden. I think the standard and energy levels that Tav and Wing reached (and Fletcher in fairness) will have pleasantly surprised TP. Some will use it as a stick to beat him with similar to the Bamford/Gestede injury argument and others will mark it as a managerial masterstroke.
What was clear was that we were heading for a defeat and probably by another goal or two until Tav gave them something to think about along with Wing’s positivity. Braithwaite for me put in a good shift looking for the ball and being involved in everything positive up to and including when the Kids came on. He looked fully committed and showed great energy levels. He may of course have been playing for himself and a move or loan but when he scored he grabbed the ball quickly, urging the Boro fans to keep up the intensity of the support and ran back to the half way line. All positive stuff.
Howson seemed to be more involved when Grant, Stewy and Clayts went off. I think the drive and energy from Lewis Wing ignited him and seeing Tav causing problems lifted spirits and belief. Britt too became more of a problem for the Millwall defence. It looked to me that the subs wouldn’t know how to play metronomic passing games if they tried, they had too much zest and desire to get forward and rescue something from the game. Although Clayts was taken off I thought he put in a gutsy performance and had he not been booked and escaped a second clear cut yellow and thereby walking a tightrope I think TP may have left him on.
Overall our first 70 minutes were inept and bereft of ideas, creativity and a total lack of understanding. They looked like strangers at times and disinterested ones at that for long periods. It should flag up that time needs to be called on putting too many of the old brigade in the same side at the same time. I have no doubt that the youngsters will benefit from a Stewy or a Grant in future in orchestrating them to keep their focus and see games out under different circumstances but we need some speed and fleet of foot players.
Overall the game highlighted that we definitely need to bring in those five or six players but the youngsters showed enough to maybe allow TP and SG to perhaps pay a bit more for better but fewer players. One thing that was evident and played a factor was that Millwall noticeably tired in the closing minutes having expended a lot of energy under very hot conditions. Boro were able to take advantage of this through the fresh young legs but maybe the Austrian fitness regime gave Boro an extra 5% or 10% over their opponents, who knows?
A word for the Ref Kevin Friend, there were five minutes added time but with the substitutions and very blatant embarrassing time wasting from Millwall he added another two minutes. A brave but very correct and just decision without which George’s last minute equaliser wouldn’t have happened.
RR
A brilliant answer to my questions, that is what I hoped for. I wanted well reasoned discussion and that is just fine by me..
RR,
Your match report is very comprehensive indeed, and most welcome for that, but this reply is infinitely better. Outstanding, really outstanding.
It’s informed and objective analysis such as this that counts and, oddly somehow, gives us all a little more hope when we can get a better idea of what’s going on.
While I disagree with Ian’s call for no preconceived comments – ideas are formulated over time and it is silly to dump them just because it’s a new season or everyone is, understandably, rather het up right now – his request has resulted in a perfect summary of what’s going on in via one simple post. Well done both of you.
It also, again, throws open the debate on media coverage and where to go to.
The club website, while thorough in its detail and range of offerings from stats to streaming, does not offer the independent and ‘inside’ view the fans want. There is the feeling they want to control most media output around the Boro, the dispute with the Gazette showing just that.
The Gazette, sadly, is dire. Speculation (albeit it dumbed down of late), no features of merit, no blog and writers either uninformed or unwilling/unable to write what they want. The paper needs to fix relations (the club is in the ascendancy and can call the shots) or reinvent itself wholly and do something along the lines of a better resourced Diasboro where they are not in thrall to MFC.
The Gazette is increasingly irrelevant and cannot afford, another season like the last. It will not survive.
In the meantime, proper opinion through sites and groups such as Diasboro, matter more than ever.
RR/Ian
This summary is as incisive as you could ask for and mirror’s my views exactly having watched the match via the Millwall website at an extra cost of €6!
The first seventy minutes were some of the worst I have seen from a Boro team for many years and looked more like an amalgam of Strachan/Monk than a TP team.
Surprised as I was to see Braithwaite picked, for me he had a positive impact and looked to get involved even in a poor first half and looked like the Braithwaite we saw when he first arrived. As RR has said he may be playing for a move.
Clayton put in his usual shift, including an early booking but we all know that the three of Clayton, Howson and Leadbitter just does not work and are too predictable and play without intensity and tempo.
When the youngsters came they injected pace and intent into the game and were helped to a degree by a Millwall side who were tiring but who had also begun to settle for what they had and were beginning to sit deeper and not close us down.
The last 20 mins didn’t produce any flowing moves from us but a willingness to get the ball and numbers forward quickly into the final third, all of which was lacking in the first 70. It wasn’t pretty but in the end produced a point and showed a fighting spirit.
The referee did his job well and quite rightly added additional time to added time given the two bookings that occurred during that period coupled with Millwall time wasting.
RR
Your answer is spot on.
Now for the view of someone who listened to the game ( commentators from the Boro)
Because the commentators have to tell the listener what is happening to the ball, the listener gets a peculiar read on the game, not wrong, but peculiar.
And the news is not good, it was a litany of worthless tactics and ideas.
A few examples.
They have the ball, move it up to our defensive area, make an error and give it to us, we give it back, instantly, we do not pass go and we certainly do not receive 500 pounds. This was a continuous theme ( I think it is called incompetence ) our striker utterly without timing or touch, never made contact with the ball. Throughout the match the ball may as well have been made of green cheese as far as we were concerned.
I do not think and am not prepared to put this down to rustiness, we saw the same syndrome in the matches with Villa ( the more I think of those displays the more I think Villa were given a free pass whilst fielding a team of crocks) I do not think that they could have survived a full on 90 minute blitz in the first match.
The charge sheet is getting longer, in his interview he intimated that he would not tolerate criticism of the team which started the match. Which I take to mean that he has no intention of starting the kids who saved our skin on Tuesday. Which in turn means he puts no value on killer through balls, or speed of thought and action. Which in turn means somewhere along the line some lucky club will get a rather nice young player ( or three) for washers ( sound familiar).
in summary, I think that our manager has for the last two months put up an all time black in his observations, decisions, selections, buying, selling.
