Championship 2018-19: Week 2
Tue 7 Aug – 19:45: Boro v Sheffield Utd
Thu 9 Aug – 17:00: Transfer Window Closes
Sat 11 Aug – 15:00: Boro v Birmingham
Somewhere in a small out-of-town shopping centre in Europe stands an edgy sixty-year old man increasingly distracted by the sound of a loud ticking clock reverberating in his head. The smouldering sight of his Bulkhaul diamond encrusted platinum credit card beginning to melt through the pocket of his monogrammed flame-retardant jogging trousers hasn’t prevented cries of ‘pants on fire’ when he claims he’s short of cash at the checkout. With his already healthy budget bolstered by some offers that the club couldn’t bring themself to refuse, the presence of a cash-rich man pleading he’s desperate to buy players is perhaps unlikely to encourage hard-nosed sellers with botox injected eyelids to blink anytime soon. After frequently claiming he doesn’t want to waste Steve Gibson’s money, it is perhaps the burning desire to avoid some embarrassing bank statements landing on his chairman’s desk for those impulse purchases that risk warming the already over-heated bench from Garry Monk’s trolley dash last season.
Following a disturbing dream in which a rather closely cropped geodesic-headed Rudy Gestede in 32Red branded hot-pants and stiletto heels attempts an epic strut before damaging his suspect ankles even further, the Boro manager has probably not slept well – plus it has left him feeling not so Money Supermarket as he thought he was. Although sleeping on decisions is not really an option at this late stage. Instead, he’s perhaps been laying awake at night trying to make sense of the recurring nightmare of a small furry animal with a Russian accent encouraging him to compare the market before he blows his money on cheap imitations with expensive price tags. “It’s not as ‘simples’ as you make it out” exclaims Tony before waking once more and placing his Adidas nightcap on his bedside table as he procrastinates over another purchase. The Boro manager assumed everyone knew the transfer market just doesn’t make sense any more and that most clubs pretend to be Moroccan carpet sellers with nothing better to do but offer you endless cups of over-sweet mint tea before finally agreeing to lower their prices to very expensive from extortionate. Playing the game of negotiation takes time unless you’re prepared to bid over the odds or sell on the cheap – something Boro surely would never contemplate!
Yes, spare a thought for the Boro manager as we enter the final few days of the Transfer Window – one that may well end up defining his the reign at the club. Tony Pulis appears powerless to prevent his more coveted players leaving as he shrugs off the inevitable loss of some of last season’s best performers. First, Bamford’s desire to be the main man replaced the one that thought he could one day impress his Boro manager that he had what it takes to lead the line. He retained the 32Red shirt, albeit in white, when joining Leeds for a fee that appears to have been haggled in favour of the latest carpet-baggers of West Yorkshire rather than Boro’s supposedly hard bargainers – though much will depend on the kind of season he enjoys before that particular stick can be legitimately used for punishment beatings. His first experience of being the main man at Elland Road was as an unused sub as he watched their 3-1 victory over newly relegated Stoke – so he’s already seen the benchmark.
Second out of the exit and snapped holding up his new shirt was the brick at the heart of Boro’s defence, Ben Gibson, who has headed to Sean Dyche in footballing Legoland where he’ll be hoping to rebuild his career. Burnley discovered by starting low at £11m and then raising their bid in £2m increments it broke Boro’s resolve at just half of what he was rated 12 months ago. Maybe it’s just a sign of the devaluation that comes when one of the big rich clubs are no longer interested in signing your player. Gibson spent five seasons as a Boro first-teamer, four in the Championship and one in the Premier League side that was relegated and has so far just missed out on acquiring a senior England cap since his ten appearances in the U21s. £15m from an outsider may look like quite a lot for a relatively unproven top-level player. However, if he does settle at Burnley and achieve an England call-up, then it’s likely he’ll be looked at once more by bigger clubs – hopefully Boro have a sell-on clause inserted just in case the silly money returns his way.
The hype and volatility of the inflationary transfer market means one good season has a player’s valuation going through the roof, whereas one bad season can often be explained away and damage limited. Young players in the Championship can have their valuations dramatically inflated purely on potential alone as PL clubs seek new talent to maintain their status, older players less so unless they can amaze and stand out. Ben Gibson will be 26 in January and probably can be no longer sold on potential – at least not for silly money. Perhaps in hindsight the club should have cashed in a year ago if offers closer to the rumoured £30m were possible – especially as he turned out to have had a subdued season last term and never looked close to his usual infallible best. For reasons I can’t quite seem to pin down, it felt like all our defenders and defensive midfielders looked far more impressive when the team simply concentrated on playing more defensively under Karanka – and who could have imagined that?
Looking likely to be the third key player out of the Riverside within a week is Adama Traore, after Wolves decided to meet the much maligned release clause – though it seems they’ve had to pay over £20m to avoid stumping up the whole amount up front. It always seemed the mercurial Boro favourite’s future was going to be away from the club once Pulis admitted he was powerless to stop him leaving if the release clause was met. Whether Boro have been able to insert their own sell-on clause is doubtful as it would logically follow that if Wolves met the conditions to force a sale, then they were under no obligation to add any clauses that were in Boro’s interest. Adama was a charismatic crowd favourite on Teesside and his exciting presence will be sorely missed. The player will now try to prove he can make the step up to the Premier League and continue to build his reputation.
Interestingly, Traore started only 28 of Boro’s league games last season and scored just five goals – it’s perhaps a measure of his box-office personality that, despite those modest sounding stats, he was in most supporters eyes the main player as a creative source of goals. Once he pressed the accelerator, the crowd volume noticeably increased as people excitedly rose out of their seats in anticipation. He is perhaps an example of one of those young players who is being sold on potential and Tony Pulis must take the credit for putting his faith in him and taking him from a peripheral figure under Monk to a valuable sought after asset. Whatever your view, one thing is for certain, a trip to the Riverside will be less exciting without him – especially after the loss of two other crowd favourites in Ben and Bamford.
Ahead of Saturday’s opener at Millwall, there was much talk among the Boro supporters that the current squad was nowhere near good enough to be promotion contenders. Whilst this negative feeling was frowned upon by some as defeatist talk before a ball was even kicked, similar sentiments were echoed by the man in charge at the post-match press conference. He declared of his squad: “It’s a smashing group, but it’s not good enough to get us promoted. We need to add to the group.” – before placing another tenner in the ‘Smash’ box that Steve Gibson held out to him. Pulis went on to add: “I think we’ve got to put things in perspective, if you look at the team that came here today compared to the team that finished the season we’re six players down. “When you are talking about Gibson, Ayala, Traore, Bamford, Besic, all top players, so that team was a massive change.” Although the ‘sixth’ man down was undeclared, it was widely assumed it was Rudy Gestede that was the one who narrowly missed out on the ‘top player’ accolade from the manager.
The performance itself at Millwall was so underwhelming for the first hour that the club apparently took the drastic step of cutting the live video stream to spare many overseas Boro followers from witnessing the mauling at the Den. Only those watching with smartphones were allowed to be indulged by the MFC app, safe in the knowledge they’d be busy texting, tweeting and taking selfies to notice much of the game. In fact, the away side were lucky to escape to the dressing room without any terminal scratches at 0-2 down. But it was only the introduction of youth in the second half that sparked life into the team as the ‘experienced’ Leadbitter, Clayton and Downing all got hooked to make way for Wing, Tavernier and Fletcher – which subsequently removed 32 additional years worth of tired and predictable legs from the pitch. Suddenly the team had acquired the kind of energy that Mr Caraboa could only dream of representing with a dead buffalo’s head. With the added purpose at which the youngsters ran at the opposition it started to create chances, leading to an unlikely late double that saw Boro rescue a valuable point that felt like a win.
Many are now suggesting that this is maybe the way to go and that Pulis should learn the lesson that it was time to put faith in the younger players. I suspect he won’t be so easily distracted from building a team in his image and it’s likely the youngsters place in the limelight will be short-lived if new recruits arrive on the stage. The Boro manager is probably looking at recruiting known quantities with the physicality and power he craves. The likes of Tavernier and Wing may spend much of the season adorning the bench, ready to provide cameos in the last third of games. My hunch is that given the choice, Pulis prefers hardened pros to the enthusiasm of youth – though that is not to say he couldn’t be forced to be proved wrong if their performances win points. Rumours of big full-backs with long throws and even bigger muscular forwards waiting to flex themselves for the cause will not persuade many among the Boro faithful that a change of heart is imminent. Hopefully, more than anything else, Tony Pulis will want to win games and not be stubborn in his quest to prove his methods are still valid – he’s not in Karanka’s league in that respect.
One interesting aspect to recruiting late is what then should we make of these new recruits missing the all important pre-season mountain-climbing conditioning that is supposedly so vital? If half the the eventual first team underwent less testing regimes, then does it negate the overall purpose of pre-season for the collective? Perhaps sometimes these short extreme fitness plans are over-stated or exaggerated in the grand scheme of things – they may work better for some players but it’s probably more psychological in making them think that they can push themselves further than they thought. Extensive plasma screen analysis carried out by amateur researchers at the University of Life (formed after the merger between Black Cab College and Local Pub Polytechnic) showed that during the World Cup, winning teams always look fitter than the one that has just lost and subsequently collapses on the floor exhausted and dejected. We can therefore perhaps conclude that if you want to stay fit then try to avoid losing too often and then giving yourself a mountain to climb at the end of the season – note: this study is yet to be peer reviewed.
As for how Boro will replace the key players that have just left and those now out of favour, who are waiting in the lobby for a courtesy limo to take them to the next gig – well we appear still unclear if virtual rumours and press speculation will eventual materialise into anything of substance. As we speak, apparent long-term target, Martyn Waghorn of Ipswich is rumoured to be set to snub Boro and join Derby instead – it looks like the lure of Lampard may trump the pull of Pulis – unless it’s just part of the auction game. There are some suggestions Boro are looking at Matt Richie of Newcastle to fill the void left out wide but he doesn’t sound like a box-office replacement for Adama. It’s not even clear if the money raised by the sales of the three crowd favourites (which amounts to nearly £50m) will be spent in the coming days.
Hopefully it won’t be blown on seemingly overpriced projects – Liverpool’s Sheyi Oji is apparently available for £10-15m. I think there should be a rule of thumb that a player’s valuation should be related to the shirt number a club gives them. Oji was photographed in pre-season wearing the number 54 shirt with Klopp declaring he was close to the first team – come on, if your shirt number is only normally seen on a bus then it’s unlikely you are going to be featuring in the first-team squad any time soon. It looks like any arrivals at Hurworth are being kept a closely guarded secret while Neil Bausor practises his money shot smile for the gathered media.
Anyway, if Tony Pulis wasn’t busy enough try to get shopping done he’s actually got two games to contend with this week. Thanks to Boro’s game against West Brom being selected for TV on Friday the 24 August, the planned midweek fixture before it against the Blades has been cut and spliced into this Tuesday instead. I suspect the Boro manager could have done without this extra distraction – especially as he now only has half his preferred team available. Sheffield United lost their opening fixture at home as newly relegated Swansea came from behind to snatch victory. Coincidentally, this game was also Boro’s home bow last season as Garry Monk’s team got off the mark with a 1-0 victory thanks to a Rudy Gestede looping header. The game itself was marred by crowd trouble after the final whistle with the away fans hurling bottles and coins at the departing Boro supporters. Let’s hope we get a repeat of the victory but not the behaviour of the visiting supporters.
Whilst it doesn’t seem ideal to play this fixture now, it at least give a Boro a shout at topping the table as the only other midweek Championship fixture involves Forest and West Brom – and neither of them won their opener. In fact that late rally by Boro may have given them some momentum after they escaped from languishing in second bottom just above thrashed Rotherham – though will Pulis put his faith in the youngsters who got him out of jail? He probably should given his limited options – especially since getting the crowd behind a team that is missing their departed favourites will not be easy if he opts for the mono-paced midfield trio that started Millwall.
The week ends with the return of Garry Monk and his now out-of-court settled backroom staff after Steve Gibson decided against enforcing their gardening leave after they joined Boro’s former manager at Birmingham. Indeed, welcoming former managers looks like being a regular feature at the Riverside this season as Mogga will bring his Blackburn side, McClaren returns with QPR and Agnew arrives again alongside Bruce at Villa – we just need Strachan to be given the Leeds job around Christmas and Gareth Southgate to come and check on the emerging Dael Fry to get the full set. As for the game itself against a Blues side that only just escaped relegation last season – it’s probably not the worst fixture to have as Birmingham suffered a similar fate to Millwall in that Norwich equalised with a late injury time goal. No doubt made even worse by the fact that Garry Monk’s side had just thought they’d picked up all three points with an 89th minute strike. They now have a whole week to dwell on that one and practice drills of trying not to panic at the end of games.
So time for another week on the Boro roller-coaster, I suspect many will be anticipating feeling sick and dizzy as they scream to get off – others will be looking forward to the adrenaline rush and just enjoying the ride. As for Tony Pulis? Well he may be sticking with the swings and roundabouts analogy, before hoping to avoid the big slide if his see-saw dip into the transfer market leaves him feeling he’s been given the merry-go-round by his missed targets.
I suspect with Boro having a game tomorrow, Tony Pulis will keen to get some business done sooner rather than later and that may well mean forcing the market by throwing some extra cash around. Not making signings to save the odd million here and there may prove more costly in the long run – especially if Boro do indeed bank close to £50m on Bamford, Gibson and Traore. Leaving it late to buy when the sellers now know you have cash to burn won’t get them reducing the price I’d wager.
It’s fine margins. Clubs may end up being stuck with an unhappy player because they tried to squeeze a few extra quid out.
At least TP is experienced and I don’t imagine a soft touch.
I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw the same team that started on Saturday starting tomorrow night too.
Great opener, Werder. An excellent summary of the current complex situation, and very funny too.
Another excellent piece Werder.
According to Sky Sports Wolves have agreed a fee with Boro for Traore and he is due a medical today. If true, and if he does leave I shall be very sorry to see him go as it is a long time since I saw anyone playing for Boro who can get the crowd on their feet like he can.
The fee is quoted as around £20m which I suppose is a pretty good return for Boro on their investment in him but Sky Sports claim that the initial payment will be just £10m with the balance in instalments depending on appearances. Why oh why would MFC accept such an arrangement for the transfer fee in selling their most exciting player and a potentially extremely valuable asset to Wolves? Surely the deal should be full payment up front? Sadly it looks as though this is yet another poor business decision in the transfer market by MFC management.
It gives me little confidence that the club will spend the initial £10m wisely and, with the end of the transfer window looming, will no doubt be forced to pay over the odds for those players they do decide to buy.
It could also slow down the anticipated cash from the sale that Villa are anticipating to buy Joe Bryan with and also is a means of “structuring” payments for any incoming players because we didn’t get the Traore cash up front. Nothing worse than trying to barter when the seller knows you have a huge wedge burning a hole.
RR, good point but a bird in the hand and all that and linking payment to appearances gives the buying club the ability to control what they pay by not selecting the player should they choose to do so.
Thanks, the latest news on Traore as of 3pm is that he’s still at Rockliffe and training – perhaps Wolves still haven’t agreed on a payment structure yet with Boro or indeed the club are postponing agreeing an alternative payment structure until a replacement is signed.
A well-written piece with some great points about what to expect under Pulis. No talk about “smashing the league” this time, because, well, we all know what happened when we talked about that.
For now, because we all need cheering up, I present to you one of the best comments I’ve ever read on this blog.
It’s about Pulis’s hapless predecessor and was originally penned last December. Ladies and gents…
GARRY THE MONK
Music: Chuck Berry
Lyrics: Mr Parker’s Dog (with the occasional amendment by yours truly)
In smoggy North East England came a man who tried
To light up all things football at the Riverside
His remit was to smash the league and not get drunk,
A country boy from Bedford named Garry The Monk
His tactics? Organising skills? All there to see
Promotion to the Premier League a certainty
Go, go!
Go Garry, go! go!
Go Garry, go! go!
Go Garry, go! go!
Go Garry, go, go, go!
Garry The Monk!
He used to manage Swansea but he got the sack
And later Leeds United didn’t want him back
So Boro’s Stevie Gibson took him under his wing
Convinced by all his spiel, and the riches he’d bring
The Middlesbrough supporters were onboard as well
All saying, “Just one season of this Champo hell!”
Go, go!
Go Garry, go! go!
Go Garry, go! go!
Go Garry, go! go!
Go Garry, go, go, go!
Garry The Monk!
But after half a season things weren’t going right
The team were all dysfunctional and playing (*expletive*)
Alarm bells were a ringing from all over town
Consensus of opinion was that Monk was a clown
But maybe Stevie Gibson being the man of reason
Will let him tinker on until the end of the season…?
I say, go!
Go Garry, go! go!
Go Garry, go! go!
Go Garry, go! go!
Go Garry, go, go, go!
Garry be good… and for God’s sake, go!
* * *
Thanks Simon, it’s perhaps more of a crash than a smash so far this season in terms of expectations – it sounds like Pulis is expecting to sign 5 players if nobody else leaves after Traore, and that’s a big if I think…
A good appraisal from Werdermouth as where we’re at. I think it’s a big gamble for Wolves to splash out £22M on ‘potential’ especially as the big guns who could have taken a risk on Traore have obviously declined to do so. Wolves might find themselves relegated at the end of the season and more or less in the same position that Boro find themselves in today. Yes Traore is exciting, but the end product leaves a lot to be desired especially for a Premier League club. I agree with TP that another season’s coaching with a Championship club would have been a better option for the lad. However maybe Matt Richie could become a better alternative for Boro though as he does appear to have a better end product.
Although the Championship is a notoriously difficult League to get out of, I still maintain that the standard of football is pretty low and with four or five reasonable acquisitions Boro should have nothing to fear. It’s just a question of whether those proposed acquisitions can be purchased in the next few days.