His interview with the press at the final whistle, was at best rambling, at worst incoherent.
RR,
An excellent report as always, I was getting quite tense and excited towards the end even though I knew the result. Very well written.
Please can we play the ‘youngsters’ in the next game. The tired old regulars sound, well, tired and past their sell by date. It’s a pity that the wages are not performance related. Going through the motions is just not enough. Please don’t elaborate on the motions part.
For the young players all you can say is that there are managers crawling over broken glass to get them on loan so, if they are so keen to play them week in and week out, let’s just hope we are. I don’t think that they well stimulate the old guard into action because of competition, at least not unless there’s a little blue pill for vision and creative output for ageing footballers. That is on the pitch that I am on about too.
Well done the young pretenders, Mr Pulis ignore them at your peril. And don’t try buying them at your next club.
Well done Boro. Well done the hard way. Is there any other way? Not at Boro.
UTB,
John
John
That is why I posed the questions I did. Hopefully I will get some good feedback.
The problem we have in the UK if you live nowhere near a match is that you dont get views of the performance.
Luckily, on here, we are troll free but even so, a judgement after reflection is much appreciated.
At face value it was 56% possession, 12 shots to 9, on target 2 to 3, 6 corners each, 6 fouls to13. Why didn’t we win????,
The Millwall manager said they controlled the game for 88 minutes. Mmmm?
Hi guys
I haven’t had time to read anyone else’s responses to the game yet, I thought I’d post my unadulterated thoughts and then see to what degree I’m in tune with anyone else.
The scorching sunshine gave the pre-match atmosphere a sense of a season’s end dead rubber.
Neither set of supporters seemed to have any great hopes for the season, and that was before our team was announced.
It seemed bereft of flair, pace and consequently, apart from set pieces, lacked any goal threat.
The first half was as woeful as any one could hope to avoid. Credit to a well organised, hard working and high spirited Millwall, they out-thought, fought and played us.
We were shambolic. The irony of their goal coming from a throw-in, our defensive throw-in, was not lost on me.
I was more concerned at the way Our man Flint twice lost his man at corners than at the howler he gifted the Lions for their second, but it could have happened to anyone and he was utterly distraught.
I thought the mistake was symptomatic of a wider malaise, a lack of personal confidence and in each other.
There was little movement and we found it impossible to string a pass together.
There were no changes at half time and I wondered how many we might concede.
And then Pulis made two substitutions and brought on a pair of fast and skilful players and the game was gradually turned on its head.
So successful was this swap we may seen the last of the Leads/Clayton axis and I wouldn’t be surprised to see at least one of them leave.
Fletcher came on for Downing and the change in our play was complete.
We used our newly found pace to drag Millwall players out of position in order to fire in a succession of dangerous balls which Britt manfully launched himself at, grateful for anything more than the most meagre of scraps he’d been thrown earlier.
The equaliser wouldn’t have happened had Millwall tried every underhanded time-wasting trick imaginable. However the ref, bless him, was wise to it and just kept letting play continue. The Lions had only themselves to blame when George forced in the equaliser after redemptive assistive work by Flint.
To give Pulis the benefit of the doubt, he may have thought starting the kids away against Millwall too much of a baptism of fire.
Now I don’t know how he can start without them.
As we walked out we knew we’d mugged Millwall, they didn’t like us and we didn’t care.
Any away point is a good away point, no matter how unimaginable it was at half time and arguably undeserved.
Fair play to TP for addressing the shortcomings of his team selection, and a huge congratulations to Tavernier, Wing and Fletcher for lifting the fans and inspiring their colleagues.
I’ll await Tuesday’s team selection with renewed interest.
Top post.
Chris
Lovely summing up.
But, you are far too kind to our manager, everyone on here was making outrageous demands long before the kick off that he should play them, plus the third kid.
We are in big trouble if us no nothing fans are brighter than the manager.
I think he will stick to his tattered troops on Tuesday, which means we will get beat, because Millwall were not very good, this is the champ. there are no easy games.
A great report, RR, thank you.
Ian, this isn’t a genuinely reflective piece because I wasn’t at the game. However, I had regular reports from Sky’s commentator, Johnny Phillips, and I had the EG live feed open all game. The common message coming through loud and clear was that we were massively under the cosh and offering no threat at all to Millwall for much of the game. RR’s report seems to confirm much of that. It seems we were lucky to escape with a point.
I just want to say that it seemed a few chickens came home to roost this afternoon. How often have we said that it’s folly to play Grant, Clayton and Howson in the same side? How often have we said that we have little width and no pace, Traore apart? And how often have we complained about the lack of creativity in the squad? It seems to me, from the admittedly limited evidence I have of today’s performance, that all three of those problems were demonstrated again in spades today. We’ve known about these problems for ages, but our recruitment hasn’t addressed them.
TP addressed the issues to some extent with his substitutions, and you could argue, as we got a point, that he was vindicated. The players fought till the last minute, showing plenty of spirit, so that, too, is a positive. However, unless we make major breakthroughs in the window before Thursday, then I fear that today’s fight back is just papering over some very wide cracks.
Call that a preconceived perception, if you will.
Great first report of the season RR
Thank you I don’t know how you get it posted so quickly
OFB
In the baking sun it seems like the team who were out training in the mountains over summer were the ones who kept going and putting pressure on deep into injury time. It might not be pretty, but having fitness clearly played a part too.
Thanks RR. Brilliant, as ever. Absolutely indispensable.