Adama has concrete speed, bravery and strength, with a developing skill to match. He is the sort that can be a constant nuisance in terrorising defences and creating space for others. Dwell on his underwhelming end product for too long and you’re underselling the contribution he can really make to a team who figures out how to use him properly.
Players like him don’t settle for being cogs in a machine, even a winning one. They can be much, much more.
yes, Simon, spot on. If the Sky Sports story is true then I think time will show that Wolves have got a bargain and what’s more, over half the fee on interest-free credit.
Great read as always Werder thank you.
Still awaiting a response from MFC regarding a refund for their streaming no show on Saturday and confirmation that they have resolved the problem and there will not be a repeat tomorrow. Have down loaded the MFC app to the iPad as back up.
Was not enamoured by the thought of acquiring Waghorn but even less pleased to hear he had chosen Derby instead.
It does suggest that recruitment may be an issue for us when players have to decide between the likes of Pulis, Lampard, Bruce etc. We could have a similar scenario if the rumours regarding Bryant are true.
I am not sure exactly what Ritchie brings to the party other than his experience. I do not see him injecting pace or significant creativity. To me he is another Downing and some one whose better days are coming to an end.
Given what transpired on Saturday, TP cannot start with the same midfield and should replace Leadbitter with Wing and Downing with Tavernier.
Randolph
Shotton, Flint, Fry & Friend
Clayton
Tavernier, Howson, Wing & Braithwaite
Assombalonga.
Crowd 22,222
Boro 0 – 0 Blades
CoB 😎
Thanks KP. I’m probably not really expecting a refund from MFC for the problems streaming the Millwall match as I bought a season pass that works on the proviso that not all games are included since televised games are not part of the deal. if I’d just bought a match pass then yes I would expect a refund but am not expecting a couple of quid back for missing the first 70 minutes. Though some reassurance that the problems had been fixed would be good but who knows until they test it live again. I’ve installed the app on my son’s Kindle just in case – he may have to manage without his bedtime audio story on Tuesday 🙂
Werdermouth I’m dismayed, you mean to say that Boro v. Sheffield United would not have been his first choice of Bedtime story?
He prefers happy endings normally and gets scared easily – which he gets from his father 🙂
Though he’s not really shown much interest in football let alone Boro and normally precedes the word football with stupid – which I think he gets from his mother…
For all his brilliance, for huge parts of games and (prior to Pulis arriving) even entire games he stood around looking for the ball to be passed to him almost disconnected with the movement and flow of the game. Instead of running into space, dragging defenders wide and creating openings for a colleague or running into an area to receive the ball he would literally be like a magnet and run to whoever had the ball in a schoolboy manner.
No doubting his skill, no doubting his determination and body strength to shrug off challenges and crucially bounce back up again but the TV highlights were literally just that, just the highlights. Having said that I would still pay my entrance money just to watch him. His going is disappointing and it seems to be symptomatic of where we are as a club but his loss will not be as great if we get a decent replacement in situ.
Admittedly in my heart I would rather watch a team full of Juninho’s and Traore’s than some others who I won’t mention and wish him all the best for the future but we do have to recall that against Villa he was anonymous purely by being marked out of the game by an elderly defender in Hutton and he had nothing up his sleeve to change that. Its up to him now to take it to the next level and as an outlet in the Premiership when under the cosh I am certain he will be effective for Wolves but he needs to be able to read the game which is why he was playing alongside Clayts and Leadbitter and not Messi and Iniesta.
If the news about the problems of Wolves finding the readies is true, then we can forget this manager and this management.
The cards were in their hands, discussion over, end of.
A polite news flash ( on Thursday evening) saying that Wolves could not raise the money would have ended it.
It is beyond belief that any club in position to keep a player they depended on ( and how) would help the other club to get round it’s problem.
All we need now is the announcement that there is no sell on clause because Wolves did not like it ( I expect it any moment).
He is the most bizarre manager I have known, his statements make no sense, his actions make less.
Based on who he picks, he got rid of Bamford, strike one.
He kept Gestede ( he’s still here)
He sold Gibson for 15 million, sell on clause anyone.?
Try to buy his clone for the same.
He has moved heaven and earth to give away Traore for peanuts, sell on clause?
I listened to his spiel at full time, and despaired, no idea that his team had crashed and burned, please do not criticise his starting eleven, and on it went, and on,
I do not want to say that the young lads payed great, that would give a false impression of the game.
The players who came on and saved the day? I’m not sure that would be a correct description.
Will they start on Tuesday?
I wont go into that, it would be premature.
I want to say again that my starting eleven did ok
A touch of class from Ben:
https://www.mfc.co.uk/news/an-open-letter-from-ben-gibson
Of course there is another possibility in the Adama to Wolves saga – perhaps they offered less favourable terms to him than those made by Boro in the reported great offer of a ‘new contract’ – it would be funny if having agreed with MFC some form of structured deal they are now unwilling to match or better what is on offer to Traore if he stays and signs a new contract at Boro.
⚽️⚽️
Why change a winning streak!
OFB
I believe structured payments for transfer fees are normal.
It is time to stop beating ourselves up about the players who left or are leaving because we cant do anything about it. We do have a tendency to rearrange scant facts and pad them out to suit our own views, me included. Take the money and move on.
It is who comes in that is more important now.
Ian, fair comment. Alas we can’t do anything about who comes in either….!!
Ian
If they had produced 18 million, we were out of it.
They could not, short of the readies!, so we kept him. No club lets a deal go through when the money is not there.
All the talk of fiddling the figures is so much hot air, an unwilling seller has no duties to anyone.
The truth is these people were caught out in a strait forward lie.
This sale was not forced, it was planned, but they were trapped by their own stupidity, a bottom fisher tried to con them.
It is actually, a triumph for the fans, because these people would undoubtedly have dropped their price but for the lies they had told the fans.
For once they had to stick out for their price And see where it got them.
I bet they left out the add on’s ( we shall see) but not if they can help it .
I am glad we are not getting Waghorn. The fee for him was ridiculous.
I had to laugh at the Gazette when they said Downing was ineffective on Saturday. Have they ? just realised, that he has been ineffective for a long time.
Braveheart,
You do realise that you have cast the runes for him to score a hat-trick when we play Derby? I know nothing but I’m not convinced about him either.
However I hope Mr Pulis does start with those that finished on Saturday, I see no advantage in starting with the tired and plodding midfield that we began with at Millwall. A spark is needed and the young ones have it, those young men will be fired-up playing in front of their home crowd.
Transfers? Well what will happen will happen, the only thing I do know is that Diasboro will dissect, analyse and know exactly what should have happened. That’s the benefit of being a fan.
The benefit of being a manager and a recruitment ‘departmen’t is knowing what will happen if you screw the recruitment of new players up, that’s a definite. Unlike Mr Monk I think Mr Pulis will pass if the players aren’t up to the standards and job description he requires. I don’t see a sweetshop come supermarket dash happening here.
Great lead article too, witty and informative, thank you.
UTB,
John
I don’t see a queue of clubs lining up to sign Traore, if he is as good as posters seem to be making out why is that? It would appear to me that the deal rests on Traore himself.
He doesn’t have to go and Boro don’t have to sell him. If it’s just down to wages then if we’re serious about mounting a concerted effort on gaining promotion we should be able to match the Wolves offer.
As a newly promoted club Wolves won’t be playing fast free flowing attacking football and the emphasis will be on surviving in their first season back. Compare that to a club geared up for a promotion challenge.
Over to you Adama.
And no queue for Ben either.
Grove
Last time I looked Boro were a football club, which implies control over who leaves and who stays.
We were told that Traore had an 18 million release. And we were unhappy about it.
Then we were told that Wolves could not meet the fee.
Then we were told that we were helping Wolves to meet the fee.
Then we were told that helping them was costing us money and our (best) player.
Anyone spot the bleeding obvious?
It was us who were selling him very willingly.
Can this club lie straight in bed?
Ian is correct, most transfers are structured over a number of years as very very few clubs have the large amounts of money now being paid.
If we can get 20mil ish for Adama then that is reasonable business even though 4 will go to Villa. But not all at once.
I think we will now struggle to bring in replacement players of a good calibre without paying over the odds and agreeing higher than economically acceptable wages.
I know Powmill did not agree with me over my last post, but I will still same once more, buying players of an age with no possible future value is lunacy. Strachan proved that and left MFC and poor old Mogga to try and sort it out.
Mr Gibson may be a rich man in relation to most on here, but in the football world now, he is relatively poor. I do not know his finances but I would say that he probably now cannot continue propping up MFC at a million a month as he has done in the past.
When he invested in Rockcliffe Hall it was to provide an income for the club in the future. That has not materialized as it is yet to make a profit I believe.
So I go back to my last post, No large fees for 29 year olds and especially those on Premier Wages. It is not sustainably unless you achieve promotion, something we did not do last year after spending 40 mil.
Just a thought but maybe the Wolves/Boro/Adama tryst is a gentleman’s agreement.
If the deal goes through at 16.59 on Thursday it means Villa have less cash to splash until January and therefore doing us a favour as they can’t count on the money until the deal is definitely done. It may mean the difference to them landing Bryan or say Hugill who they are also linked with or it may even put the kibosh on them getting Snodgrass back?
The last thing we want to be doing is boosting a competitors coffers, who knows it may even force them to part with Albert for a knock down fee?
RR,
Devious and very, very Sir Humphrey type of thinking. I like it. A lot.
But how would you keep that kind of chicanery under wraps? Weren’t we pursuing, allegedly, at one time, a former Boro player at Villa? Maybe that will happen at the last minute too? Giving them no time to spend the money.
UTB,
John
I also believe where we are in for the same player at the same price we should up the ante by offering a higher figure. We either get the player we want or if not because they out bid us, then we have forced them to pay a higher price and at the same time reduced their spending ability.
Might be of interest to those of you who subscribed to the online:
https://www.mfc.co.uk/news/mfc-to-issue-refund-to-live-stream-subscribers
Well done MFC, a £5 refund for all subscribers sounds like the club have acted quickly and fairly to compensate everyone – though I’m not 100% sure if it applies to those who used the downloaded app to view the game with which I caught the last 20 minutes. My favourite though is that Season Audio Subscribers will get a 52 pence refund but hopefully it won’t change their lives…
In reality, I suspect most of the Championship players we’ve been linked with (especially the strikers) will probably be sold on if we’re promoted as they don’t appear to have interested PL clubs. In which case age probably doesn’t come into it and nor will having to take a hit on the resale price if we were indeed to be promoted.
The only requirement is that they can perform in the Championship at a consistent level. Boro paid £15m for Britt and that was probably at least £5m over the odds so why quibble this season on a few million overspent on individual players if they are a decent fit for what we need – especially as this is our last season with parachute payments and next year promotion could be an even harder prospect.
Because if we don’t go up this Season Werder we would be stuck with an ageing squad with severely reduced resale values meaning that we are stuck here for another five, six or ten plus years. Last summer we had Prem Money plus the resale value of the outgoings which almost balanced out our spending. This summer we have jettisoned, Fabio, Barragan, Bamford, Gibson and Traore (almost) showing on paper at least circa £45M coming into MFC coffers (less the Villa money).
Who we have next season to bring in some desperately needed cash in order to comply with FFP should we not go up depends a lot on who we sign now assuming that Tav, Wing and Chapman don’t tear this league apart and their values correspondingly soaring. Four or five 28/29 year olds arriving whose value will be declining is a slippery slope for me. I don’t mind one or two, say an Albert or even a Snodgrass who are proven (mind you I thought the same about Howson) but the rest of the cash should have a bar height at 25 or 26 years old. Remember we have already swapped Ben for a 29 year old in Aden Flint.
Add in that Rockliffe is still not showing a profit (to the best of my knowledge) and SG may not want to dip his hands in his pockets again especially considering that being the wrong side of sixty may mean that his personal goals are focussed on putting his feet up preferably with some pocket money left for retirement.
Of course I wouldn’t advocate buying ageing over-priced players who weren’t good enough for the top end of the Championship but as long as they are consistent performers at the level we need for promotion I’m not overly concerned at spending a few extra millions more than they’re estimated to be worth – especially if the alternative is missing out on the better players and settling for cheaper inferior players. It’s supposed to be a promotion challenge we are mounting this season and that requires some degree of risk. That risk seems to have been offset by realising nearly £50m additional funding and most of that money needs to be reinvested on the pitch if promotion isn’t to become just an aspiration.
Werder
I cannot see the logic of using one (very) bad buy, that would be Britt, to justify another bad buy, that would be whatever aged has been winds up enjoying the delights of our training centre for oh, I don’t know, two seasons?
There is a certain level of incompetence which, once achieved means that nothing will move them from our bosom except the end of their contract.
I can’t believe the top six clubs in the premiership don’t have players on the fringe we could be interested in.
Sergio Aguero would have trouble scoring goals in this team.
The midfielders couldn’t play “my mother said ” with pace.
I thought after last season we could be in a bottom half dog fight with this lot, all of them a year older ,no progress ,no ambition they’ve all been there got the tee shirt ,
I’m really concerned ?
Hopefully the tired and outclassed Midfield we saw on Saturday confirmed or preferably condemned any long term plans involving them collectively.
I’m all for utilising the loan market as you’ve previously suggested – preferably with players from top six clubs with shirt numbers in the thirties rather than the fifties. I wonder which Premier League player has the highest shirt number?
I’ve discovered Arsenal’s Nigerian youngster, Kelechi Nwakali, was given the number 98 shirt before being loaned to Porto – sounds like one for the future…
Top read Werder keep them coming.
Nice touch from Ben after his move to Burnley and good luck to him unless he plays against the Boro when I hope he has a stinker.
Braveheart
As a long standing supporter of Downing I posted a few blogs back that this season could be one too far and I stand by that, even though I didn’t see the game friends who did said he was poor to say the least. Squad player at best for me this season?
Rewind 12 months. Last few days of the transfer window, chairman with a fair chunk, ( probably more when Traore goes), of money burning a hole in his pockets, what could possibly go wrong.
Getting a refund after Saturdays technical problems which came as a bit of a surprise so angry email not required. Good customer service which I am happy to point out. It’s not always negative even from me.
Fingers crossed it works for tomorrow night. UTB!
SSN reporting Villa have agreed deal with Bristol City and Joe Bryan now discussing personal terms – another one gone. We will be left with the dregs!
Werder: the usual.
KP
Leaving it late is always a gamble. With our track record on recruitment, stand by for dregs incoming.
Overpriced dregs, I should add.
Players may not be coming for football reasons. We missed out in the play offs and are selling our best assets.
Maybe Boro are less attractive to other players than we think we are. Other teams have been doing business whilst all the talk at Boro has been about when Ben and Adama will leave, that has been followed by Paddy jumping ship.
We may be working down our list of targets and are now looking at minor improvements on what we have.
I am not going to build my hopes up.
A good start to the week Weder and had me chuckling again. Hopefully I will still have a smile on my face this time next week!
I am still not sure what to make of all the transfer
Goings on, maybe TP is having a go on the hook a duck side show and if he has enough goes, then he will pick one that has a prize in the bottom!
After that he will move onto the Roller Coaster which is what this season will become I suspect.
Picking up from what Redcar Red said at 610 the finances, I had a quick look at the June 17 accounts for Club. Now whilst it made a pre tax profit of £6.8m this was on the back of £100m of broadcasting income whilst the year before saw a loss of £32m. The wages cost last year to June 17 was £57m compared to £28m the year before.
It follows that with falling parachute payments, then there needs to be a reduction in costs somewhere especially since the company is insolvent to the tune of £57m and kept afloat with the £93m loan from the parent company.
As RR said, SG has only a finite amount of cash and by current terms, not as much as others. So I think there has to be a balancing of the books this year and it would be interesting to have been a fly in the wall when S.G. was giving TP he budget and objectives for this season!
My hope is that we don’t waste money on over rated players for high fees and wages, I would much rather see the kids come through and see where we get to.
Onto tomorrow when I will be able to see the new improved Boro play live and be able to make a more informed decision on what will be this season.
Prediction is for a Boro win 2-1 with Britt and Howson (actually getting a shot on target) scoring and 22,322 in attendance.
Boro Beckys Dad, that was to June 2017.
The figures for 2108 will be somewhat different. We spent a net £8m on transfers, the wage bill was severely cut and parachute money came in. We wont know those figures for some time.
When AV did his fag packet maths, season 2107/18 appeared well under control as far as FFP was concerned.
This season was to be the crunch one. Oddly the incoming money has put us in a better position but possibly a bit late for this window.
It may be it is hang on to the coat tails until January and the kids kick on. Who knows.
Ian
That was my understanding of the finances as well – that there was no major financial pressure to get promoted last season as we’re in good shape for another season at least.
It does make you wonder why first team players have been/are being sold off.
Perhaps it is a mixture of reasons. Perhaps Bamford wasn’t wasn’t fancied. Perhaps Gibson had a gentleman’s agreement to stay one more year last summer. Perhaps Traore just can’t be held back. Fabio had previously wanted to leave.
It worries me is players want away though.
Agreed that the figures are out of date although I guess the point I was making is that without as much parachute money this year, then logically there has to be some cut backs unless S.G. puts more cash in. Yes we were ok last year and maybe this season as well but you can’t carry on spending money on high transfer fees and wages on falling income.
The teamsheet being announced before the match could generate an untold amount of goodwill towards TP prior to kick off.
Naming the kids who played Saturday will give the crowd a lift, raise expectations and create excitement which hopefully would charge up the players.
However I can’t see TP chagrin no the habits of a lifetime.
I suspect the Leads/Clayton axis to be dismantled with one of them on the pitch and one on the bench to be used in a like for like swap when the first tires. Probably after twenty minutes. Each will sit alongside Tavernier. Wing will probably replace Downing at half time, and the rest will be unchanged assuming we haven’t signed Messi.