I’m sure Aden Flint isn’t particularly enjoying his first competitive outing for Boro this evening but if it helps maybe he should take a look at our opening game of last season away to Wolves where Dani Ayala had a bit of a mare himself then went on to become one of the best players for Boro over the rest of the season.
http://www.skysports.com/football/wolves-vs-mboro/374629
Well done RR. Enjoyed that. Much, much more than I enjoyed following the game. To me it felt like just over ten minutes of Ironopulis “making up” for eighty-five minutes of Pu – though thanks to your good self I know it wasn’t *that* bad. Doesn’t hide the lack of pace, creativity and especially, as you put it, synergy. The overlong reliance on the Ayala-Gibson-Friend-Leadbitter-Clayton spine is continuing to bite us in the proverbial. When was team rebuilding last a Boro strong point?
An observation. Possibly apart from Millwall’s first, and even that could have been cut out, all goals in the game were untidy, a combination of defensive mistakes and bullish pressing. I’m told that’s the nature of the Championship though it felt for me like we were back in the seventies and eighties.
Not that it matters to Pulis. And here’s where I possibly get controversial: does a “tactical Plan B” even exist? It may be as simple as throwing on players that you know can change a game and/or upset the too-confident stride of those in a “comfortable” lead. Pulis did that four years ago when he introduced Dwight Gayle and Glenn Murray to wipe out Liverpool’s 3-0 lead in what everyone calls “Crystanbul”.
We had pace, we had players keen to show what they could do, and they made a difference. It reminds me of the time Ireland nearly plundered a point after going 2-0 down in the heat of Orlando in ’94 – Big Jack brought on pace in McAteer and (eventually, after a touchline fracas) a goal scorer in Aldridge. Within minutes one scouser set up another for the goal which would take Ireland through to the last sixteen on goal difference.
Essentially, when you approach the latter stages of the game and a result, however improbable, is still possible, it may be best to toss all complications out the window and just go for it. I can only recall that happening twice under Aitor – away to Fulham, when he believed that our title hopes would die out if we didn’t win (and in fairness, he was right), and away to Bolton, when once he saw that the Trotters had run out of gas, he brought on Nugent, who set up Rhodes to send us all into raptures.
It was a refreshing contrast from Leeds (A) when the substitution of Kalas for Rhodes in injury time made a fan really cross – arguments that we were in a bad run of form, were away from home, and most importantly, Big Ben had been sent off and we needed to maintain our shape, cut no ice with the fan. I felt he was going overboard at the time, but now I understand his stance – shape and even numbers matter less when there’s only a few minutes left and the game is still there to be won. After all, shape wasn’t a consideration to United when they beat Bayern in Barcelona – nor McClaren’s Boro when he went gung-ho twice in Europe. Admittedly they still had eleven men on the pitch, but the point stands – they went for it instead of playing it safe.
What you don’t do is assume that the same gung-ho approach will work every time – McClaren found that out against Sevilla.
It seems the top three clubs in the area, are having trouble recruiting players to their clubs,players who could really make a difference as far as quality is concerned,
This as been going on for at least ten years, the North East through media stereotyping looked at as some backward outpost,, we’ve all signed players paid over the top in wages just to get them in ,and five minutes later the poor little things are homesick ,down tools and we get the shaft again.
Its interesting recently Tony stated he preferred local lads in the squad, maybe he as clued in,and is looking at the problem finally.
Local as I mean within a short drive,
Some players mentioned lately are North East people, and maybe we can stop all the shinnanigans that have been going for too long.and get a settled club,never mind team.
By the way two of our sub’s that came on , local hey?
Having watched the highlights, Flint,s header back was poor for the second goal, but boy Randolph didn’t cover himself in glory either.
As I said during the game, the streaming worked perfectly via the MFC App on an iPad except for a colour problem for five minutes at the start of the second half. It may well be that anyone with a smartphone or tablet is best served using that and even putting it from there onto a TV. I’m going to check that out.
Anybody who can steel themselves to watching the full game when the replay goes up on the MFC site will see that we were very bad at the start with no forward momentum at all which contrasted very clearly with Millwall’s high tempo approach when in possession.
Things stabilised a bit until the Keystone Cops collective effort for the second goal from which point we were abject and very lucky not to concede two more.
The subs switched things round and from about 70 minutes we played with purpose and, more importantly, with forward impetus. It wasn’t pretty but we definitely had the legs and that may well be a small first dividend from the Austrian mountains.
Sadly, I feel that Leadbitter has reached the end of his Championship career and it may be for the best if he heads back to Sunderland. I remain a fan of Clayton who was the combative heart of whatever early resistance there was. I can see him as the 1 in a 4-1-3-2 which would give us 5 forward looking players and Wing certainly deserves a chance on a Tuesday.
Millwall have absolutely nothing to complain about. There were five minutes of extra time allocated and during that period they had two players booked for time-wasting, the keeper ‘losing’ the ball and at least one substitution. We scored after 6’05” of added time.
It’s great to have taken a point but we desperately need a big forward and another creative midfielder to add to the squad and some full-back cover wouldn’t hurt. We were hit down the wings a lot in the first half and I wonder if TP will think about a back three to give broader coverage with two wingbacks to cut off supply when we defend.
The big plus has to Bec the contribution from the kids and maybe this season will see just how good our Academy production line really is. Its already kicked in a pds 15 million profit!
UTB
Redcar, thanks you for the match report than for me, filled in the first half that I missed.
The second was dire until the subs came on and saved Mr Pulis from “egg on face”
I really do not understand Ian’s call against preconceived postings. Yes we may get “het up” as one said, but in reality the majority of opinions have been proven correct already.
Boro just managed to scrape into the plays offs and three months later the squad is decidedly weaker and has very little experienced depth to it. Fry and Flint are not as good as Ben and Ayala and the latters injury record and leave of absence with no comment of timeline from MFC is worrying. We are going to have to spend some of Ben’s money on a CB.
The fulls backs, one who isn’t, offer little going forward, there is still no pace in the middle and a distinct lack of creativity. I am excluding the youngsters as we do not really know how capable they will be in the long run.
Mr Pulis was complaining that we started yesterdays game without SIX of the players we finished last season with.
Well by my reckoning, Ayala, Adama and Besic. Of course may be he is including Gestede who came on as sub at Villa after being out injured for months and may be Patrick who also came on as sub at Villa and had been relegated to the bench after his concussion.
One game in and excuses.
The reality is that the KNOWN squad is not good enough, wasn’t last season and isn’t this season, to date anyway.
Can Mr Pulis and the recruitment department spend the incoming monies wisely? I am glad itis not my money as history is not a good pointer.
What will be a good pointer is the team on Tuesday. Will we see the youngsters get their chance from the off or will Mr Pulis revert to type with the plodding old guard? We may even see the return of Gestede, that would be a great bonus wouldn’t. 😕
I will be at the Riverside all being well on Tuesday so will see it all in full Technicolour. What will the team be???
Enjoy your visit to the Riverside. It would be nice if the crowd had an opportunity to say goodbye to Ben.
Based on SSN report you will be saying hello to Martyn Waghorn as a replacement for Partick Bamford – enough said!
Pedro, Good post.
Yes, Pedro, all good points.
TP tells us that the current squad is not good enough to win promotion. I think we all know that but we are wondering why, if that is the case, nothing has been done to fix the problem so far in the summer but in fact just the opposite by selling some of the better players with maybe more to leave.
OK, there are still a few days to go in the transfer window and more days to go for loan players but why leave it all so late if the Club is serious about strengthening the team with quality additions (I don’t consider Waghorn one of these). Or could it be that in reality there is a lack of ambition and we are all being strung along with empty promises? We shall find out soon.
Top work, RR. Great to see last year’s momentum on this blog continues unabated.
It seemed all of our predictions were coming true after 70 minutes or so. What a fantastically unexpected turnaround.
Hopefully the lesson has been learned that the side desperately needs pace and energy and we cannot go forwards (literally!) with the old guard. Time for the kids.
Let’s hope this turns into a very valuable point.
A win on Tuesday night and Boro will be at least in the top two.
Pedro
My call was for discussion of what actually happened in the match, plenty of time for other issues from before and likely in the future.
My pre conceived view are that Leadbetter, Clayton and Howson are one too many in midfield. With those three plus Downing and no Traore I would expect us to look pedestrian.
Many thanks to RR for a great match report, which thankfully provided the mental pictures that were absent from MFC’s live stream – though it seems getting the app to work on Mrs Werder’s smartphone on 70 minutes was probably the best time to join the action given what had gone before. Incidentally, I hadn’t spotted over the summer that the Championship highlights had moved from terrestrial TV – Never heard of Quest TV before and only just noticed it’s on Freesat so will get it set up for next week.
Also agree with Chris’s point that the ref Kev Friend seemed to add more time than was probably necessary for Millwall’s time wasting after he appeared to get the hump with several of their players in injury time. I thought he was going to blow before Shotton’s throw-in after Boro’s previous last ditch attack was cleared.
It will now remain to be seen what Pulis makes of the contributions from Tavernier and Wing and whether he takes them as serious options for the future instead of bringing in youngsters from other clubs. Sure they deserve their chance, after RR made the valid point that if they can perform at the Den under pressure, then the should be capable of handling themselves elsewhere.
Elsewhere, Barry Elliott, one of the Chuckle Brothers, has passed away.
To you, to me is the abiding memory, Fitting that the brothers were mad keen football fans.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=to+you+to+me+chuckle+brothers+football&&view=detail&mid=9F58D27F7F06842F4EF69F58D27F7F06842F4EF6&&FORM=VRDGAR
SSN reporting that MFC have agreed deal for Waghorn.
“Talks have now started over personal terms and Boro hope they can complete the deal in time for Waghorn to feature in Tuesday nights’ game at home to sheffield united.”
Due to historical issues of violence at Millwall, away fans are shepherded along a fenced-off corridor to the ground from South Bermondsey train station, which connects directly to London Bridge for the tube.
On around 75 minutes the tannoy announced a train was being held at the platform for the next five minutes for any fans who wished to leave early and avoid being held back after the game while the home fans dispersed.
We were two nil down at the time and although the tide was turning in our favour, sadly for themselves some Boro fans took the sane option and left.
Leaving was a rational decision based on the game as a whole thus far.
You have to be mad to be a Boro supporter but..
Well it’s a long time since I’ve been on here but a new season is upon us and for some reason I feel optimistic and ready to join the discussion. I think my last visit was the Hull game a few years ago where AV mysteriously disappeared. Did anyone figure out what happened? I do miss him. For a long time I simply didn’t bother, but eventually I discovered the replacement blog and I’m now an occasional visitor. I congratulate Werder on setting up and managing the blog and other regular contributors including Redcar Red for his match reports. I’d concur with the majority view on the quality, although occasionally I find it all gets a bit self-congratulatory which can be a bit grating.
I didn’t see yesterday’s match so no comment from me, other than to rejoice in a late comeback the likes of which is supposedly reserved for teams that play against Boro. I’ve read a bit of the pre-season gloom and find myself generally a bit more positive than most. Here’s my predictions for the season.
We’ll finish in the top 6.
It will be a largely enjoyable season with lots of goals and excitement.
Notwithstanding his poor start Aden Flint will become a very popular player, and form a good partnership with Dael Fry.
Someone who has been previously written-off as hopeless will redeem himself this year and end the season as a fans favourite. I can’t decide whether this will be Fletcher or Braithwaite. It would be great if it was both!
One, maybe two of the youngsters (not counting Fry) will become a fixture. My money’s on Mr Wing.
We’ll start slowly but finish strongly. Our pre-season fitness regime will pay dividends in the second-half of the season. To be slightly controversial, the last Manager to put us through a gruelling pre-season was Gordon Strachan, and a certain Tony Mowbray was the beneficiary as he took over in the second-half of the season and saw the team finish strongly. His impact or Gordon’s conditioning…we’ll never know.