At our brief best on Saturday we pulled Millwall around their area in the manner of a seasoned tennis player dragging an opponent across the court, waiting for the correct moment to send over an an until returnable shot. Or in our case a wicked cross.
It was undeniably exciting to see the ball pingponging about in their penalty area, sowing panic and reaping chances.
There was more than one half call for a handball which struck me as part of the plan, to get the ball moving at pace in their area and force errors.
Far from hoofball, it was measured and controlled pressure. I would love is to begin a game with such intensity but I think it unlikely.
The brain says a narrow win, the heart says a strong win. I wish I was going to be there.
Whilst we are feeling frustrated with our current outgoings and sparse incomings you have to feel sorry for poor Real Madrid and Chelsea who have players actually going on strike to force a move.
Mateo Kovacic is desperate to get away from Los Blancos and Thibaut Courtois has failed to turn up at Chelsea apparently desperate to join Los Blancos.
It’s a mad mad world these days! If you or I were to try that with our employers, then we wouldn’t be employees for very long I suspect, let alone being rewarded for it.
The balance of power has shifted far too much in the players favour now and mediocrity or even worse is handsomely rewarded.
And breathe!
I imagine there would be no shortage of suggestions for a new mascot at Boro………..
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-45081943
Thanks Werder, great preview.
It would appear that with time running out for new signings, our best hope is for loan deals from the premier league. Hugill, Ojo and Besic fall into this category.
Permanent deals seem to be slipping through our fingers fast as it appears that nobody wants to sign for Boro. Although we may have dodged a bullet with Waghorn.
Our last remaining hope looks to be Richie from the geordies, personally I would prefer Gayle.
Freeman at QPR and the Spanish lad from Brentford seem to have disappeared of the radar if they were ever on it, any news on them OFB?
Old Billy
It’s all gone quiet I think that the Waghorn speculation hacked a few people off when it was hijacked so it’s a need to know basis
I might find something out tonight at the game
OFB
Joe Bryan has a choice to make.
Boro:
Join a club that are losing their best players
Far up in the cold north east
Tony Pulis
average support base
average size stadium
ready supply of parmo’s
chubby brown
Chris Rea
Villa:
Now actively growing their squad
huge fan base
huge stadium
Steve Bruce
great history
closer to home
slightly better weather
Jasper Carrot and Lenny Henry
UB40
I wonder who he will pick
Don’t forget his mate Flint is at the Boro
Are they mates tho!!!!
Northern Echo reporting Traore to Wolves is now a done deal and he’s off for his medical today.
Some other transfer news, Brentford have rejected Leicester’s bid of £15m for their 20-year old centre-back who made 23 appearances last season – they want at least £20m. To paraphrase Sean Dyche, it sounds like they are proving not to be as refreshing easy to deal with as Boro were with Ben Gibson. Burnley are also now Targeting Peter Crouch so Tony Pulis better get in first if he’s not going to be left disappointed again…
Incidentally, I updated a sentence in my article after publishing it yesterday with regard to Traore’s stats after repeating Sky Sports claim that he’d scored 3 goals in 23 league appearances last season. It didn’t sound right when I re-read as I’d thought he had scored more than that so I rechecked it. He had in fact scored 5 league goals in 28 starts and I discovered that the wrong stats appears to come from Adama’s career profile on Wikipedia – but the asterisk below the table states ‘as of 18 Feb 2018’.
Anyway, I found this site that seemed quite good for a player’s stats and also lists their assists and is broken down by competition too…
https://www.fctables.com/players/adama_traore-199367/
For “refreshingly easy” read “soft touch”!
Apparently Boro’s match tonight can be viewed live on the red button on their football channel.
Why we should need Waghorn with Britt, Braithwaite, Gestede and Fletcher already in situ is beyond me. Britt aside, he is everything as much a journeyman as the other three and as a replacement for Bamford is everything we would not hope for.
Bryan seems a much better character but sadly it look like he will head elsewhere.
We will face worse dilemmas this season. ONwards and upwards.
Reported preparing an £8m bid for Villa striker Kodja. Last season his goals tally doubled his ankle operations, 4 vs 2.
Did have a good season the year before that scoring 19 from 36 games. Did well at Bristol City before that. Again, he is aged 28, what is it around that age that attracts us?
SSN reporting MFC have launched an ambitious move for Everton winger Yannick Bolasie.
“The 29-year-old is surplus to requirements at Goodison Park and is available for around £15m, despite joining the Toffees two years ago for £26m.
Boro boss Tony Pulis knows Bolasie from his time as manager of Crystal Palace.
We understand the DR Congo international is also interesting former club Palace and Burnley, but Boro have money to spend after selling Ben Gibson and Patrick Bamford for a combined £25m this week.”
Another nearly 30 and overpriced player so fits our ctriteria exactly!
Linked with Yannick Bollasie from Everton – supposed £15m, ouch! That, no doubt would be another phased deal. Only pay the full amount if it works
YP knows him from his Palace days. 29 again!
If TP is going to use youngsters may be he wants to get some experience with pace.
So, we only should sign 20/25 year olds for small money. These signings should be able to go straight in to the first team and make an immediate impact, and fire the club to promotion to the PL.
As there are so many available it shouldn’t be difficult to sign them, the EFL are littered with them, a veritable production line.
Time for a reality check.
I think panic has set in GHW. And TP has painted himself into a corner by publicly stating we are not good enough and need six players in.
A 29 year old recovering from a serious injury who has struggled to regain form and a 28 year old recovering from a serious injury who has struggled to regain form (who will be 29 in two months). A rumoured combined £23M, (£15M and £8M) if they recover top form and we smash the League great, who cares.
Anyone willing to put their house on it? Me neither which is why despite wanting success I don’t want MFC a broke and busted flush in 12 months time which is where we are possibly headed with these links.
The transfer fees are not my main concern, it will be the size of the contracts that will be around four-years with wages that will need to be high enough to make them consider dropping down to the Championship. It’s usually the problem of moving on players with high value contracts that once they are in their early thirties no longer attract PL clubs. This was the case with Downing, who after being told he was not in Monk’s plans but couldn’t find anyone to match what Boro were paying him so decided to stay.
Grove
No club should ever sign a thirty year old, they bring a history with them, and it is generally not a good one.
All aspiring clubs, and all clubs should be aspiring, should be permanently looking to the future, which means young players, with a future, the crowd love seeing young players becoming heroes.
All well run clubs treat their players like cars, get them at the start of their careers, use them, enjoy them, and sell them at thirty. Continue with this method and get rich, see Arsenal, see Real Madrid, Ronaldo 100 million, that’s the way to do it.
GHW
I agree, as I said maybe he wants some experience with pace alongside his youngsters.
You just could not make this lot of rumours up if you tried. I sincerely hope that is all they turn out to be. All old in terms of no return on them in the future, all expensive in terms of fees and high wages and all injury prone.
NO NO NO NO.
As I posted previously and not agreed by some, looks like Brentford are going to do it again. May be we should seriously think about signing their recruitement department. Far better than ours. Mind that would not take much though.
Can’t believe what is going on with Boro. I know it is only rumours but signing 28 or 29 year olds is bad business. As Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy said ‘ another fine mess you got me into Stanley. The season does not bode well.
Signing 28/29 years olds after a season on the treatment table may not be good business long term. If they are fit that is another matter.
If you pack your squad with them it can get unbalanced.
If these links are true it has shades of Strachan all over again. There is probably a reason why 28 and 29 are not Red but Black on a roulette wheel.
Been away playing football in Slovakia for a few days. We lost both matches and I was goalie in one of them. But we had a lot of fun, few beers and saw some nice places. Except a place on the way back – the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland.
It has not been much better on following Boro. The comeback was nice at Millwall but we have lost two excellent players while I was away. As you know I would have built the team around Bamford and Asombalonga and not sold Patrick. Crazy!
But let’s hope he can get more game time at Leeds than he did here at Boro.
I was also disappointed for Ben to jump the ship. It just shows the players are not that loyal anymore. In my mind Ben is easier to replace than Bamford but of course he was a left-footed centre back and they are rare in the UK. But I think Fry could end up being a better player than Ben. Fingers crossed!
I could still live with the above two players leaving, but it looks like Adama Traore is on the way, too. I was secretly hoping he would stay and develop under Pulis for one more season. But it looks very much not so now.
I read somewhere that Ben was the first signing of Burnley this summer. So it looks like everything is done during the next few days in the transfer market. Let’s hope Pulis will be as successful as he was during the last few days in January.
Difficult to be positive. Let’s hope for a good result today. I am hoping to see Wind and Tavernier in action again. Up the Boro!
*Wing* UTB!
Wing with the wind in his tails Jarkko
Yes but Yannick Bolasie has some great stats – 1.88m and 84kg – though the ones on the pitch have been less impressive with just one goal and no assists in his 20 appearances last season for Everton. He joined Everton from Crystal Palace for £25m and scored one goal and made four assists in 13 appearances before suffering a cruciate injury in December 2016 that kept him out for just over a year. So his Everton career consists of just 2 goals and 4 assists in 33 games – so perhaps that’s why he’s available.
Bolaise made his name with Palace where in the three season in the PL he made 94 appearances and managed 9 goals and 14 assists – though 3 of those goals came in one game against a hapless Sunderland so not sure if we’re counting those 🙂 Incidentally, he didn’t manage any goals in 30 appearances in the season where Tony Pulis was his manager at Palace – making just 4 assists.
So would it be £15m well spent? I suspect the resale value wouldn’t be much if he failed and then there are the wages – no doubt he got a decent whack when making a £25m move to Everton. Perhaps a loan deal would be the only option worth considering if he’s available, anything more may be pushing the boat a little too hard that it could end up sinking.
Bolasie’s stats may not add to much but watching him pre-injury he certainly justified the fee Everton paid for him. Fast, strong and direct from either flank, it he was he, Zaha and Dwight Gayle that tore Pulis’ Palace up the league (it’s a shame Gayle has just gone to West Brom). That was before his cruciate injury though and I’ve seen very little of him since.
Even at 29, he’s the sort I’d be prepared to gamble on if the price was more like £5m and the wages reasonable, chiefly beacuse he’s the sort of player we desperately need, particualrly once Adama leaves, and because he and Pulis know one another and have done it before, lessening the risk.
But £15m? No thanks.
I read a Guardian match report about his debut for Everton where it basically said he was his usual exciting powerful self without an end product – 11 goals and 18 assists in 5 seasons on the pitch probably sums that up – especially in comparison to Adama’s 5 goals and 10 assists for Boro last season.
Sounds like the ideal replacement then?
Have spent some time at mfc.co.uk page. I found the instruction for Live video streaming: Overseas and the price for the Seasonal pass: £150.
Can anyone pass a link where to purchase as I did not find anything than the applications but I like to use PC and connect to the TV set? I was travelling last weekend so I have not purchased the pass yet.
Or is the application only way for the time being?
UTB!
To be honest don’t know. The site is not broadcasting at the moment which is strange so soon before kick off. I will try the phone app and see what happens
Bolasie would be in my view the textbook definition of “Panic Buy”. Glamourous headliner trading on a reputation that is a few seasons out of date and with doubts over his recovery from a serious injury. Luckily enough, I can’t see us having a cat in hell’s chance of signing him.
The rumours of Tom Huddlestone we can always find room for an aging immobile central midfielder. I have to say his excellent passing range would be a refreshing change at least aesthetically, although wasted with Rudy’s pace and movement up top. Paired with Britt though that might be a different story…
Other names bandied about (Robson-Kanu – ouch) are equally uninspiring, I am surprised not to have heard Jon Walters mentioned yet, but in terms of a cost:benefit:resale equation to be honest I wouldn’t see him as worse than Martyn Waghorn and could be no more or less lukewarm to his arrival.
At the risk of repeating myself, if there is any substance to the rumours of players we are looking at, then I would rather we played the loan market where we can, gave the kids a chance and kept our powder dry to use the incoming money either to fund a promotion push in January, or to prevent a meltdown if we are subject to an extended stay in this league.
Winter is coming…
Breaking News wolves will pay Boro an additional £5m fee if he wins Love Island !
OFB,
If he wins Love Island can we have first dibs at any male offspring for the academy?
UTB,
John
Traore was training with the full Spanish squad at the end of last season.
I’m sure he was told to move away from a second tier team, in order to be considered.
Pu has publicly stated we’re not good enough?
If so… oh dear. He may be honest, but I’ve learned that there’s a game you need to play in interviews – whatever the reason for failure or underachievement, continue to make players, fans and hierarchy feel like they matter.
If you publicly state that players aren’t good enough, then how will they feel when going out to face their next opponents?
As TSF said when Mick McCarthy implied the same thing at Wolves: “I don’t even admire the honesty”.
Re: Ben’s transfer to Burnley.
There was a suggestion that he should have hung out for something better and that Boro could have gotten a higher fee.
Each to their own, but I say his transfer was perfectly realistic. There’s even an argument that it was *good* to get as much as £15 million, considering the relative profit. Even Leicester’s initial fee for Harry Maguire, who we didn’t bid over £5 million for if my memory serves me right, was £12.5 million. And you’ve seen his worth today.
Also, as much as I don’t want to believe it, Ben’s worth has certainly been reduced by “indifferent season”. The more a player shines in the public eye, the more the scouts and recruitment teams salivate and the more a player’s value inflates. It’s about experience, too: John Stones had three years’ experience in the Premier League before he signed for City. Ben had one.
Understandably, it hurts that promotion rivals that we seemed to have the upper hand over until mind games and an FA Cup tie equaliser out of absolutely nothing turned the tide in January 2016 have bought “one of our own”.
And as for going to Burnley, well… they’re on a different level to us right now. They’re in Europe. They’re about to begin their third consecutive Premier League campaign.
And they’ve done that simply by not lamenting “failures” but by learning from them. By smartly reinvesting and rebuilding following the sale of key players. Relegation in 2015, to them, wasn’t so much a missed opportunity but a learning experience – they sold Ings, reinvested in Gray, kept most of the much-wiser-for-the-PL-year squad together and came back up.
The ability and mentality to learn from and build on what *is* instead of feeling sorry for oneself over what *once wasn’t* could not be better illustrated. Would that we could do the same.
Simon
I hate to raise the subject, but they did not even consider firing their manager.
You reap what you sow.
Jarkko
Re you post at 1.03. Here is the link:
https://middlesbroughpayments.streamamg.com/account/register/step1
When you click on the Buy Now box it will take you to your Digital Account sign in or if you do not have an account you will need to set one up. Hope this helps.
Talking of signing old players, I thought I heard someone saying we’re now interested in signing a Codger from Villa…
I tried to go on to MFC to pay for a live stream tonight and my computer came up with a warning not to go on to the site because it was someone trying to steal my data.
It is saved as one of my favourites and is the correct web address, Any thoughts from those who know about these things?
Can anyone send me the correct web address using numbers please?
Ian
I am not an expert but i have just logged in and gone to the Watch Live section without any problem. I can only suggest you clear your browser history and cache and then try logging in again.
For future reference if you want to find the IP address of a web address (i.e. the numbers) open a command window if using Windows (press the windows button on your keyboard and the letter ‘x’ and choose ‘search’ from the menu then type ‘cmd’)
If you then type
'ping www.mfc.co.uk'it will give you the IP address – which incidentally is 104.24.8.33 for the MFC site.Note the command ‘ping’ is used to query another network or address.
KP
Rebooted and the message has not reappeared so all ok now.
This is a player that Middlesbrough should have gone for and he is only 23 !
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/45095195
Can anyone tell me how long before kick off the live transmission starts please?
Well it didn’t work last time but in theory I think there’s a pre-15 minute build up to the game first
For those with Sky, the game is on their Football Channel on the red button. Coverage from 19.40.
We’ll do well to get a point tonight. 1-1 would do for me, but I fear the worst.
I can’t get into the website or the app. It doesn’t recognise my login.
I’ve got exactly the same problem and no amount of swearing seems to fix the problem – even the app won’t work this time – they really are useless who ever set this up!
Try this unofficial link it’s working for me but you’ll need to press the play button a couple of times and ignore the popup pages
http://www.vipbox.live/middlesbrough-vs-sheffield-united-1-live
2 – 0 get in
But cant get logged in to watch…
Same here
Try the link I posted of the unofficial stream
Works on my phone but not on ipad
More refunds to pay out! Absolutely useless!
Ridiculous that I’ve just paid my £150 and still have to watch crappy stream on a dodgy site! Thanks for the link though werder at least I can see something!
Well got a reply from MFC Support… “The issue has now been resolved.
You should now be able to login and view the stream as usual. ”
No it hasn’t! I guess they are correct in a way, it’s still streaming as usual…
I have had same problems with both Lap top and iPad Application. Paid 6 euros again to watch via SUFC site.
Only good thing was I logged in before game started and have seen all three goals!
Will now send email to MFC expressing further disappointment at their inability to deliver the service they promised.
Half-Time and 3-0 up. Well, well, well…
Looks to me like a 4-4-1-1 with Wing, who doesn’t look out of place at all, on the right.
Hope to see Tav and Chapman at some point in the second half.
Andy
Talked to Jim Platt after the game and he confirmed we went three at the back from the start to match sheff Utd
OFB
The MFC stream is now working on my Laptop and am enjoying the half-time interval of the pitch being watered… Hopefully it will continue to work once the game resumes!
Volume is very low though and can barely hear the commentators rambling on about something I can’t quite make out.
Decided not to risk the ten pound, in one a mistake because we are 3-0 up nut due to log in problems only got in to the whistle for half time.
Rumours of a move for Tom Huddlestone. Great passing range but the speed of Bobby Murdoch. No thnks.
If as good as Bobby Murdoch. Yes please
In the gloom because Mrs G and Emma watching TV so keys are from memory.
its now working on the App but …what a mess!
Did anyone say that we are top of the league now? UTB!
Well, that was probably one of the dullest 3-0 victories you’re ever likely to see (or not it seems from the posts above) but not many will care.