Tony Pulis will still be in charge at the end of the season…as we lose in the play off final.
The blog will continue to complain about the amateurs that run the club, wail about the choice of kit and the embarrassing school child designed badge and point out how bad our transfer policy is, conveniently ignoring other clubs records in the same market and any transfer success stories.
I’m looking forward to it, and I hope you don’t mind me occasionally drifting in and out of the conversation.
Thanks as always to RR for the report and it always feels that I was there, such is the quality of the writing.
Also thanks to Chris H for his take on the game from someone who was there as well.
Tuesday will be interesting and looking forward to it, which is more yah I felt a few days ago. However, that may change if TP starts with the same starting 11, from the sounds of it, then he should start with the 11 that ended the game and then bring on the old heads to shore up what should be a winning position.
Time will tell and football is a funny old game! If TP plays the starting team, then maybe that will set the tone for the rest of the season?
Picking up on what Chris said about leaving early, I guess it was a sane move although I think I have only ever left a game before the final whistle once. And that was on 85 minutes when we were 3 0 down and didn’t look like scoring in a month of Sunday’s!
Yes, thanks to Chris for his prompt report. The more first-hand reports we get, to supplement RR’s, the better.
And welcome back, Kookaboro. A good post, though I take a different view of what you call the self-congratulatory aspects of the blog. In one sense I think this is one of the least self-congratulatory blogs I’ve ever found on the internet. People on here just don’t go in for self-congratulation. I haven’t encountered any boasters, braggarts or serial self-justifiers on here, thank heavens. Firm views and arguments yes, but no Donald Trumps, and a general awareness of how conditional our views are, and how distant most of us are from what is actually happening at the club.
What I think you may be referring to is something different, however. It’s the thanks and gratitude that bloggers frequently express for the time and trouble that other contributors give to making this blog what it is, and for their commitment to making the whole thing work. There is a high level of appreciation for the good work that appears on here,and that seems to me to be an admirable quality. There’s also an appreciation of views that go against the general grain, the idiosyncratic and the knowingly controversial. No one has ever been shouted down on here. Again a good thing.
Is all of the above just another example of self-congratulation? You could say so. But it’s intended to be an expression of my gratitude for all of the talent, energy, commitment and good humour that I see here every day of the week. That just doesn’t happen by accident. In a world where so many other things aren’t working, I really value it. And I think it’s important to say so.
I’m with Len on this. I’m sure Werder, Redcar Red, OFB, et al are not after self-gratulation but the work they put in with reviews, reports and interviews are done for the LOVE of the club we all support. It’s the research that takes as much time as the posting. Ticking the ‘like’ box is fine, but taking the trouble to reply to their work I’m sure is much more appreciative. One tends to forget that sometimes.
Thanks Ken
After watching TP’s after match interview I would love to have been a fly on the wall in the Boro changies at half time.
Suffice to say GHW it was extremely short but doubt it was sweet!
Stories circulating around East Anglia that we are also talking to Ipswich about their 6ft 2″ LB Jonas Knudsen along with Waghorn. Not sure about either signing to be honest, decent at Championship level but are they going to turn us into this season’s Wolves?
Its alleged that it will be a £10M joint deal, if so that is fantastic business for Ipswich. Personally I’d rather have Bryan from Bristol as I think he is by far the best LB in the Championship but I also have to accept that maybe he doesn’t want to move North and that Bristol maybe don’t want to sell to a rival. George Friend wasn’t exactly a bank breaker and perhaps our scouting and recruitment department can uncover another gem for peanuts?
OK that last sentence about our recruitment department was tongue in cheek. If we are in cost cutting mode perhaps SG could make a huge saving there by having a clear out?
Knudsen is known for his long throws and has been compared to Rory Delap.
So with him and Shotten taking thrown ins to Flint, Fry, Friend & Gestede who needs a creative midfield!
Redcar Red
I think Boro’s proposed recruitment is more akin to Cardiff City than Wolves – a team hard to beat.
If reports are to be believed it would appear that Traore’s much discussed release-fee of £18m requires the immediate payment of the full amount.
That puts a whole different complexion on the subject, and whoever requested that clause should be congratulated.
Reports are that they are prepared to pay £22M on a staged basis to save having to pay out the full amount in one hit. Sounds good as well as long as it does not restrict our buying power.
Wolves problem is probably trying to stay within FFP as they reported spent heavily last season and can only offset it against a £13m loss in the Championship – they are allowed a £39m loss for each season in the PL but that would mean needing to keep inside a three-year loss of £65m (13+13+39). Paying £18m up front is essentially quite a chunk of that and I’m sure their wage bill will be quite hefty given that many of their players were Jorge Mendes recruits from clubs in top leagues. It is therefore quite tight and I think the PL are more stringent in enforcing FFP than the football league is.
Though having said all that, I thought it was normal practise in accountancy to spread transfer fees over the length of contracts, so it doesn’t really make sense to pay £22m instead of £18m. Unless they have cash-flow problems then it’s £5.5m to pay for four years instead of the £18m.
KP
Anything that keeps him here is good.
As for us spending the money, forget it, it would be wasted, as always.
Up to £43 million for Bamford, Adama and Gibson combined? Players who cost around… £10 million in total, if that? (Not sure how much we paid for Adama.)
Not bad, not bad at all. (And that’s an understatement.) Trebling or even quadrupling what we paid. (Though admittedly this doesn’t take wages into account.)
So long as we can use the money, as KP implied. I still recall Martin O’Neill quitting Villa after not being allowed to use the Milner money for re-investment.
If memory serves me well I think Patrick was given at the time as 6mil and Adama cost the same as we got for Albert, 7mil, plus the 20% cut for Villa.
Still as you say three excellent players out and what will we get in their place.
Waghorn at 6/7/8 mil, no thank you
Especially as Glasgow Rangers sold him for 200,000 !
All this talk of one upfront doesn’t work,when the majority of teams use it now.
We know the issue,
Do we have the slowest midfield in the league trying to use it. Its beyond belief we are not rectifying the issue..
Seeing Ben Gibson in a Burnley shirt, however much I knew it was coming and accepted it, was kind of painful.
It really was a tale of fine margins between AKBoro and Dycheburn – for all our “flaws” we were still a matter of seconds away from doing the double over them and going five points clear. That Michael Keane goal knocked the thrust right out of us. And now Ben is his successor. Sort of.
Smoggy In The Heed was right to imply that the “fine margins” didn’t hide the limitations in our play – but, you know, they were still there. One more chance taken, one less slip at the back, one right final ball…
I’ve been through it before. It was the exact same story with Ireland. In his American World Cup Diary, Big Jack was repeatedly pointing out “if onlys” – missed chances, defensive slips etc – which could have turned losses into draws and draws into wins.
The trouble is, the “if onlys” are very good at masking or glossing over flaws. As I once said, once you toss in a scapegoat here, or a what if there, you don’t need to answer the difficult questions.
Well what can you say about Saturday? How about pathetic, predictable and a waste of time, money and effort!
No not the game but the abject attempt by MFC and their live match day stream.
I’m unable to give an opinion on the game itself as I neither saw or heard any of the proceedings due to that bag of spanners of a “live stream”, suffice to say it was good to see the team keep going to the very end to snatch what was an unlikely point.
Why oh why wasn’t this given a run out pre season to see if there were any issues that could have been sorted before the season kicked off in earnest. People will say that it’s only teething troubles and that it will be used as a stick with which to beat MFC. Well if they keep supplying the sticks what do you expect. An email will be winging its way to the club shortly.
On a much much happier note I must give a big thumbs up to RR for his match report and all the other posters who managed to see/hear the match itself, in particular Chris for his “as he saw it from the away fans section of The Den” post. Been some cracking posts all round for the first game of the season too.
Not too self congratulatory I hope Kookaboro😉
Leeds on fire against Stoke. Paddy on the bench.
Mail reports Waghorn for £5m. Better than £8m but…
No, lets give him a chance.
Thanks Len, and good call-out, self-congratulatory is the wrong way to describe it. You are right, it’s definitely appreciation of others work that we see regularly so that’s an important distinction and generally a good thing. Appreciating others work and saying so is valid. That said, I still find the general love-in can be a bit over the top at times.
Adama Traore will sign for Wolves in the next 24 hours. He will be replaced by Newcastle’s Matt Ritchie. Martyn Waghorn is booked in for a medical with Derby tomorrow after they matched Boro’s offer and the player agreed personal terms.
Ritchie will be a great signing
Mmm, not quite sure how I feel about this one. I guess £18m or £22m over a period is not a bad return for a player that is still a work in progress.
Time will tell if Richie will fit into TP modus operandi
Welcome back, KookaBoro.
Appreciate your viewpoint, as I have done with other views of yours in the past. I especially liked your view on “never seeming to satisfy some people despite the most obvious and clearest of evidence that (one is) making progress”. Because it speaks to something I know of all too well.
That said, I’m more inclined to agree with Len – that what might be seen as self-congratulation is really “thanks and gratitude that bloggers frequently express for the time and trouble that other contributors give to making this blog what it is, and for their commitment to making the whole thing work”.
Although I admittedly understand I’m not in a position to make a wholly objective judgement being a contributor myself.
I do think, however, that what can be perceived is a love-in is more a welcome sense and reminder of communal spirit – showing that whatever we think about the Boro, we only want the best for them and everyone’s opinions are respected, if not agreed with.
And the occasional contrary opinion gets you thinking. It’d be boring if everyone said how amazing DiasBoro was, or how much we’ll miss Adama and Bamford. Someone on Twitter actually said that they were part of the problem, not the solution to our problems. The consensus says, what would we do without their goals, assists and pace – his opinion read that they, and Ben Gibson, had their chance in the Premier League and also the chance to put it right by inspiring Boro to promotion, yet didn’t take it. And also that we will get a sufficient profit for all three, so we can try something different.
Was I startled? Yes. Did I agree? No, because Adama and Bamford were two of my favourite players last year. But agreeing was not important – recognising that there was a valid point in that contrary opinion was.
I like that – they had their chance, we gave them a go but now its time to move on.
It all goes back to the first thing I said to Eamon Dunphy when I met him four years ago. “I probably agree with half, maybe a third, of your views, but it is a thrill to read or listen to them, and they’ve given me no end of ideas.”
That’s the Italia ’90 party-pooper’s biggest gift – making one think for themselves, however incisive, daft or extreme his opinion.
His time on RTE has been and gone but his podcast is living on.
Of *course* I like Matt Ritchie. He was Championship player of the year…
…three years ago, in a Bournemouth side that played entirely different football. This may be a problem.
Alternative views. You’ve got to love them. Like this one.
The public were delighted as Ireland reached the quarter-finals in their first World Cup…
…with no games won, dour football played, and two goals scored, both from long downfield punts from Packie Bonner’s boot.
According to reports Traore is to have a Wolves medical tomorrow after clubs agree a fee of £10m down and add ons which take it to £20m plus.
Come on BORO.
Daily Mirror reporting Derby have matched fee of £5M for Waghorn and he will be having medical at Derby today!
Matt Ritchie is a very good Championship footballer – probably better than what we’ve currently got – but at 28 (soon to be 29) and not an especially quick player, I’m not sure it’s the right move.
I hope he doesn’t come on big wages and would be interested in the fee. £5m+ and Premier League wages would make me uncomfortable.
Four days until the window closes and we are still stuck with Players who we don’t want (unsurprisingly) but at least we have some money coming in for those we would have liked to have kept (in reality two out of those three were pretty much nailed on to go once the final whistle went at Villa Park). The challenge now is how, where and on whom are we going to spend it?