With the summer activity so far I fancied us for one point only at this stage so I think we’ve done very well to get a couple of results on the board, and five goals- five! – whilst we’re still awaiting several incoming transfers. Braithwaite looked a good player at times and Wing settled in nicely on his full debut.
Great result and well done to the lads.
Watching it though, I miss Traore already.
Thanks werdermouth, I was able to watch with your help, from about 64 mins, by which time Boro were seeing out the game and conserving energy for Saturday, when I will be in my usual seat. I see Forest and West Brom drew 1 apiece tonight so BORO go top of the league and got rid of a midweek fixture in the process. Also Guedioura scores for Forest and Matt Phillips for West Brom.
Come on BORO.
Yes indeed top of the league – perhaps we should cancel some of those rumoured panic buys as we still have decent players left after all. If Braithwaite is up for it then two goals in two games and some good play too must mean he’s a much better option than some of those mentioned as coming. Also Lewis Wing deserves to keep his place and provides the midfield with energy and two assists today from corners. Plus a word for Shotton who had one of his better games in a Boro shirt.
As for the performance off the pitch – well pretty shocking to mess up the live stream again – missed the first 18 minutes and just managed to find a dodgy stream to see Flint head in the second. Finally got connected at half-time but had to restart the stream 7-8 times after it stopped working – I blame the jokers who MFC have got in run the streaming service – poor stuff. Had to laugh when Bernie said welcome to our Australian viewers, who must have enjoyed that first half performance – I think you find they didn’t.
Second half was a bit flat as Boro essential saw the game out – a few scares after more defensive errors minus Ben and Ayala but thankfully a combination of Sheff Utd’s poor display up front and Randolph making a few decent saves kept the clean sheet.
So top of the league and not many would have imagined that after 85 minutes on Saturday!
Andy R
I will settle for poor coverage and three points.
Sky hihlights here:
http://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/11465050/middlesbrough-3-0-sheffield-utd
Could do without having to look at acres of bare, tattooed flesh, though… *cringe*
Who saw that coming?
Lewis Wing my MOTM.
Well, the coverage was a mess and from what I saw, I hope that the first 30 minutes were better than the rest as Boro seemed to be content to sit on their lead and never really looked like scoring again. I’m looking forward to RR’s report and the full replay to see if this was a genuinely good performance or just one of those days when everything went right.
As for Flint, he’s a weapon in the air but he does seem to have the odd mistake in him.
Still, 5 goals in 2 teams says something. As long as we keep on getting corners, throw-ins and crosses.
UTB
Oops. Should have read ‘two games’
Given the difficulties of the past few weeks this was a welcome, creditable and surprisingly comfortable win. United have been a hard-working and competitive side over the past two seasons, so the manner in which they crumbled in the first half, particularly from set-pieces, was a major surprise.
Credit to the Boro and Pulis, however. On tonight’s evidence every team in the league will view us as a threat from set-pieces. Downing, widely criticised on Saturday, played as well as anyone in the first-half, typified by his run into the six-yard box at the far post for the third goal. This from a player who over the last two seasons could go for entire games without setting foot in the opposition’s penalty area. Playing wide on the left, his natural position, he looked comfortable throughout, particularly in his combination play with Friend.
Another widely criticised player, Shotton, also had a very good game, defending well, and attacking and crossing with a degree of skill and accuracy that we have rarely seen in the past.
Four shots on target, three goals in a bright opening half-hour, was a far better start to our opening home game than any of us had any right to expect. Free-flowing attacking and exciting football it wasn’t, but there was some neat inter-passing, and two goals from our first two corners were a telling riposte to those of us who had spent the last week wondering where our goals were going to come from.
The second half was a non-event, justifiable perhaps in terms of what now everyone refers to as ‘game-management’. We showed little attacking intent, managing merely one weak header on goal, slowing the game down and playing the ball backwards whenever possible. It was disappointing that, three goals up, we seemed unable to hold on to the ball, to pass it around and have the opposition chasing shadows. Defensively we were dozy. Literally so, falling asleep from two short corners, and presenting enough gilt-edged chances to the Blades for them to have clawed a way back into the game but for a couple of smart saves from Randolph. But it was a case of all’s well that ends well, as we recorded our first clean sheet of the season, one of many we hope.
A highly satisfying evening, then, and, for me, a surprisingly good result. Not an evening of high excitement – the two teams weren’t close enough for that. Indeed the game ended with a yawn and desultory cheers. But the evening’s surprises had not quite run their course.
Over at the City Ground, Nottingham, the Watford lad had dominated midfield, scored with a great 20 yard drive, forced the West Brom keeper to make worldy from a shot 70 yards out, and walked off to universal acclaim and as hands-down Man of the Match.
Is there a single Boro supporter for whom that was not the biggest surprise of the night?
Small observation.
I got a lot of heat on Twitter for suggesting that I felt a bit flat at the final whistle. Probably because, good game management from Pulis or not, I felt that after being 3-0 up after only twenty-five minutes, we really could have run rampant.
The highlights, though they only tell you tidbits, backed me up as Randolph looked busier in the second half. I was also disappointed that Chapman didn’t get a run out. Not devastated. Just disappointed.
By contrast, the “Battle Of The Exes” at the City Ground, though it’s really Forest vs. WBA, not AK & Guedioura vs. Morrison, looked a thriller. It featured screamers from Guedioura (yes!) and Boro target Matt Phillips. Guedioura (incredibly, yes!) was denied of a Goal Of The Season contender by Sam Johnstone, and Forest’s dominance of possession and twenty shots on goal were wiped out by WBA’s first shot on target in the match. The drama continued as WBA hit the woodwork a couple of times and Grabban was denied the winner by a goal line clearance. Great match by all accounts – but 1-1 will leave neither team satisfied, especially not the home team who came so close to a valuable scalp. The old “nearly but not quite” story that their boss was all too familiar with at Boro…
All this reminds me of the two Boro home games Ian once told me about, the great 0-0 draw (we bombarded them but couldn’t score) and the dire 3-0 win (three shots, three goals). The former leaves the fans grumbling, the latter, well, everyone thinks it’s a great game.
For all our talk about quality, maybe it *is* the points that really matter after all. I mean, we’re top of the league, four points, five goals, a clean sheet – and that’s more than good enough for most.
TP: I’ve had a meeting with the chairman this afternoon. I have targets and I’ll be disappointed if I don’t get them; but that’s the way I am.
I also heard that SG has told TP he wants to balance the books this season no heavy expenditure that exceeds incoming ?
We shall see what happens but we seem to be missing all our targets at the moment
Heard also we Re bringing in the Boro lad from West Ham on loan
OFB
Well that was probably the most boring 3-0 win in the history of Middlesbrough FC. Football? Maybe should be renamed ‘headball’, but I suppose everyone’s satisfied with the scoreline. Me too, but don’t want to waste valuable time watching such dross in my limited lifetime.
I’m a bit surprised by your comment, Ken. I must admit that before the game I thought it had 0-0 written all over it, but on the night I thought Boro were great. We had a superb first half, and, as Len said, a rather lackadaisical second half. But this was a thoroughly professional performance. We scored three good goals and conceded none, and for all of the first half we battered what had been, last season, a very competitive Sheffield side. It was particularly pleasing to see everyone working so hard to regain possession, even Britt and Braithwaite. I really enjoyed the game and Boro’s positive approach to it.
Clive
Maybe I’m becoming disillusioned with football. Three goals up in the first 25 minutes then nothing. The passing by Boro thereafter was so poor as if they were inviting United to score which a better side would surely have done more than once. For me there was no excitement in the last hour. I’m pleased Boro won but 30 minutes excitement in 90 minutes doesn’t provide enough entertainment for me.
Take T20 Cricket for example where the crowd obviously do get excited for almost the whole match, or the wonderful displays by Catalans Dragons and Warrington Wolves in last week’s Rugby League Challenge Cup Semifinals, entertainment and speed for practically the whole 80 minutes in each match. Then the Speedway Grand Prix series or La Tour de France – I’m just feeling that I don’t get that same excitement in watching TP’s type of football as the aforementioned sports. And the prospect of watching ‘head tennis’ in the Premier League if Boro do get promoted – well I’d honestly rather go back to the Bob Dennison era of Clough and Peacock in the 2nd Division and I’m probably not alone in that judging by last night’s poor attendance. If it had been Hartlepools United playing like Boro last night I could accept it, but not my beloved Boro! Sorry, but that’s how I feel.
So Boro continued where they left off at Millwall and blew Sheffield United away inside half-an-hour – not many saw that coming and no doubt it’s caused some chin rubbing in the rumoured recruitment plans to blow some cash to bolster the weak first team squad that we thought we currently had.
Anyway, here’s Redcar Red’s match report that arrived in the early hours, which was long after I’d returned to my recurring nightmare of trying to stream the match on the MFC website…
https://diasboro.club/2018/08/08/boro-3-0-sheff-utd/
Another A1 report, RR. Pretty much how I saw the game. I was quite impressed by my first proper sighting of McNair, when he came on. If we can manage to lure Besic back they will make a formidable and progressive midfield pairing
Redcar Red
Thanks for the report, useful as I missed nearly all the commentary of he first half. It reminded me of the match we battered Bolton in the first half and Century got their links wrong and gave us commentary of Toon.
That was probably worse because I would rather watch BBC text than listen to a Toon commentary when Boro were playing.
Following last nights result I hacked in to Nasa’s super computer to do some modeling for the up coming season. After some complicated maths I worked out that if we get an average of two points a game we will finish on 92 points. With a goal difference of +3 after three matches we will finish with +69.
That should be enough for promotion.
My calculations show that if Braithwaite stays he will score 46 league goals for the season.
Very tricky stuff, took some working out.
Brilliant Ian, made me chuckle!
Was George the captain when we started playing versus United last night? UTB!
Jarkko, Yes,I believe so.
RR,
The usual report of a high standard, thank you.
There’s not a lot to say really apart from the fact that two of the young ones step in and play well and there are more to come through as well. Then there’s Braithwaite. Maybe we simply don’t need any ageing, multi-million pound players with loss of form and recovering from injuries.
Some great performances, three goals and top from being bottom at one point on Saturday. There’s nowt like supporting the Boro.
UTB,
John
I was not a boring match because we had the pleasure of watching three young players who should and could have been in the side from kick off in London on Saturday.
First Wing, first minute, wonderful quick through ball which should have led to the opener, followed by more of the same, which led to a sitter being missed, lovely stuff, this player is talented.
He carried on in this vein, showing different talents as the game went on, he loves the ball popping out of the box towards him, his idea is to waste no time in hammering it back into the goal on target.
Do I like him? I’ll say I do!
pleased to see Fry settled into his position in the team, now leave him be, he is on a good learning curve and will have a great career.
I was sorry that we did not see Tavernier, I hope we are not going to be told that three youngsters are enough for now, for Tavernier is as good a prospect as the rest( I’m not forgetting young Harry) you sometimes have to accept that it’s your turn to find good young players in numbers, I does happen!
Thank you RR for another definitive and accurate report
One thing o noticed was that Flint andFry reversed positions from the first to second half I don’t know if it was to man mark or if they switched zonal positioning !
Wing MOM
Braithwaite 2nd
Downing 3rd
Didn’t expect to place SD in that position again !
All the team did their job roll on Saturday
OFB
Very encouraging performance and result last night. I got home late, checked in for some commentary and we were already 3-0 to the good. I could scarcely believe it!
Really pleased to see Wing given a chance. His dynamism could be the difference for us in midfield. Also glad to see us switch to a different formation, and one which if we can get Joe Bryan from Bristol City could see us even stronger down the left and add another threat. Our 3F backline (Friend, Fry and Flint) has a bit of everything in it and seems well balanced.
As for Braithwaite, well, well, well. He may be playing himself into a good loan spell away again, but if he can keep this up and not lose interest then he could be a seriously good player for us at this level. It seems he may have taken on the role of the next Jelle Vossen if last nights performance (and subsequent hacking) are anything to go by. A 2B frontline coupled with a 3F backline has us sounding more like a visit to the Kendall pencil museum than the Riverside, but it could be the beginnings of success.
I do think we need to strengthen, but I really hope that this doesn’t come at a significant cost. I’m not convinced on Bolasie for the £15M or so mentioned, I would rather have gone for Montero from Swansea (admittedly difficult now he’s back in the first 11) or even Albert back from Villa. Bolasie could be a destroyer at this level, or he could be late enough in his career that he doesn’t want to risk his legs much more and coasts through. Which would turn up? Ask the Typical Boro runes I guess.
There were a few times in the second half that I’m certain TP was also referring to his back three as the 3F’s judging by his body language in the Technical area.
The Hugill link seems to have legs and is rumoured to be concluded today/tomorrow based on him being spotted allegedly. At this level he is a handful and at set pieces as proved last night we could give teams a scare every time we get a corner or throw in near the 18 yard box. So much is the potential threat that I could see teams advocating a tactical change against us to try and avoid corners, free kicks and throw ins being conceded in “danger” zones.
As regards Bolasie I would have him on loan but no more. If he rips the Championship apart then great but at his age and wages I wouldn’t gamble on an outright purchase of him. there are also some tenuous links to Harry Arter but I would guess that is only parallel activity to Besic discussions if there is any truth in it at all. Not particularly too keen on Arter’s theatrics but well proven at this level.
I loved the pencil museum joke, Smoggy, but it’s in Keswick, not Kendal! Sorry to be pedantic!
Damn! I’ve been there as well, should have fact checked myself first
I think you’ll find that the Pencil Museum is in Keswick. I’d hate someone to head to Kendal only to be disappointed!
So Adama Traore has now completed his transfer to Wolves. He will be greatly missed. Much more than Bamford and Gibbo together. Much more – he could have become the next TLF for us.
A pity we did not got promoted last season. But at least it looks like we could do it this season if we get a few signings in and the kids will do well.
Up the Boro!
Great Report RR.
After all the doom and gloom and I am guilty of that, it was nice to get a win.
Can anyone confirm the total amount of transfer money the club have made after the departure of Paddy / Ben and Adama.
I think it runs to squillions!
So we’ve also lost out on Joe Bryan to add to Martyn Waghorn. It’s a pity, Bryan & Waghorn could have opened a part-time detective agency in their spare time over in Yarm.
Onwards and upwards if the new Hugill links are to be believed.
I think the lad Jonas Knudsen from Ipswich is perhaps a better fit for TP than Joe Bryan. I’m not saying I’d prefer him over Bryan but I suspect TP would prefer the “Danish Rory Delap”.
Plus Knudsen is also 6ft 2″ versus Bryan at 5ft 7″.
Smoggy,
Your 3fs could have been 4fs if Fabio had stayed.
Just thinking like!
Just back from a few days at my daughters Wifi challenged flat. Listened to TP’s post match presser and I am sure I heard Phil T asking questions, Is the stand off stood down?
Pleased by what was said about incomings, I would rather we improve the squad than pad it out, I also like the idea of including several worthy academy players within the first team squad rather than packing it with Primark remnants, sundry other value clothing brands are available.
Looks like Hugill is arriving, a local lad who wants to come and play for his boyhood team. Hope he does well.
Reports that Hugill will come in closely followed by Bollasie and Besic.
Despite impressing Braithwaite may still be off to France.
A somewhat late post from me after a late night trip back from the Riverside. RRs report pretty much said it as I saw the game although my concern is that against a better team, the second half may have been more challenging, especially if we had only scored one.
However, a good start, probably the best first game of the season that I have seen for a while and will happily see that performance every week!
We do look to have options from set pieces which is good and I thought that Wing is certainly worth his place as was Braithwaite and Britt who worked very hard again. A better option than Gestede to me.
At least the unholy trinity were not seen together in midfield and McNair should help.
I thought that TP comments after the game were very measured and if we can get the balance right with the academy players coming through and some experience, then it may be a better season than I initially thought.
I do feel better having seen a game although one swallow does not a Summer make and there is a long long way to go yet on the fairground rides of the Boro!
I just hope that we can buy wisely And I suspect that TP will do so, Hugill for a sensible price may be it for now?
I hope that Adama Ben and Paddy get game time at their new clubs and do well although in the case if Paddy not too well!!
Just see the last comment from Ian, my thoughts are that at least one too many, especially if Braithwaite does not go and I can’t understand it if he does go.
BBD
Reading the report I think it hinted three in (Hugill, Bollasie and Besic) and Braithwaite out because he would prefer to play in France.
Having seen bits of him playing he doesn’t look like he is sulking so who knows, if he keeps playing well he could be a top asset. It is tricky because he could still leave after our window shuts, then we would be chuntering because we hadn’t sorted cover
What it does tell me is that Pulis came and he got Adama and Paddy playing. Clayton on the fringe and then contributing
Braithwaite and Fletcher were on the fringes and left on loan. They have come back in and are contributing.
That makes me wonder what was happening under Monk.
I think you know the answer to that one, as Eric Morecombe would have said…… “not a lot”!
If Braithwaite wants to play in France, what on earth were we doing buying him and him agreeing to come to Boro?
As I understand it, we can take take players on loan August with the ability to make permanent in January.
Thought that the difference could be summed up as, swift ( read ” instant”) through balls which started in the first seconds of the match ( yes, I’m talking wing) each one opened the defence like a can of beans, all we needed was to score early and it was job done.
We scored three and missed two more ( no, I have no idea how we missed those two, but we did).
the entire event was a rebuke to the vile, slow, to you to me, repeat ad nauseum, which we have suffered for a long time.
it may be wrong to say it but Wing was outstanding, what he did was instant, which made the receivers look good, so win win.
he also has the right attitude to rebounds from the opponents defensive area, being quick to control and shoot( please note, on target).
it’s difficult to accept that we picked him up from non league, congratulations to the man who did it. We should continue down this path, for there are many hundreds of young players who are only too glad to climb the ladder to success.
I will be very disappointed if he is dropped for an incomer, he has made his dream come true, let us not derail it.
Totally agree, what is the point of all the expense of the academy if we don’t then use the players we have brought on.
That said, arguably, the £15m from the sale of Gibson can be attributed to the academy……..
BBDad
In the midst of all the talk about players leaving, I think it is important to remember that ben has been a model member of the team.
We brought him through the Academy, enjoyed watching him, and always wondered how good he was, or could be.
The inference was, if you tick every box, then god meant you to play at the very top of the game.
Most Boro fans thought this, and I for one am glad that he can now, under a very good manager, show the world just how good.
In an ideal world he will play for England, that is my wish for him, and I will be glad to see him at our games from time to time.
Hugill confirmed on a season long loan which makes sense I suppose, his, no doubt, inflated wages will offset the transfer fee and if he does well and we are promoted, then we can sign him permanently, if he flops and/or we don’t go up, he goes back from whence he came. A win win I think!
Could we do the same with the other two B’s I wonder?
Plato – totally agree re Ben Gibson, he deserves and is good enough to play at the highest level. It says a lot about his character that he stayed on last season and also the open letter and the way he treated the staff.
O that all players behaved in a similar way.
Belated thanks to RR for another excellent report which captured events precisely.
A much better start than many of us envisaged. We should, however, not get carried away as there is a long way to go and we will need to play some better football if we are to unlock and beat the teams who will finish in the top half of the table.
I hope that TP is true to his word regarding the youngsters. He said the same thing about the squad shortly after he arrived and then promptly sent them out on loan!
Wing set the tempo from the off last night and was man of the match for me closely followed by Braithwaite and Clayton. I hope Braithwaite stays but we shall see. Britt ran himself into the ground but all too often showed a lack of touch when the ball was played to him and I have seen oil tankers turn quicker and in smaller spaces than he needs!
Same starting eleven for me on Saturday or McNair for Howson if the latter is not fit.
Hugill on the bench.
Enough said about the streaming from the Riverside other than please sort it before Saturday.
Thanks for a brilliant match report RR it summed up accurately what we all saw (live!)
Another good report RR following in the same vain as last season….thanks.
I was at the match watching in vivid technicolour and it was great to be able for once relax and enjoy the game having that big cousin of three goals.
The second half was I think always going to be a bit of an anticlimax, however letting United back into the game to the extent we did was a little disappointing. A better team would probably of made more of the chances offered.
Still a great come back and 3-mil win is nice. Still think we need some extra defenders with some more pace than we have at present. It was interesting to see TP swop Fry from the right to left side second half.
As other have said hope Mr Pulis does not ditch the youngsters…….I would not be happy.
No time to post but just needed to add my thanks to RR. Also to Weirder for this week’s very readable take on the week to come (that we have now well at !!). Looking ok so far and have to say, the Rumours of in comings are heartening… 8 matches to go to decide where my expectancy will be for the season .
BBD
I am sure I posted a reply but here goes.
The article hinted that Braithwaite wanted ton return to France even though he had done well, The French fenetre closes somewhat later than ours so gives a great opportunity for him to leave and us to administer another kicking to MFC recruitment.
Damned if you do, damned if you dont.
The targets haven’t been agreed between clubs let alone personal terms and conditions. It may be we get to 5.00pm tomorrow and nothing has changed, if so that is the situation and we look at loans.
We needed the result last week. I was getting a despondent that none of our transfer targets seemed to want to come and – having been to the Den last Saturday – fully agreed with TP assessment that there was no way that squad was good enough for promotion. One good win later (though Sheff Utd were appalling) and better news on the transfer front has lifted my spirits.
I was less concerned by the outgoings. I accepted that Gibson would be leaving (signing Flint was a clue), it would be difficult to keep Traore (though note that the only manager who ever got him to play was TP so hope it does not prove a mistake for him) and Bamford was likely going to be our third choice forward.
Am off to my annual visit to the Riverside on Saturday (have been exiled in London for 15 years) and am also off to Ashton Gate the following week. UTB.
Well we will have to see what transpired in the loan window !
If not TP might do what he did at Palace when they didn’t sign anyone !
Offski
It’s great to read Hugill’s enthusiasm at getting the chance to play for Boro. He may not be an academy graduate but he’s definitely ‘one of our own’
Good luck to him for having fought his way up through non-league to lower league to the premiership and I wish him every success with us.
UTB
I’m wondering if there is an actual re set going on within the club,
It takes time to change , especially the one on the field, if done properly , yes you can get lucky and have a phenomenal season,but it doesn’t last.
Promotion from strength should be the aim, no good if you have to sign nine players after you get it,then find out if it doesn’t work,you are stuck.
The parachute payments I believe are done after this one, so do you go spending it all now?
Its time we scouted better,did our homework, and signed for the future.
Doing your homework means finding out if the player you want, has a problem moving to the area, are they ambitious and flexible to it, are his family?
Its time the club got real, about these matters.
Just catching up after a day out yesterday on what was the last day of school holidays over here (punches air!). Firstly thanks to RR for another great read with his match report – as mentioned several times through gritted teeth, I missed the first 20 minutes due to let’s say, expected technical difficulties, so also missed most of the free-flowing football that appeared in the game – I suppose that’s the price I had to pay for missing the first 70 minutes against Millwall!
Interesting to read that Boro played with a back three and whilst I’ve been an advocate of that (along with Andy), I was surprised that Shotton was playing as a wing-back rather than being in that three. Having said that, he surprised me with his passing, composure and crossing as a wing-back and certainly looked a step up from last season, which is quite a bonus given his long throws also looked dangerous too.
It will be interesting to see who makes it through the window today (in both directions) as so far only Hugill has arrived on loan. Still worried about Bolasie for £15m, not to say he couldn’t be effective but it sounds a bad deal financially – also reports that Boro are in talks with Villa for Adomah. Besic also mentioned as a possibility and a few others to boot. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see others leaving if we sign what look like starters rather than squad players – possibly Britt and Fletcher look vulnerable.
btw Updated the header graphic to include Adama in what appears to a coincidental spontaneous pose that all three decided to have – seems to be a wedding photographer’s standard pic but for footballers…
I think seeing Shotton as a wing-back is what made me think it was 4-4-1-1!
Reading the Guardian’s introduction to Chelsea’s new world record goalkeeper, Kepa (someone waggishly asked if there was a player called Reliablesentabacksi available too), they have a final sentence throw-away comment that “Thomas Kalas will move to Middlesbrough on loan”. I didn’t see that one coming if that’s true. I liked Tommy K and he fits TP’s model as he’s big and plays CB and RB. Perhaps Shotton’s wing back days are numbered?
We were led to believe that villa were to have a fire sale after the play off failure.
But now due to new investors they are spending like drunken sailors and seem to be after some of our targets.
This cash injection has seen them do a U-turn and they are now hoping to keep Grealish (if his head hasn’t been turned).
I thought their troubles were not just a cash shortage (or a chairman with short arms and long pockets), but staying within FFP.
And talking FFP, how do Leeds, Derby and Forest intend to comply after years in the championship wilderness?
Every player we are “linked” with we face competition from some or all of them.
Financially and FFP, we should be miles ahead of all of them, especially now that 40m is heading our way.
Can anyone shed light on this
Well the fun begins today so be braced for shocks and surprises in equal measure. I would be disappointed if we lost anyone else but could see the likes of Fletcher perhaps out on loan and maybe even Chapman (personally would rather see him given his chance here).
The return of Kalas would be a good stiffening of our defensive options and a good lad to boot but I think we need more creativity so Albert returning at a sensible price would be good especially with a few goals that he adds and I guess its Besic or Freeman (or Saville?).
Fortunately I’m out and about today working so will like as not find out all the happenings on the radio driving home this evening. and probably a good thing in terms of blood pressure.
Well as expected Adama Traore has signed for Wolves. The Gazette proclaim him to be the most exciting player since Juninho to play for the Boro and few would argue against that. But, and there’s always a but, would another season under Tony Pulis have improved him as a player? As he’s only young I think TP would have got more improvement out of him. He has pace, but perhaps we ought to take that into perspective. His assists and finishing are still way below Premier League standard, and that’s why another season in the Championship would probably have been more beneficial to the player and to the Boro.
Yes he had pace, but not as much as some of the Rugby League players in the past or indeed last season. Anyone who saw Billy Boston careering down the wing for Wigan in the fifties or Lesley Vainikolo for Bradford at the turn of the century might dispute the fact that Traore is the fastest ‘footballer’. I accept that it is easier to run with a ball in ones hand than at ones feet, but some of the tries scored were chips beyond the opposition of a rugby ball which has so much variable bounce. Think back to Martin Offiah at Wigan who could give opponents a 10 yard start and still outpace them over 80 yards. Since the removal of touching the corner flag when scoring a try as being an obstruction a few years back there have been some even more remarkable tries.
Where am I going with this? Speed with finishing power. Greg Eden scored 38 tries in Super League for Castleford Tigers last season. He is faster than Traore, and even allowing for the fact that he usually has ball in hand rather than at his feet, he has the strength and pace to push away opponents with that added bonus of finishing, something which at the moment Traore lacks. Personally I don’t think Boro will miss Traore as much as many believe. There’s no denying he got bums off seats, but more often than not it came to nothing. That’s the difference – those Rugby League players I’ve mentioned had that ingredient FINISHING which sadly Traore lacked. Nevertheless Traore did excite the crowd and I wish him well.
Ken
I certainly agree with you on Traore and his speed v finishing the job off. All too often he got into a dangerous position and was let down by his decision making. He also had the tendency to drift off and lose focus which took the edge of his game.
Yes, he gave us excitement but usually all for nothing. TP did improve his end game but he is still a work in progress. £18m is a good price, less what we have to pay to Villa and I hope that he can continue to learn. Time is running out and I fear that the top flight will be too much.
I am not sure if it easier to run fast with a ball in hand or at feet although the options to finish off with a try is an easier decision than in football where the choices can be many.
Some great RL names there, Ken. Everyone loves a strong, pacy winger amongst the 13. I really enjoyed Tuigemala doing this: (check at 3.33) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7TlE3ALPgc
Ken
There was never a guarantee that Adama would make further progress with ourselves. He would have faced defences who had more experience of what he could do and plotted ways to deal with him.
On the other hand he may well have come on in leaps and bounds.
We will never know. If he makes a success at Wolves I wish him well, I suspect the Premiership teams will have plans ready for him.
What we do know is that Wolves wont have a great amount of time to be patient with him. If he dozes off and lets players run off him then Wolves will be punished by the better players they will face.
Ian
you are worrying without reason, remember Wolves attempts to handle him at our place, an emergency ward does not do it justice. Let’s remind ourselves of it.
Two dismissals ( should have been four) six bookings, manager sent to the stands.
They will never allow any team to treat Traore as they did, anyone who tries it will end up in the local hospital.
Their chances of keeping him are somewhere between nil and zero, but the add on should be juicy( er, I think)
We’ll Deadline Day today and we have a few irons in the fire
It’s interesting is it not that Leeds seem to have the same targets as us? Is it because we share the same little black book?
OFB
Or did he leave a bug in the office???
Leeds Orta know !
You Orta know better than make such a bad play on words.
Wallace from Millwall and Besic from Everton are current rumours.
You’d be surprised how many players are still a work in progress at 22. On the flip side you have Owen and Rooney, who dazzled us as teenagers than rarely or never hit those heights afterwards.
Which means that Adama may improve as a footballer but the element of surprise will be gone. He will also be more of a marked man – if his career is going to endure he has to figure out a way of getting around this. Even attackers need intuition and intelligence as well as instinct.
Looks like being all last minute with only four-an-a-half hours to go – let’s hope Boro have their medical helicopter on standby as it’s a bit like 7.30pm in comparision to the midnight deadline. Besic seems likely and Bolasie hasn’t gone away despite PL interest. Maybe some surprises still to come (pleasant or otherwise) but it sounded this morning if Pulis was still after 4-5 signings.
Apparently Bolasie isn’t available as a loan so Boro would need to make it a permanent deal – £15m transfer plus around £50 grand a week in wages over 4 years is £25m. Boro would be cuckoo to do that deal but since we’re also now seemingly interested in Everton left back Cuco – who can say…
With less than 45 minutes to go it’s hard to imagine there’ll be any major surprise signings unless medicals have already been done – It sounds like a Besic fee has been agreed at £6m but not much else being reported. We may be looking at more loan deals now as you would think any major purchases would need too much work to get sorted in around 30 minutes.
Apparently Besic Agent wanted a £1m fee!
Werder
As long as the deal sheet is in by 5.00pm then they can carry on. I think the medical is the problem.
I do agree, it looks like loans will be what will happen.
SSN just reporting that Besic could not agree personal terms so deal is off!
Looks to have been a poor window for us on the recruitment front and unless the club can pull out some amazing loan deals then we are a weaker side than last season. The lack of creativity remains the major concern unless the youngsters can step up to the plate and are allowed to do so.
My fears that this season was not boding well still remain.
Other teams have got deals done and it looks like MFC have fallen in the final furlong…….Typical.
However if Besic is asking for too much and it is more about money the game time, well we do not want him.
Totally agree, either a player wants to come to play or just wants the money. I know which I would prefer to have in my team regardless of any supposed ability.
It could be worse. We could have paid £3.5 million for Michael Ricketts… oh, hang on. We once did.
Apparently £6m fee agreed, Besic personal terms agreed but the deal collapsed over agent fees.
Come on BORO.
Pedro
It doesn’t look like falling in the final furlong, if nothing transpires, pulled up lame is probably more appropriate.
Gibson, Traore and Bamford out plus Besic not coming back. Flint, McNair and Hugill in. On balance the squad is weaker than last season.
Lets see what loans come in.
On the Besic situation, if wages are an issue it surprises me. I would have thought all parties would know the situation, after all we knew what he was on when he played for us last year because we would have picked up all or part of his wages.
If it proved a stumbling block then so be it. We dont know how far apart the two sides were but if he doesn’t want to come I agree with Pedro.
My wife’s birthday so other matters to address.
If it is agents fees, then the agent is letting the player down. Was that £1m on top of the £6m in which case, somewhat greedy I would say.
Whilst at the moment without any loans, the squad may look weaker although I suspect Paddy was never going to get much game time and Traore was inconsistent. Ben was a loss and Flint is not an improvement.
Hugill is a good arrival and with the kids showing what they can do, on balance, I feel we are probably at a similar level to what we finished off with to fit the TP model.
Now whether it is enough to make an impact, time will tell………
Exmil
Just seen that report,
Simon
We could have got Dong Gook Lee on a free! That would have made £3.5m for Rickets a bargain.
And who can forget The bargain that was Alves!
I am always puzzled as to why these transfer wimdow deals go down to the wire. No doubt there is much that goes on behind the scenes that we never hear about but surely if a club has targeted players that it wants to acquire it would make sense to start the process of acquiring them as early as possible in the transfer window.
Taking the current window as an example, the club must have decided at the end of last season that they wanted Besic to return so why wait until the last day of the window to find out that his agent wanted £1m commission? By the time this unsavoury fact was known it was too late to try to overcome the problem through negotiation. Similarly, it suddenly became known that the club was trying to buy a couple of Millwall players. Judging by the time this became news it must have been a very late decision to buy these players which in turn makes it very difficult to complete the transaction in the short time available.
Am I missing something here or could it be that the club’s recruitment department is less than professional in its planning and execution? Anyway, the end result of this window is that the squad has certainly not been improved and is probably worse then when the window opened. Bearing in mind the funds available to the club it is very disappointing that little use has been made of them. Perhaps the Chairman has decided that spending to support ambition is less attractive than taking back some of his investment in the club he has made over the years.
Maybe the club didn’t want to pay Besic’s wages all through the summer.
Maybe Besic wanted to see how the land lay with a new manager at Everton before making a decision on his future.
Just maybes.
Was it 31m on top of the fee for the agent, or was it an example?
Sorry £1m not £31M, fat fingers!!!!
Sometimes the ones you don’t sign are the best.
Clubs know we have £40 mill sitting around, so they are trying to squeeze every penny,
Let’s be patient , my issue since the end of the season was ,do these players still have the belly for another push, I know if they play up to their ability we could still be top seven come January ,then we can sign big players.
I applaud the club if they restrained themselves from getting a bad deal,
I do expect a loan or two though.
Well just got in and fired up the laptop to see who we had signed to fill all those gaps and adding creativity. Wow what an incredible job our recruitment department have done once again.
I can’t think of a single example in any other Commercial walk of life where individual/s can constantly underwhelm and underperform yet still retain employment status despite being underpinned by having a series of supposed well connected and different individuals coming and going over the years to augment their “efforts”.
I can imagine TP’s thoughts on the Summer; three major players out, a decent level Championship CB to replace a CB headed to the Premiership and Europe, a player with two successive relegations on his CV signed from a League 1 club, and a semi retired Keeper arriving. At least we have signed one Premiership pedigree player albeit with all of 20 Premiership minutes on his CV.
Maybe next year our recruitment team will get advanced notice of the window.
On another note, I can’t understand if a agent is representing his client, getting him/her the best deal for them in other words working for them,
Shouldn’t the client be paying the agent?
Why clubs in football?
Gt – different rules for the money making machine that is football where everybody wants their snout in the trough!
In my previous business life, I was involved in funding football agents fees due and had sight of the contracts for these. If I recall correctly, the fees were paid by the buying club as part of the deal and in one case also the selling club had to pay some! There was also the case where the club had to pay a fee to the agent for a contract renegotiation!
I think as one local character (Jacob Tees-Mogga?) would say: “No deal is better than a bad deal” – though maybe it was too refreshingly easy to say no to Boro if they weren’t being overly pushy in the negotiations.
We may still get some decent loans as there doesn’t appear to have been much business in the PL either. Besides Everton who appear to have brought in 11 players and Fulham also seem heavy in the squad too.
Though I suspect the happiest man with regard to Boro’s transfer business will probably be Steve Gibson’s bank manager. Boro have a budget this year around £100m before they go into debt thanks to sales of £40m plus, parachute payments of £35m and expected turnover of around £20-30m.