I doubt we will get an upgrade on Ben. Arguably Flint is that replacement although with Ayala’s fitness concerns maybe we do need to replace Ben once again. We are not going to get another Traore that is clear. As exciting as was to watch he was more often than not infuriating. For all the times he had us out of our seats we had our heads in our hands probably twice as often through watching him motionless as the game played out around him. We won’t get anything like as electric in but if we get a better all round contributor it could turn out to be an upgrade in terms of that “synergy” word again. Despite his incredible speed we never really got a benefit out of it often enough and those Play Off games perhaps highlighted that when he was marked by an experienced defender he had nothing else to offer.
We have debated Paddy to exhaustion so all we can do now is wait and watch. For me Waghorn would be an reasonable squad addition at best but not a Paddy replacement and certainly not at the money being talked about. It appears that it may all be an irrelevance now in any case as reports breaking last night indicated he fancied the Derby Snowdome more than the Riverside Stadium.
Sheyi Oji looks to be holding out for the Prem or West Brom so it doesn’t look likely he will turn up here before Thursday’s deadline. I hope rather than am sure that covert negotiations will have been taking place over the last few days and that Ben and Adama’s departure will now have a domino effect on incomings. TP’s honesty about about the squad not being good enough was pretty clear so we wait with baited breath to see what pans out.
Our knee jerk last minute panic deals historically have like as not been not very good and in most cases not what the incumbent Manager at the time wanted. A repeat of that isn’t worth contemplating. From a Club that was once perhaps too loyal to its Managers we now have three previous Managers competing against us in the Championship. We can’t afford to be continually adding to that list.
My greatest fear for this week now is that the money coming in is wasted on said panic signings (and over paying to boot) without a future resale value and we all know how that could end up. A match tomorrow night isn’t the best of timings for us but then again maybe it is in terms of Tav, Wing and Chapman maybe getting a chance that they otherwise may not have got and as a consequence the Club able to curtail some otherwise wasted expenditure. Its certainly not where I thought we would be in August way back in May.
Having reset my hopes and expectattions for the season, there’s a large part of me that’s hoping that we don’t go out and sgn a clutch of new attacking players and just go with the kids.
A creative central midfilder and a fullback (or two) are required but I’m happy to give Tav, Chapman and Wing a go now as prominent squad members at the very least. Braithwaite could fill in up front if required and if still here.
Not very aspirational but when you’re selling off anyone who you get an offer for, how are we expected to feel?
Play the kids.
Sky reporting that Boro have had their offer for Waghorn accepted and are now discussing personal terms with the player.
We must have increased our offer. And we have put ourselves in a situation where the lad has us over a barrel.
RR’s greatest fear that we waste the money coming in on “panic signings (and over paying to boot)” may just be playing out in front of our very eyes within minutes of RR’s posting.
Helluva good deal and massive one season profit for Ipswich. And big pay dirt for the lad. All, literally, at our expense.
In fairness Len you could say the same about Traore
I suppose if one is pessimistic then one will never be disappointed at the outcome. The Chairman’s pre-season rallying call a year ago of intending to smash the league did us no favours, and the general feeling that on paper Boro had the best squad in the Championship proved to be misplaced. Perhaps being a little more realistic would have been a better approach. But that’s now all in the past and the consensus of most of us is that the squad is weaker this season. The feeling is that any recruitments made today or tomorrow will be too late to affect team selection for a match against Sheffield United, a match we could probably do without at the moment. I think it unlikely that TP will make more than one change from Saturday’s starting eleven, perhaps replacing Leadbitter with Wing or Tavernier and relying on keeping a clean sheet, so realistically I’m hopeful for a 1-0 win.
As for Ben, it’s a shame to lose him so late in the transfer window but I think he’s joining a well run club in Burnley. Sean Dyche and his predecessor Eddie Howe are arguably the best young English managers in the game, albeit with different approaches. I think Ben will become a better player under Dyche.
Finally, a good interview by Philip Tallentire with Andrew Davies. Perhaps he is a better interviewer than reporter. I certainly would rather appreciate more interviews from him than the usual recycling of speculation garbage from him.
I know the last few weeks have had many of us speculating, offering ideas (of players we might like in and out), reacting to and giving our thoughts on rumoured targets and offloads and then giving intelligent comment on the actual movements, but there is almost a general despondency about things.
I was thinking overnight about Traore. £18m would have been good business, £22m will be remarkable business. I’ve been thrilled watching him , but he is more often a liability in team than not. We have only really seen the best of him under TP. I wonder, is Nuño capable of finding that best out of him on a consistent basis. Perhaps we have just seen a young journeyman with masses of potential come through Boro, but who lacks the desire to realise that potential. It will be interesting to see how he fares, but I wonder if all we will see of him in the season ahead is the occasional flash of speed induced brilliance, but mostly Premiership class defenders keeping him in their pocket.
Ben, well Ben deserves the opportunity to develop his career. For hi own benefit he should have moved last season, but he stayed and gave everything to the Boro. I am sure Dyche will be good with him, but I wonder if a higher profile club than Burnley might have been better for him. He will be successful for them.
And what about rumoured incomings. Well. I get the impression that TP’s input on recruitment is influential. I can’t see anyone coming in that he doesn’t fancy. And why would he fancy a player like Waghorn? Well, just as with Traore, we didn’t see the best of him till he was under TP’s tutorledge. In other words, TP could see what Traore had and knew how to get him to deliver that more regularly on the pitch. Well, perhaps TP can see something in Waghorn and has belief in his own ability to get that something out of the player.
Ritchie is another one. Late mid-twenties maybe. But we are trying to put together a team that will get promoted. If we do and he is a part of that, then surely it will have been good business to bring him in.