I think Boro have made a profit for the last two seasons too – in our Premier League season I think AV estimated total spend was around £100m so basically most of our turnover was profit. Last season we did a net spend on transfers of £5-8m depending on exact figures, plus we had £47m parachute payments I think and perhaps again around £20-30m in turnover.
Whilst it’s not wrong to make a profit, it is generally not expected by the fans as it almost seems like they’ve been cheated. The key is making a profit and also achieving your goals – whether it be promotion or survival. At least the supporters don’t have to worry that their club’s existence is being jeopardised with unsustainable over-spending. Though if Boro miss out this season I’m sure the subject of money may come up.
Careful Werder. If your figures aren’t right you may be banned by the club Dom and Jonno style.
I think they’re close enough to be only subject to a public reprimand rather than a banning should they be not on the money..
The good news is we haven’t wasted any money on aged journeymen, permacrocks, etc.and we’ve refused to feed the greedy agent but, as has been pointed out, leaving deals until the last minute is a risky business. Currently, our squad is weakened, so we’ll now have to see how our recruitment team perform in the loan market.
Well if we sign Besic and Bolasie on loan, along with Kalas and perhaps keep hold of Braithwaite – together with Hugil, McNair and Flint with added energy from Wing and Tavernier – plus the return of Ayala with Fry getting more opportunity and a seemingly more progressive Shotton – Then that would be a pretty strong and strengthened squad in theory.
Just a quickie….Ben Gibson on the bench tonight in Burnleys europa game.Should have stayed at the Boro Ben !
Adam Forshaw out of Leeds team for at least 4 weeks !
Its interesting the players were after , weren’t chased by many other clubs , certainly premiership clubs didn’t persue .otherwise they would been gone by now.
In this division you need at least a couple with better than championship ability.
There is always a reason why the fees are what they are! And why the other clubs want rid of them. Given that Everton has had a flurry of incomings, then maybe they will be wanting to offload the 2Bs on loan?
The next month still has the potential to be interesting in terms of loans coming in and maybe out in the case of Braithwaite.
Weder is being optimistic in his possibilities above and I would be happy with two out of the four that he mentions.
Whether that is enough to propel us upwards remains to be seen at this early stage but as I said before, Tuesdays game does give me more hope. I am starting with no expectation this season so anything upwards will be. Plus!
I admire TP and the team in refusing to be panicked into paying over the odds under the pressure of being seen to do a deal. They knew who they wanted. They chased players who would improve the squad and its likely that 2 or 3 of them will join during the loan period.
Hugill is a very solid addition and, to be honest, could be more use to us than Bamford who always struck me as a little bit lightweight as a number 9 and much better when playing off someone else.
I have to say that this blog can veer from one extreme to the other. People are screaming at the recruitment team for not getting in Besic or Bolasie or AN Other and had we paid what was being asked there would have been just as many people complaining at the waste of money.
I just like the sense of maturity that TP brings to everything. I’m not saying that i agree with everything that he does but he does seem to know how to to run a football club in a way to create a proper team that works together. It also helps that he doesn’t waste money.
I’m still feeling good.
UTB
Selwynoz, I may be wrong, but I think TP will have had no dealings at all in the negotiations.
I think, in my naivety, that the agent took the Basic deal to the wire hoping that ‘Boro’ would just sign him the money. I have to say that the stand against one money grabbing agent is well done. Ten per cent would have given him £600,000 quid, and for how many hours work when Boro wanted Besic at the Riverside and it would appear he wanted to be here?
I reckon he thought Boro were a pushover with all the money rolling around the bank balance. After all what’s a million quid when you For have £40 million rolling around in there. Somebody should have taken him out the back. Where’s Graham Souness or Dickie Rooks when you need them?
At least he’s shafted and out of virtual pocket and not Boro. A lot of us have had a go at ‘Recruitment’ but I think they did the right thing. I hope Besic has frank exchange with him. Out the back of course.
UTB,
John
PS I still think all the bids for Millwall and QPR players is reverse psychology for the teams to look at and think we failed. Very Sir Humphrey I know but Mr Pulis plays more than one game.
It’s only a theory like.
Whilst there is disappointment about the lack of new players coming in, I am equally disappointed about certain players not leaving in this transfer window.
Plus there doesn’t appear to have been any interest from other League clubs for our players.
Hopefully, sooner rather than later some players will be arriving on loan very soon which may then trigger a few departures
If Friend was injured, Fabio was the cover at LB, should Fabio also be unavailable Ben has covered in the past. Who covers now?
If Shotton (a converted CB) gets injured who covers RB with no Fabio or Cranie (OK maybe that counts as a positive)?
We needed a creative wide player/winger on the left and the same goes for the right. We have Tav and Chapman who may be a revelation but thats a gamble in the extreme. At best those two should be first reserve for a team wanting promotion.
The mercurial No.10, that magic maestro in the middle. I wouldn’t say Besic was it but he is more creative than Grant and Clayts or indeed Forshaw before him. Maybe Freeman was it but it hardly set pulses racing.
So we have a singular RB and no experienced RW in front same goes for LB with Stewy presumably the nearest we have to a pacy tricky wide player out on the left. Johnson of course is still at the Club and I believe can play both roles but to what level is the big question and is that what the Club and TP believe?
There are gaps which were known about all Summer which haven’t been plugged then there are the players still here that should never have been signed and have been surplus to requirements for a variety of reasons and now seasons. We are stuck with four or five players that ideally would have been moved out but nobody wanted them and we are now restricted to and dependant upon loans to bolster gaps. We have had poor signings and poor outgoings for several windows now, its not just about the last 5 or 6 hours today it stretches back well over 5 or 6 years let alone hours.
With regards to agents and their fees I actually agree with the club that fees which are outlandish should be killed stone dead. That perhaps mitigates one deal and it sounded like the only Boro deal taking place today for a position that we had already signed McNair for. Agents should be paid for out of Players wages, its their agent after all and should be part of the negotiated wage package which the agents are employed for. If they want 20% and the Player is happy to give up that amount because he believes his agent has just got him an extra £500K per annum then great he has earned it but it should not involve the buying clubs.
I think Brighton have about four left backs, Bong or Bruno would be an upgrade, Kalas for rb , another one could help,
I’d like to see us try and get Aaron Lennon on loan I don’t think he is a definate first choice .
Fulham have signed everyone , so I’m sure they will have to trim, if they struggle come January you might get Tom Cairney?
We have to remember Mr Gibson dislikes Agents with a passion.
Let’s see what the loan situation brings in
As I said before in a previous post
SG has told everyone at the club we have to balance the budget this season
If we don’t sign the loan players it will be interesting to see TP reaction – he walked from Crystal Palace for not signing players
OFB
Didn’t Queen record a song about our non recruitment department ‘Underwhelming’ or something like that.
To be fair, I am ok with not paying money to the agent. If Everton banish Besic to the long grass with one or two others it would be fair play. The problem is that Besic is not the villain but he employs the agent. Possibly the agent got money when Besic moved to Everton and maybe saw an opportunity to further enhance his personal situation.
We dont know what happened but it leaves you hacked off. Anyway, tomorrow is another day, life goes on.
having had a super meal with Mrs G for her birthday I did my 11.37 post being quite philosophical.
Then I read that the Besic deal may be on as a loan. I have mixed views, my instinct is rot at Everton training with the reserves and let the agent suffer. If he does come make sure his agent gets stuff all and the club refuses to speak to him. Dont pay the agent a single penny.
I would hate the agent to get anything, if Besic sacked him I would be happy if the club paid Everton their fee and Besic a signing on fee just to nark the slimeball. What is Bosnian for slimeball? It doesn’t matter, Mo understands enough English to understand.
Can anyone hold a grudge better than a Boro supporter?
Ian,
In answer to your question, I’d say no. Categorically no.
UTB,
John
Some of the transfer fees being quoted for aging players is ridiculous and I am pleased we were not tempted. 15m for a 29 year old that spends a lot of his time on the treatment table,who may or may not produce, has high wages and poor resale value. No thanks! Never a permanent deal, but OK for a loan.
Apart from Besic, the others we were linked with did not seem to be any better than what we have.
We now have a great opportunity to give the kids a go and plug any holes by using the loan market.
Besic, Kalas and Bolasie on loan should be enough for now and keep the money in the bank earning interest until January.
More important to keep Braithwaite now and get Fletcher firing.
Chance for TP show his man management skills
Yes, we paid a lot of money for Braithwaite from the non-inflated market of Europe. And also a lot for Fletcher. Let’s hope these two players are setled in the team and show some promise now.
And then we have the kids. Our team has much better players on paper than say Millwall had last season. We need to gel and become a team. This is a team play, not individuals. Hopefully we have learned and have a setled team for a change.
Looking forward to Saturday now. We can fill the gaps at fulback positions with loans but let’s concentrate on playing now.
Up the Boro!
I totally agree with Old Billy here. The loan market is the way to go if Boro can agree a reasonable percentage of wages to be paid by both sides. Let’s wait until we reach the Premier League before splashing out on players who we hope might get us there only to discard them when we do. As for agents’ fees I agree they should be paid by the player but I guess that’s never going to happen. We might grumble about players’ wages, but for the work that agents perform, their fees are obscene. Imagine £1M for looking after the legal and financial affairs of only one player. The mind boggles what their ‘earnings’ amount to with several players on their books! I bet many of us on this forum, especially those with legal and accountancy backgrounds, must wonder how wrong their career paths took.
I think the problem with getting Besic on loan may depend on who’s calling the shots – him or his agent. Indeed, his agent may now advise him to talk to other clubs to see what is on offer in terms of wages. A lot may depend on whether any club taking players on loan from PL clubs also have to pay their full wages too. Plus there is still the option for him to be sold to a club in Europe until the end of the month – the same goes for Bolasie etc. So it may not be that simple to get a loan deal done quickly and it might in fact be a loan that will need to become permanent in January. We may need to look at other targets and in the meantime work with what we’ve got.
The transfer window is not closed it’s just closed for incoming players to England (Football League) unless they are loan deals that could still be stipulated as becoming permanent in January – it’s a bit of a false deadline that hasn’t made people blink like they should have.
His agent will no doubt be touting him around everywhere and anywhere in the hope that he can get his £1M fee to pay for his Caribbean hideaway. My guess is that the agent will now be wanting him to go anywhere and everywhere but Boro. Problem for the agent is that as good as Besic is he ain’t that good! Now if he were to bring Messi to Rockliffe that may be a different conversation.
Thanks for the report RR as yet again the live stream failed miserably.
I’ve contacted the club telling them I want a full refund as the level of service falls way below what was advertised and I’m binning them off. I’ll get the audio and watch the highlights/full 90 a day or so later.
They’ve got my season card money that I’ll use 4-5 times so they can go whistle.
So the transfer window has closed in what I think most of us would say has been underwhelming to say the least. Why do MFC leave it so late to try to get players in though? Every man and his dog knows where we need to strengthen, full backs, attacking mid and both wings. Paddy went well over a week ago which wasn’t in my plans but I’m sure it was in the managers, and as for Ben and Adama they were on their way weeks ago.
The constant under performing of the recruitment department is one area where the club are very much lower league imo.
Not being someone who doesn’t give praise when it’s due, well done to whoever told Besics agent where to go with his rediculous attempt to extort money from the club. Parasitic chancers like him/her are a disgrace.
So it comes down to the loan system and how to make it work. Last season Fulham had a fair few loanees on their books and they seemed to do ok, so it can be a success if the players you loan in are the right fit for the way the manager is going to play. With our recruitment department what could possibly go wrong!
GT
Aaron Lennon!! Really? He’s been missing as a footballer since he went into hiding when England played that footballing world power Algeria in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. As big a no from me as is possible.
I think we can call that a relatively successful deadline day. Not paying £15m for Bolasie and telling Besic’s agent to do one counts as good business.
I’m still not sold on this soft deadline day though. It’s a bit strange for PL clubs to be at the mercy of agents for the next few weeks knowing that if a player goes on strike they have no recourse to replace him. You can imagine the panic if Hazard decides not to turn up to training at Chelsea for the rest of the month.
Now we will get to see whether TP can use the loan market more judiciously than last year. Harrison was a waste of a slot, perhaps because he was not a TP player. Hopefully we get people in who will be in or close to the first team – and preferably 2 full backs!
Werder is right, the window isn’t closed elsewhere in Europe so it is possible someone could come in and lure Gestede away.
Ian
We can only hope.
It seems to me that we have at least three places already filled for the season, and I am talking about Wing, Fry, and Tavernier, ( still to start for us).
We must accept the evidence of our eyes, these players are to be preferred to a lot that is on offer in the loan market.
It is a fact that the loan market is being gamed at the moment, big time.
Two of the promoted teams were composed of mainly borrowed players, very good borrowed players, that would be Fulham and Wolves.
All concerned knew what they were about, had planned carefully, executed their plan well , and followed up by serious and expensive action in the market, all completed within a month of the season ending(as a side issue Wolves made a point of grabbing the best player they faced all season. They must have laughed at all the critics, but it kept the price down.
Each of these clubs collected their eight loan players from friendly big clubs i.e. Without haggling or delays, so part of the plan.
Contrast the long discussions when we attempt to borrow an extremely moderate player, who invariably cannot get in our team.
I would suggest that this situation will require looking at in future.
Where Brighton and Fulham have gone can Brentford be far behind?
When you consider our development team at Rockliffe bringing the likes of Gibson, Fry, Tav and Chapman through the academy we can see what they do and what value they bring.
Compare and contrast that with our Marketing and Recruitment teams who have been astonishing for years now and not in a good way. Jobs for the boys or so it looks like from the outside looking in. My guess is if SG sold the club a new buyer would come in, keep the academy and scatter the rest of the hangers on.
We seem to struggle picking a club shirt, organising iFollow or identifying Players from a distance and getting them over the line. For some reason Celtic seem very adept at identifying Europeans etc. and bringing them to Glasgow for smallish money then selling them for a profit after a few successful seasons. Apart from Lewis Wing who is only starting to maybe get somewhere I can’t think of anyone that has come through the Celtic way
Van Dyke cost them £2.6M, they almost doubled their money on Viduka, same with Petrov, Wanyama cost £900K then sold for £12.5M,
Forgot about Chris Killen and Scott MacDonald!
Redcar Red
Not every club gets everything right.
We can list our lemons easily, I am sure other fans can do the same for their clubs.
Whether they can match our lemons in terms of numbers or lack of quality is another matter.
I agree Ian no organisation is entirely perfect and they all have weaknesses in one department or another but during our working lives we have seen actions to remedy under performing areas (sometimes fairly and sometimes unfairly) at work.
If we don’t address the areas which are poor and have been for some time then we will slide backwards. Tolerating underachievement leads one way and one way only. As a small Club we will never excel in everything as we can’t compete with the Manchelskiarsepools of this world but that doesn’t mean we should just think its only Boro and what can we expect.
Whether it is poor shirt designs, poor ticketing organisation, poor streaming of games or poor recruitment they all require improvement and its not as if those things cannot be improved. They are all tangible and within reach, its not asking for the impossible. The Club seems to employ people who are unqualified or perhaps on the cheap (possibly both) or for some other unknown just not very good.
This year they got the shirt right but I suspect probably down to being slated and getting pelters on here and elsewhere previously. The fact that they were so detached from the supporters on it in the first place spoke volumes, the “reasons” given for the Forest/Liverpool lookalike were weak at the time and I’m being very kind and polite.
The North Stand was the new Riverside Holgate end, the end which we attack in the second half yet its the Home end where once lads turn 18 there are no concessionary 18-21 season cards available to them yet MFC haven’t the intelligence to work out why the North Stand is slowly decaying and dying in terms of vociferous passionate support. Its even more ridiculous that those 18 to 21 year old Season cards are stupidly available in limited amounts in the North East and North West corners beside the Family zone and the West Stand prawn sandwich brigade (apologies OFB) just a few blocks across from the body of the North Stand.
Everyone recalls the Red Faction and what is now the South Stand being fought by the Club tooth and nail even issuing instructions to sit down and be quiet when the Club was on its backside with crowds of around 12K and declining fast.
There are lots of petty issues with the Club over the years not least of all “Gazettgate” and they will no doubt continue but it is all to the detriment of the Football Club and at a cost. Stupid people doing stupid things repeatedly, seemingly unaccountable for their actions are what brings down even the greatest corporations eventually (Kodak, Nokia, Blackberry, Enron just of late). Never learning or constantly refining and improving, keeping up with or preferably ahead of the curve should be the minimum level of performance for all organisations in all departments.
Our Academy seems to be well run, highly regarded and no doubt also costs serious money to run but also churns out the odd Downing or a Gibson along with a few others so the evidence appears to be that it works at least to some degree. Our Recruitment department seems to be ineffective and out of touch and without the depth of due diligence required for a Professional organisation at this level. In my opinion it is a miss match, unfit for purpose and I suspect that TP isn’t too far behind my thinking on it.
If as SG has suggested that he has asked TP to go through the Club from top to bottom I hope he now realises that to have a department as unsuitable as recent activity would suggest requires ruthless dissection.
Brilliant RR and the truth.
RR
I don’t like Prawn sandwiches but I love your contributions to this blog. Yet again, you’ve eloquently documented the successes and failures of our enigmatic but beloved Football Club.
Worth a read if just for the chapter on players contracts.
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.express.co.uk/entertainment/books/718045/The-Deal-Jon-Smith-Super-Agent-book-review-football-Arsenal-Manchester-United-England/amp
There seems to be an air of despondency around the club at the moment. Hopefully the players will pull together let’s not forget that in 86 it was the young local lads who made up the backbone of the team and made it successful.
Window Pain
I dont believe it!
Hugill spends a couple of days at Crockcliffe and now has a hamstring injury that will keep him out until the end of the month.
Can’t disagree with anything there RR.
The lack of concessions to the 18-21 group apart from the corners really is an own goal for me. And there really does seem to be some kind of disconnect between certain elements within the club and the supporters. Or are we just customers these days?
Soggyinexile
Thankfully it appears we have dodged a bullet regarding Bolasie. £15 million for a non scoring forward who will be 30 next birthday would’ve been madness as far as I’m concerned.
Just to clarify I class Bolasie as a forward in the broad sense not a centre forward.
I have been informed that Hugill came with an injury. I dont know if that makes it worse. We lose Paddy, Ben and Adama and the only incoming arrives with a letter from his mum excusing him from PE!
.
RR
GOOD POST
OFB
PSB (prawn sandwich brigade)
A blessing in disguise I think.
Gelling 5-6 players would have been a nightmare.
By all means use the loan market for cover.
Cardiff showed last season what can be done with players prepared to get stuck in and win at all costs, no superstars.
TP likes a small squad and could benefit from the failures of the recruitment team.
Hugill should not be allowed to play until he apologises for scoring against Boro.
How dare he!
As a season card holder he should have been scoring own goals.
Brilliant, RR. Never mind about TP, the club should employ you at half his rate to go through the club,and the recruitment department in particular, to sort things out.
Did Hugill come with an injury or did he miss pre season because of one and is weeks behind the rest of the squad? Either way it smacks of Typical Boro!
Some valid posts there RR.
There is only ONE boss at MFC, Mr Gibson. He always has the final say in decisions, it’s his money, his club. So major problems as highlight by RR are his problems to solve, many he has not done. His fault.
As for Hugill, well only because he has come to MFC can you believe it. Out for a stated three weeks minimum and no pre season. More like Christmas before he is ready.
Again as others have said, everybody knew Ben and Adama would be almost certainly be leaving. But SG having now tightened the purse strings, it is sell before we buy. So we have sold but left it too late to buy. Mr Pulis will be seething inside, never mind disappointed.
As for loans, Derby, Leeds, Stoke and other clubs have already loaned players in ahead of Boro. Given the choice of Boro and one of the bigger clubs where do you think they will choose. Our only chance of the better players that will come available will be if we can offer the Parent club more money overall in loan fee and wages paid. Player choice will leave us vunerable.
We will have to hope that Braithwaite will have a change of heart and commit to stay and the youngsters can play a part.
We have a squad the is weaker and not good enough for promotion. TP’s words. I am sure that will have down well with some players.
I wonder how Middlesbrough will be portrayed in this, on BBC tonight.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bf940k
Thanks, that sounds like it should be an interesting programme – I’ll record it as I don’t want to fall asleep on the sofa again and wonder what I was watching when the programme after it is on once I wake up 🙂
Watching Tony’s interview today, he is not one happy chappy. Very blunt and straight to the point and that is in front of the press. So, wonder how he really feels behind the scenes. Could their have been some very heated words within the club?
Just been reading the sample on Amazon of ‘The Deal’ that GHW spoke of earlier. The available extract is about a football agent’s trip to Ukraine to meet up with an ‘investment group’ – though more likely gangsters – who were supposedly interested in buying Sheffield Wednesday and he ended up being more or less held prisoner by the arranged security and apparently got caught up in one of the gang’s men getting murdered. Though for the football agent in question, Jon Smith, it seems the risks are worth it for the amount of money he will end up getting a slice of.
Not sure if it has been a little sensationalised but I think I may download the kindle edition as sounds like a good read and maybe it will offer some insights into the murky financial world of football.
The reality is that football agents like the world of football to be unstable in order to make money – it’s how most players in markets like it as the stock market or currency speculation shows. The transfer windows is basically feeding this frenzy by ratcheting up the pressure to buy and sell players.
I think the current shortened window that is out of kilter with the rest of Europe has favoured sellers, who know that buyers in England have a limited time to make the deal but they themselves can stand firm knowing they have the option to sell to other countries after the English deadline.
If Boro had decided not to pay over the odds or indulge agents to get their man, then they would have had little leverage on getting their targets if they weren’t the preferred choice. Indeed, we should ask or rather the club needs to work out what makes them the preferred destination for players with no obvious leaning towards Boro. If the player just wants to get the best contract available from a potential promotion contender (which could stretch to 10-12 clubs in theory) then there is little point expecting the player will be heading your way if you are not offering the best package.
Last season Boro decided to throw money around and we heard how the club had bid a record amount for Britt, also made Fletcher an offer he couldn’t refuse and no doubt paid top dollar (Euro) to persuade Braithwaite and his club to head to Teesside.
No surprise then if a reluctant big-money spender Pulis and a tightening of the purse strings Gibson didn’t get their men. The fact that eight targets failed to sign for the club may indicate that they were never likely to under such circumstances. In which case they have looked at the wrong section of the market and should perhaps instead have looked at the up-and-coming rather than those who were known and popular targets.
The choice may well now be about returning to paying over the odds in the loan market or missing out on those players who have options to choose from. The likelihood is that we’ll be back to taking punts on players who may or may not be capable of delivering – which in the end is what we’ve got used to.
I’ve said in the past that I thought the transfer windows ( despite what the football authorities may say) were brought in to increase the amount of transfers made, which means more money floating around the game. Witness the pressure on clubs to buy big in every window.
Fans see not buying players as a failure and an excuse to criticise their club. It also drives prices up. Of course the fans suffer as ticket prices and TV subscription rates rise.
TP didn’t come across as being a happy bunny in the presser although maybe he never is! To go on record as saying that the squad is not good enough is a damning indictment and I am sure that willl do wonders for motivation.
Unless the players decide to prove him wrong of course……..
Following on from Weder above, I would rather pay over the odds for loanees where we can give them back than over the odds for a player that we can’t then get rid of. Mind you AKs record on loans was not great either.
I would say of all the AKBoro loans, the only real duds were Tiendalli and Kike Sola. McGhee and Pedro Silva never played, and Zuculini, Veljkovic and Stephens were interchangeable (did a job when actually on the pitch, but nothing special).
Connor Roberts was a dud and who was that Swansea full back we signed on loan who was useless ?
I think Steve Coppell had a point when he said: “I cannot see the logic in a transfer window. It brings on a fire-sale mentality, causes unrest via the media and means clubs buy too many players… The old system, where if you had a problem you could look at loans or make a short-term purchase, was far better than this system we have at the moment”.
On the other hand, once a player’s in he’s in for at least four to six months (is that right?), meaning that he’ll have to have a proper chance to prove his worth in the reserves or the first team no matter what.
I’m posting this again as I’ve just watched it. Thought it was excellent. I hope it gets commissioned as a series.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bf940k
There is an old saying “if you buy cheap you buy twice” and I’m certainly not advocating that we pay agents ridiculous amounts and under the “assumed” and “leaked” Besic circumstances I would have told the agent to go fly a kite as well, but we do seem to have repeatedly acquired some dross over the years.
I have mentioned it on here many times in the past but the best piece of management advice I was ever given as a young naive manager fresh from a degree and just a few weeks into my first job was from a Director (to my senior who found himself with a workforce on strike) was “you don’t get yourself into those situations”. At that time and in that moment I thought it was a useless thing to say and didn’t help the situation at all but I learnt that if you organise, plan, predict and control things its amazing how much more efficient and profitable things become and how “challenges” are prevented.
Perfect planning prevents poor performance, due diligence, call it whatever but the point is that there were well known transfer window objectives from when the final whistle went at Villa Park. Not failing just once but around half a dozen times as TP has implied is bordering on unbelievable. Does anyone think that Jed Wallace and George Saville from Millwall were long term strategy targets since May? We have Bausor and Gill and now Bevington and whoever else gets involved in the process but nothing to show for it except a healthy bank balance which is a success of sorts but perhaps not the success that a football club usually measures itself by.
None of us know the exact details or precise workings of MFC and it has become even more secretive, sensitive and protective of late than ever. On here and on other blogs and tweets etc. there have been some less than complimentary comments about signings and loans in the past and present. The local paper was blasphemed about “Fake News” over fees and certain journalistic individuals would never darken the Riverside corridors again. An unhealthy siege mentality has developed, amplified by the seemingly incestuous and sycophantic nature of key strategic appointments versus those revolting peasants.
We were understood at the time to believe that the appointment of TP was to look at the entire MFC operation. As many of us on here know only too well when you perform such an appraisal ranks close (almost as quick as Office doors) and clarity, openness and information gathering becomes either non existent or farcical. Those who are incompetent console one another, sucking up, currying favour and blaming the Consultant or “new” Manager for ruining things because he/she doesn’t understand how this business operates. The mentality is to block and ensure that the status quo is maintained and any new radical thinking is drowned at birth.
Watching TP’s press conference I felt a great felt amount of empathy with him as I suspect he has just realised the depth and enormity of the task facing him but more importantly that he realises that the appetite of what was originally briefed to him really isn’t there unless his findings conform with current internal norms and thinking. Change Management is difficult to accept and embrace for many and impossible for some. To change entrenched habits and accept objective criticism especially when that “criticism” has gone past the sugar coating stage isn’t easy. If you keep on doing the same things in the same way but expect different results………………………
Recruitment hasn’t worked very well since Mogga, and even then it was more out of necessity than design. In fact it has often appeared eccentric, at odds or at best disconnected with both fans and managers expectations. It shafted AK’s planning (rightly or wrongly), was a car crash with Garry Monk and has now failed miserably with TP. Surely it can’t be the fault of successive Managers that the same weakness is a constant?
Allegedly
There is hell on at the club behind the scenes
Don’t be surprised if TP walks !
He has had a bust up with Neil Bausor
Told Fletcher he can go he doesn’t want him
He is constantly at logger heads with Britt
Doesn’t sound good does it !
OFB
Then why is Fletcher on the bench?
Because there’s nobody else
Assuming Wing or Tav or both start today, the brain says 2.1, the heart says 3 nil. To us lot.
I actually think that a lot of Monk’s recruitment wasn’t too bad. Sure, it went too far – Fletcher was a needless signing at big money, Braithwaite was an unnecessary risk at the price and, no doubt, wages, Britt cost an absolute fortune for a player unproven at the level above – but Howson, Britt, Christie and Randolph was good signings on paper, fit for a Championship promotion campaign and undoubtedly improved the squad, again on paper.
The problem was that Monk had no idea how to utilise them as an effective unit alongside those he inherited and we then completely changed tack with Pulis who wanted different types of players.
What this boils down to is a lack of strategic thinking when it comes to managerial appointments. Lurching from a defensive, passing style to an attempt (I presume) at attacking flair and then to a more direct, aggressive approach over the course of a year is not a recipe for success
I think the club needs to decide what sort of football team it wants beyond just a Premier League one and pursue that with tunnel vision, sticking with it when it inevitably stutters.
That will provide a type of player for the recruitment team to focus on and thoroughly analyse/investigate and a better pathway for the Academy, who seem to produce their own type of player regardless of first team style.
Pulis being asked to look at the club top to bottom is fine and I’m in favour of a holistic approach but it does suggest that those at the top don’t know what’s wrong and also are happy for their manager to dictate the club’s direction. Back to square one if/when he leaves”
As always an interesting view and I can’t disagree with the comments.
To my uneducated eye, albeit with some management experience, it does look like the person who should be involved in the decision is excluded. Worse than that, too many people are involved and as they say a camel is a horse designed by committe!
AK had players brought in that he clearly didn’t want and now TP, who has significant experience, can’t get the players he wants.
I am not surprised he was not a happy bunny and it reminds me of the time to took on a role to manage an underperforming team and managed to see some small improvements. I was then undermined by my boss who said I wasn’t doing it right, so he got involved. Needless to say, I found a new job pretty sharpish!
Anyway onto today. I don’t expect any changes to the starting team and expect a tough game from Birmingham as GM shows us what we could have won!
However, we will prevail with a last minute winner to leave the Blues feeling even bluer so 2-1 to Boro
It sounded from the article I read in the Northern Echo this morning (Pulis’ frustration exposes tensions behind the scenes on Teesside) that Pulis feels he’s been let down by the recruitment arm of Boro (the one seemingly tied behind our back). He said he’s kept his side of the bargain by generating money from the sales of key players and expected to have them replaced by good players.
Pulis also seemed to indicate his targets had been identified early in the summer and he hadn’t changed his mind who he had wanted in during the window. The message seemed to be that the recruitment team had failed to acquire any of his long identified targets and doesn’t know why. Perhaps he had expected Boro not play hardball and use some of their extra cash to seal the deals earlier – as with last summer.
It sounds like the message that Boro are not good enough for promotion is less aimed at the players and supporters – but more towards the board. It may be a less than subtle message that they need to get their fingers out in the loan market and sooner rather than later. Interestingly he also seemed to indicate that he didn’t expect Boro to resurrect the deal for Besic as contact appears to have been ended on that front.
I’m wondering if TP’s statement, which he has repeated several times, about the current squad not being good enough for promotion is reverse psychology or playing mind games with other clubs. If it is the former it might be an incentive or encouragement for squad members to say ‘we’ll show him’. This of course might have the opposite effect and affect some players’ confidence. If it is playing mind games, it might be working as the managers of the two teams we have played so far this season still seem to think that any team that finishes above the Boro will win the league. These two managers were among those that just missed out on the playoffs last season and are quite envious of Boro’s squad depth.
Let’s just wait and see what the loan market brings, because although some say that our squad is weaker than last season, I’m not sure it is by much. I think Fletcher might surprise a few this season and if handled correctly, Wing, Tavernier, Chapman and Fry might prove to be excellent youngsters. We do now need more depth to our squad, but think back to 1986 and the youngsters we had then, they didn’t do so badly did they?
I still think there’s nothing much to be afraid of in the Championship. Leeds and Forest have played well so far, but it’s all about sustainability and consistency, so I still think automatic promotion is a distinct possibility for Boro.
RR
Once again, you have hit the nail on the head.
It seems that the recruitment team are trying to be too clever in their strategy or are actually incompetent. Who knows the truth?
A pattern does seem to be emerging where the Manager/Coach has little influence.
Unless we see or hear evidence to the contrary, we must assume that SG is happy with the situation.
I witnessed many poor business decisions in my working life and, from the outside looking in, MFC seems expert at getting it wrong. Just my opinion, of course.
Penned the above before reading TP’s comments, where he appears to absolve the recruitment team of blame, so what do I know?
Recruitment.
Whatever you say about the style our managers like to play there is a constant in who the recruitment.
AK wanted someone to the in the number 10 role (withdrawn striker, playing to hole, call it what you like). He wanted pace and wide men, he wanted creative midfielders.
Here we are wanting the same players.
A look at Leeds down the road got me thinking about Mr Orta. Was it all his fault?
Most of the “ rumoured” players we were linked with were met with howls of derision on here, now we didn’t get them it’s sack the recruitment dept.
I appreciate they haven’t covered themselves with glory but they can’t be blamed for not signing players. That particular aspect is a blame to be shared with Neil Bausor and ultimately Steve Gibson.
How much is too much? What is a price worth paying? Is the risk worth the reward?
I don’t think the opinions of fans in regards to signings is relevant because it certainly wasn’t relevant or considered in outgoings (and nor should it be arguably) or in many incomings of late. All Fans of all clubs want as good but preferably better than what they had even if it is only a perceived improvement and reality tells a different tale over time.
Four, five or six positions were identified as weak or completely absent in the squad, signing another Gestede, Guedioura or de Pena wasn’t the answer. Signing a £15m crocked 29 year old that may never be consistently match fit again wasn’t the answer either so its reasonable that something in between was the best fit. Failing that perhaps one or two expensive aged, tried and tested and then one or two budget gambles from League 1 (not unlike McNair) would have been a compromise. Players like Jonas Knudsen were discussed on here who would be sub £5M so expectations were far from unrealistic. Even Besic was rumored to be around the £6M mark.
Whatever the targets and permutations and fans approval or otherwise there are still gaps remaining in the squad that haven’t been addressed. The reasons are as unclear to TP as they are to us it would seem. Is it that SG is preparing to sell the club and wants a healthy set of accounts? Is it that Brexit is crippling Bulkhaul? Is it that Rockliffe is losing money? Is it just recruitment incompetence or an unwillingness to buy a squad of unique players that fit a one dimensional mantra that a new manager couldn’t use and would have no cash to restructure?
Whatever the reason or cause the result is that we now have a weaker squad than three months ago.
Or simply the required players just aren’t available.
At the beginning of last season we looked good on paper, the trouble was we didn’t match it when we were on grass. Who knows what the attitude is on recruitment and we never will, the sad thing is that everything is done in camera with the media and Sky bagging everything up and increasing the hysteria. Meanwhile the club stay eerily quiet.
On the positive side at least we didn’t buy two or three crocked has-beens trading on past glories who would have spent more time being massaged on the treatment table than playing, getting more tattoos and counting their money.
It’s strange how a manager can be fired but not a player, unless the player commits a major crime. Overall I think Mr Pulis should look on this as an opportunity, his hand has been forced and he should bring his undoubted management of player skillset to bear on some of our home grown products.
Today, well, siege mentality Teesside should win so I’m going for Boro 2 – 1 Brum, but then again it is Boro we’re talking about.
UTB,
John
Anyone of the opinion that TP might walk during the campaign….Just a thought.
He has certainly in my view laid the foundations that if things do not pan out, i.e. loan deals/team performance, then he can lay the blame elsewhere and walk away due to lack of support.
Same team as Tuesday now we know Howson is fit and Hugill unfit!
Boro 0-0 Birmingham – it worked on Tuesday so fingers crossed.
Also fingers crossed that the stream works! Bought an adapter and cable so that if I cannot get stream via Lap Top and can via the iPad then I can link to TV just the same.
Crowd 23,132
CoB 😎
I tried that on Tuesday but after I closed on the lap top the mobile wouldn’t log in. I think once you have logged in you have to wait maybe 10 mins before they let you log on another device.