Perhaops we should be less despondent (and I’m as guilty as the next one) and be a ittle more intrigued to see how everything and everyone will fit together as the season progresses. After all it is neither the club’s fault, nor the manager’s, that there is this thing called a transfer window that makes planning how to build your team and then implementing that plan in a timeframe that suits you best extremely difficult.
Listening to TP, I get the impression he knows what he wants and he knows how to achieve it. Maybe, just maybe mind, I am talking myself out of my mindset of no expectancy, but perhaps to be a little excited at the prospects for the season, well at least a very tiny bit excited.
I think the concerns are that we sign a set of players to get us promoted this season which if it works great, job done and the Premiership cash more than compensates in theory. Even more so if TP can keep us up for a few seasons at least.
If it doesn’t work then we are stuck with players who were say 28 years old going on 29 when we signed them for top dollar (and wages and agents fees) that may have enough collectively for another go at promotion providing that we can afford their associated on costs which without parachute payments is probably unlikely. As a consequence their resale value is a lot less than what we paid now as they are entering their twilight zone. How and with what do we rebuild after that?
Sticking with Wing, Tav and Chapman may be just as effective, a damn site cheaper plus a lower risk policy but I don’t think that was the plan although Saturday will have asked questions and tomorrow night will likely confirm or condemn it. Either way it will smack of doing things on the cheap.
Despite landing ourselves with some heavy costs and no resale when we were relegated from the Premiership (Negredo, Valdes) we fortunately also had quite a few that did have resale value and just about covered Monk’s spending spree last Summer. What we have to remember however is that although we covered (almost) Monk’s spending it was the money that we had spent at a Premiership level which is an unsustainable level of spending in the Championship.
I think the worry now is that we are revisiting that Summer of 2009 when Downing (Traore), Tuncay (Bamford) and Huth (Gibson) went and we suddenly found ourselves watching Hoyte, Digard, Lita and Yeates. The next four days will prove or disprove where we are at.
Forgot to throw in St Ledger in that lot!
It is a dilemma. If you have to factor in the future where you have failed to get promotion, so have to get players that fit the bill to get you promoted, but that still have value if you don’t get promoted, then you are compromising your aim to get promoted. On the other hand, as you rightly point out, if you fail in your primary objective the repercussions can be very costly.
On balance I think you have to go with building to meet your immediate targets and you then have a better chance of achieving them. Nothing is guaranteed of course, but you employ the man (TP) who has to stand or fall by how well the team fares against its targets.
Interesting news this morning that Derby have apparently jumped ahead of us in Waghorn queue. We haven’t exactly kept it quiet that we were interested, so that could be one of TP’s transfer targets taken off the market at the last minute. That does leave us with a problem left side, unless we feel Braithwaite or Tavernier could be the person to do the job there.
I think looking at the Millwall game we saw that the time is coming to an end for Leadbitter and Downing (or it should). They are not as dynamic as Wing, Tavernier or Braithwaite and if we are to get out of this division we need more than 1 gear. They should be either released or used as substitutes to keep the game tight as we try and wind the pace down and retain the ball (hopefully when 2-0 up!).
What that means for me is that we need at least another striker, a number 10, a right or left winger and probably a central midfielder. Add in a left and right back and I think we have around 6 (!!!) players that we could do with signing. Leaving your business this late in the window is a massive risk, and unless we are keeping multiple irons in the fire then I wonder whether time has already run out. At least deadline day could be interesting this year!
On the subject of Matt Ritchie – I don’t really care that he’s late 20s. Ritchie is a cracking player at this level, capable of 10-15 goals and a number of assists. He also seems to be an honest, committed professional, and given that he’s currently living up in the north-east then hopefully that will help him settle in. I’ll be curious to see if we go for Hugill, to fit our north-east lads philosophy, as I really don’t rate him that highly. He commanded quite a high fee for half a season of goal scoring, and I’m not sure whether or not 6 months in the wilderness at West Ham will leave him rusty and devoid of confidence. Time will tell, he might not even be a target.
Anyway, let’s see what happens – I’m almost apathetic about it already to be honest, which probably isn’t a good sign.
Hang on – now we’ve agreed a fee for Joe Bryan! Hopefully Flint can persuade him north, he would be a good addition!
We get the Traore money then spend it on Ritchie (skint ourselves on his Premiership wages) that gives Newcastle some brass to spend on a promising young Championship Left Back from Bristol. I’ll get the Typical Boro in first! 🙂
Well it’s now time to publish the new weekly discussion blog on a Monday as we enter week 2 of the season – the rumours and news reports of impending arrivals and departures will no doubt hot up as the day and week progresses. What will pan out this week could well be season defining and indeed shape the reign of Tony Pulis. If we’re lucky come Saturday Boro may well be sitting pretty at the top of the table with a host of new exciting signings – or not! Anyway, here’s my latest weekly preview…
https://diasboro.club/2018/08/06/2018-19-week-02-pulis-waits-patiently-for-news/
I am with RR with reference to his last paragraph in his early morning post.
MFC just cannot justify and certainly cannot afford to buy players, no matter how good they may be?? (Waghorn / Ritchie ) if they are the wrong age for the price paid, with no future resale value.
Waghorn, though he may be destined for Derby, at even 5mil is too much for a nearly 29 year old, similarly Ritchie is 29 next month and what are they asking for him, 15mil? .
Both will have no resale value and added will be high wages for Ritchie. We already are saddled with one of those in Downing seeing out his final year.
Yes I appreciate all buys are a gamble, see Man U and their CB’s, but a club like MFC have to be more clever in their acquisitions. Other teams, Brentford for one, appear to find gems at low cost, develop them and sell high.
Mr Gibson has been reasonably successful in most of his business, Rockcliffe aside, but when it comes to MFC the recruitment has seen some howlers.
But when was the last time Brentford won promotion to the Premiership ? If we are happy to define success as balancing the books above making a calculated gamble to win promotion, then all well and good.
No Ben,Bamford,Traore or Waghorn I’ve told OFB he’s going on his own if we sell any more players.