Some valid posts from RR, Andy and Werder.
I would say that Mr Pulis probably went as far as he could with his criticism without making his relationship with Mr Gibson untenable.
But has been said, the one constant over the last three plus seasons has been the recruitment department. Yes we all understand and accept that it can be difficult getting in the right players especially to the North East (see Newcastle) but we have failed time and again, expensively aswell.
As I previosly posted Derby and others have already progressed with multiple loan players (how good of course only time will tell). Nothing appears to have changed even with Bevington coming in.
Other clubs buy cheap from League 1 on a regular basis and make a success of their choices. MFC tried Johnson, not cheap and got it wrong.
Mr Gill has been the constant over all those years, is he an unmovable object?
Got to get a move on, off to the Riverside again. Good luck to the viewers abroad.
No prediction apart from crowd of 23,800.
Don’t expect a repeat of Tuesday though, Mr Monk will have the doors closed from the off.
Fact
Karanka got an average team promotion, his recruitment ,his by the way
Ramirez ,Kike Stuani, Nsue , turning Ayala into a top CB, was instrumental in that.
He gets sacked , after no help in the January sales, and the good old boys take over again, look what happened ,they blow all kinds of money on anyone,
Now Tony is hinting , or at least being upfront there is a problem , I wonder were it lies, because in my thinking , the incompetence behind the scenes is there to see ,for anyone .
Why was Karanka fired? Was it because he stood up to certain players and others?
I hope they finally see sense, soon.
Canon Street Irregulars 3
Peaky Blinders 1
Got the stream up on the lap top after trying without luck on the iPad and not sure why!
Looking on the bright side, I’ve just managed to log in to the Boro live stream and all seems to be working OK.
Same starting XI as Tuesday so lets hope for a similar start – apparently Birmingham haven’t beaten Boro at the Riverside in their last 8 attempts and not scored on their last three visits. Will be interesting to see if the players are still fresh and get on the front foot from the start.
You’d have to go for a home win and maybe another goal for Braithwaite and Britt certainly needs to get off the mark if he wants gain confidence. I’ll go for 2-0 as anything else would be maybe expecting too much – let’s not forget Sheff Utd looked pretty poor so it won’t be as easy today I’d imagine.
Oops Live stream just threw me out and has crashed 4 times and stopped working so looks like may have spoke to soon – how hard can it be every other Championship club seems to get the streaming service sorted. It’s becoming a bad joke!
And so it comes to pass!
1-0 good goal from Britt and they seem to have sorted out the sound issues at last to the detriment of my ear drums!
CoB
I can’t get picture sound or anything on the computer or the app.
Anyone else???
I have it on Lap top albeit the feed has dropped out three/four times so far and I keep having to refresh the page and wait for the feed to kick back in. Far from ideal!
Boro on top and looking dangerous again, good first goal from Britt, though he should really have scored the second when put through on goal by Braithwaite but hit the post. Downing also hitting the post from a free kick and also could have scored when linking up with Howson to run into the box. Birmingham have had some chances but nothing clear cut and the defence has been a little last ditch on few occasions.
Thankfully live stream came back just after kick-off but has cut out about 7-8 times and twice lost video for a couple of minutes. Sound got turned to 11 after about 15 minutes when someone obviously turned the audio feed up. The service is getting there but seems still to be in beta phase.
As opposed to worsa phase
Finally got to watch the second half by uninstalling and reinstalling the app.
Please MFC can you screw up the second half of the stream instead of the first as Boro have had Two sh!t second halves in a row.
I still havnt seen the goal!
So another win and still top with Swansea surprisingly the only team on 6 points – though Leeds v Derby yet to start. Boro made it harder work than it should have been and Britt should have had a hat-trick but missed 2 sitters. Birmingham content to launch long balls, which didn’t trouble our defence too much – not particularly fluent for most of the game but plenty of effort if not smooth skills. Probably give MOM to Downing ahead of Fry for also putting in a defensive shift and running with the ball – Shotton also had another good game as did Flint. Braithwaite also lively again and Howson OK until he got tired.
Live stream cut out several times and then was pulled completely just before the final whistle so didn’t get to see any reaction to the win from players and fans – still at around 85 minutes up and running it’s getting better.
Villa also on 6.
Yes the BBC table I looked at hadn’t picked up Villa’s late winner and still had them on 4 points. Also joined by Leeds who again are looking good early doors but will it last this time?.
MIne dropped out on 34, 45, 83 and 94 minutes[after the final whistle]
Each time F5 refresh seemed to do the trick. Not logging off after last time as I am sure I wouldn’t be able to sign on.
I use MS Edge – although with I follow Chrome seemed more stable
Anyhow it seems to be getting more reliable
On the whole an encouraging performance.
Good result albeit not a great advert for football and as Werder has said they made hard work of it against a team who only just escaped relegation. Surprised to see that they tended to play more route one football than us!
I thought Wing had another very good game and looked comfortable at this level. Howson, Fry, Clayton and Downing all had solid games.
Perhaps the best bit of transfer business that TP could pull off would be to persuade MB that he should stay and knock back any offers received???
Have emailed the club regarding the stream and complimented them on picture quality, sound – eventually and commentary/graphics when it all worked. Losing the feed at least 15 times during the match and receiving an error message however is not what is expected of a service which was supposed to be superior to iFollow. Let’s hope that they sort it before the next Riverside Live game!
BBC EFL front page……..
Summary
Lampard & Bielsa look to extend winning starts
Bjarnason scores last-minute winner for Villa
West Brom edge seven-goal thriller at Norwich
Brentford earn point at winless Stoke
Swansea beat Preston to continue 100% start
Get involved via #bbcefl on social media.
Not a mention.
As it ever was!
I would prefer we were quiet achivers
It’s enough to make a Middlesbrough taxi driver swear 🙂 – btw that was really good programme, I saw it earlier today and well worth watching for those who can get iPlayer.
Right down to when he was driving past the Riverside. Classic Boro!
I’m happy to be ignored as long as we’re top of the league.
Made hard work of it again but the win is all that matters.
Howson now starting to live up to his billing.
I think we won confortably. We were much better than the result shows. We should have won at least 3-0 with hitting the wood work three times, Brum saved one on the goal line with goalie beaten and Britt missed the easiest of chances from a Howson header.
I lost the feed about five times in the first half, but only twice in the second half – supricingly when the red card was given and at full-time. Nice quality with four cameras, replays from different angles and commentary. Good service if the feed would not have got broken the few times.
Well, top of the league and over two points per game. Good game to watch and it was not the Pulis team playing long ball. Really enjoyed watching the stream at Riverside live.
Up the Boro!
Just posted up Redcar Red’s match report in game that Pulis said Boro should have won by 5 or 6 but instead we had to settle for just 1-0 and maintain our place at the top of the table…
https://diasboro.club/2018/08/11/boro-1-0-birmingham/
Jarkko
Yes, we could have won 3-0 or more but, unlike Tuesday, the chances weren’t taken. Hanging on to 1-0 is always hard work.
On a rare visit from Huddersfield I enjoyed the game. It was significantly better than this time last year as the team had a pattern to their play. The team had enough chances to win two matches.
So what did we learn ?
The team play as a team.
Assombalonga needs 3 chances to score although his goal was very good.
Clayton did his usual 90 minutes of effort.
Unlike the commentators on radio Tees I thought Friend looked uneasy and the longer the game went he needed Downing to play further back. Significantly most of their long balls were played towards Friend.
Fry was steady but persists in playing balls in the air towards Assombalonga which is a waste of time.
So a good start to the season although having watched Man. U. v Leicester last night the gulf in class is enormous
Philip
Another gudun RR saw the same match as you but could never put it into the same words. Love this site me.
RR
Great report as usual
I spoke to George after the game and we were talking about the players and agreed that Shotton has played his best two games for the club since we set up the defence as three at the back
OFB
Thanks again RR for a great report on the match. Look forward to your honest and no holds barred writing.
After, today’s interviews, seems to me that TP still not happy with the club hierarchy.
Can’t stress how much trouble behind the scenes at the moment about these transfers !
Who would replace Pulis at short notice ?
Very sad to see the good start to our season being blighted in this way
OFB
OFB,
Infighting and trouble because of the lack of transfers with the start Boro have had? Why can’t Boro enjoy what we/they have managed so far? With start like this Boro should be building up a head of momentum and a winning mentality instead of letting a new self-destruct grow.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting better but not at the expense of spoiling what you’ve got, do that and you stand still and slide inexorably backwards.
We may not have enough players to last the season but a club sitting high in the Championship must be some attraction to loan players surely.
Anyway it is the Boro we are discussing so expect the unexpected.
RR. Excellent report as always and when can we stop showing-off the level of our precision shooting ability by hitting the woodwork so many times and put the ball in the gap underneath.
Oi, Mr Pulis, have a word with them.
UTB,
John
John
The problem is the championship is such a war out attrition and played over so many games that suspensions and injuries take their toll.
There is a genuine lack of pace in the team and we do not have the players available to come off the bench and change the game
Don’t get me wrong I’m enkoying watching the team win although we seem to only play one half.
Talking to one ex Boro player yesterday he made the point that we haven’t signed any players and after selling three of our best players what sort of message does that send out to players we want to sign. He said all players want to play at the highest level and if we are trying to persuade players to step down from the premier league or signing up and coming players they would rather play for an ambitious club.
At the moment we don’t seem to have that ambition!
OFB
OFB,
A good point and I understand fully, it’s all about ambition but equally the subliminal messages you send out are important too; about the state of the club, player’s body language and everything else.
When I walked the two terriers this morning what happened to second teams? The teams a club runs all seem to be ‘different’ now with different ambitions, don’t know if ambitions is the right word.
We’re not on heavy grounds yet and the championship is a siege so should Boro being looking at the lower divisions as well as premiership players who aren’t getting a game. As I said or implied in a previous post we don’t know what goes on in player recruitment.
Are Boro over-achieving or there reverse psychology at play?
UTB,
John
But we should be able to sign all these players still on loan with an option to buy in January or next summer. In the past three transfer windows we have signed too many players and paid over the odds. So we should still be able to sign most players we want – if the players want to move to the NE and play for this club.
So I wouldn’t panic just yet. Three weeks to work on these.
I see the need for a couple of full backs and a winger. And Besic would do nicely – just wonder what his agent will do next.
Up the Boro!
They said the same about Cardiff,
Family day with trip around Chatsworth area then a family meal for Mrs G so it was updates from radio 5.
Thanks for the usual top report Redcar Red
Top of the table so good loans should help us moving forward. The problem could be that by the time they have settled in they may find it difficult to get in to the team.
The difficulty we have is the lack of depth to the squad in terms of quality and there will be injuries.
Anyway, lets enjoy it. Sterner test to come.
OFB’s comments about infighting about transfers may need to happen. We are not privy to what goes on but as Pulis was supposedly brought in to address issues top to bottom that is fine by me as long as the football side is unaffected.
He hasn’t reacted the way AK did but that is probably down to his experience.
Our problem is we look at the squad and mentally cross Braithwaite and Fletcher off the list because we expected them to go out on loan again.
I wonder if the constant give it to Adama plan last season ending has allowed the team to change the way we play. I was encouraged to read on here that we played some good stuff
Just listened to the TP interview and it sounded like he was being prodded with a sharp stick about the squad and chief prodder seemed to be Phil T – are the Gazette boys back in to pressers?
Having read comments above it may be I was reading more in to the interview than there is. It is possible that TP is in some ways too honest.
It’s possible as the article that explained why they [The Gazette] weren’t attending press conferences and reporting on the manager’s post-match comments appears to be no longer on their website – it used to be prominently placed at the top of right column. Although if they start baiting Tony Pulis it may not be long before they’re back on the naughty step.
Great report RR which very much reflected my own view of the match in between refreshing the stream which constantly dropped!
Howson really does appear now to be showing his best form and his cross field ball of 40/50 yards to Britt for the first goal was superb.
We really could do with hanging on to Braithwaite as he has proved again how adept he is in linking up the play between defence/midfield and the front line. He has also in the first few games been putting in a shift – may be move orientated but surely with the World Cup now behind us there is not the need and TP has shown a willingness to pick him. All will be revealed in the next few weeks.
Your final comments were very apt, without the appropriate loan deals/personnel we will not be able to sustain our position with the current squad and may be found wanting when we face the teams who will be in the mix at season’s end.
Thanks again to RR for his excellent report. Also listening to Radio Tees it did appear to me to be a better match than Tuesday’s. Maybe because an early 3-0 lead makes a team sloppy(not in the case of Leeds though), whereas a one goal lead concentrates the mind more (just a thought). In my opinion we shouldn’t send out Wing, Tavernier and Chapman on loan and hopefully Braithwaite will settle down now the World Cup is over. I agree though with most bloggers that Boro need better recruitment in the loans window.
As I mentioned before there are no outstanding teams in this division. I still expect Stoke to lead the way and now Leeds might provide competition but their gung-ho style might be their downfall, but wouldn’t write off Villa yet. Early doors, and good so far. Many questioned where the chances would come, but perhaps Braithwaite, Howson and Wing/Tavernier might go a long way in providing the answer If only Assombalonga can increase his ratio of chances into goals. Just a few of my rambled thoughts though.
Thanks to RR for another entertaining match report that perfectly captured the essence of the game. I’d agree that we’re seeing some of the best performances in a Boro shirt of Shotton, Howson and Braithwaite – plus some of the youngsters like Fry and Wing have stepped up too. I was thinking that Wing reminds me a bit of how James Morrison played at WBA and could turn out to be the midfield playmaker we lack. There was talk of signing the ageing former Boro academy graduate but he is probably on the way down now – whereas Wing looks to be settling in and looking the part – hopefully he’s not edged out by either a fit McNair or any new loan arrival.
The Squad perhaps lacks depth to survive the cold winter on Teesside and the fact that Pulis only made late subs to replace tired players probably indicated he didn’t have any real options better than those currently on the pitch. Still a bench including Hugill, Ayala and Gestede would have looked stronger so we shouldn’t think it’s all doom and gloom. We do lack pace in the team though and genuine wide players.
Another good summary- well done.
You seem to have read the game and our predicament exactly the same as me, and we are desperate to increase the squad with some other quality players.
Cheers,
Tractor Man.
There are a lot of upset people at the club at the moment aren’t there Tractor Man?
Perhaps some of those people who are upset need to take a deep breath and take a step back as we all know a divided club rarely succeeds. I think Tony Pulis has made his point but pushing it too far won’t make the situation any better – it may in fact make it worse and harder to move forward. Hopefully a bit of venting releases the pressure and clears the air and the club can regroup. Three decent loan signings may help but didn’t Tony Pulis declare last season he preferred a small squad of around 18 players – well he’s not far off that if he can utilise some of the young academy players in the ranks and as mentioned before he’s still got Hugill, Ayala, Gestede and McNair to get fully fit.
A lot may depend on Braithwaite staying and perhaps Pulis ideally wanted to move on Fletcher and Britt and replace them. As it stands Flint replaced Gibson and Hugill replaced Bamford – obviously Traore wasn’t replaced and I suspect Besic was seen as Leadbitter replacement. Boro are top of the table so it must at least indicate we have a relatively decent side in comparison to most in the Championship – it’s early days to read too much into the table but I don’t think we’ll get that much of a better type of player who is ready to go. Oji and Bolasie are just as much gambles as bringing in less expensive alternatives – spending more doesn’t necessarily give you anything better.
I guess buying some ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ T-shirts may not help but the last thing Boro need is a major upheaval on the management front and suddenly having Woodgate in charge of our promotion campaign!
Great report as usual RR.
I may be soft but I thought the chants against Monk carried more vitriol than he deserved. He was just MEH as RR says. Wrong choice at wrong time.
Just as I saw it Redcar and thank you for the very readable afternoon matinee as it unfolded.
Whilst the storyline was a little uncomfortable at times, I would be happy to read a few more of the same in the next couple of weeks. I would then hope that the quality will increase as the characters are added to.
I also have to concur and eat a little humble pie in that given the squad depth I think Mr Pulis is doing OK. As a few have advocated on here recently, the three at the back does appear to be a system the keeps us reasonably solid but more importantly gives more attacking options. With right added recruits it could be the system for the season.
Generally it was a good performance but at only 1-nil there is always the chance of a set piece goal if not from open play, Brum having 11 corners in total and more shots in total and on target.
I think that was Shottons best game I have seen and Howson is looking like the player he was a Norwich.
I still think we struggled at times keeping hold of the ball in midfield and although Britt took his goal well and worked really hard in a thankless role he is not adept at holding up the ball, so we lose out there especially when under pressure which will happen against the better teams in the next three games. How we cope will be interesting to see.
Pulis is ramping up the pressure even more to bring in reinforcements continuing to use his pressers to make the point.
I would hope that we do not make any panic buys and any incomings, Mr Pulis has the final say as to whether he wants them. That way it becomes his team more and more.
Considering he has stated he wants five or six, may be overstated for effect, I wonder just what positions overall he wants covering? We know he wanted Besic and his team mate. Did he really want the Millwall pair aswell or as an alternative. Fulls back additions must be a priority to cover for injuries or loss of form as we have no cover there although playing with three at the back makes that slightly easier in choice. SD has played quite well the last two matches I have to say.
Another CB is a definately for me. Ayala is unreliable with his constant injuries and I still think George looks like a full back playing at centre half. With Kalas now back at Chelsea, I think he would be a good loan giving versatility in two positions also.
As for loans, read that Hugil has cost us one mil for the season with extra for promotion plus 100% of his wages. I guess probably 10 grand? So loans of the right calibre are not cheap, however are certainly less risky. It will be interesting to see if Mr Pulis gets his way and what he will do if he doesn’t.
Its obvious now why non of our refs were at the World Cup.
Yesterdays jackielka sending off for an excellent stretched foot to ball tackle was the beginning of the end for football as we know it
On another note I think TP as the gravitas to expect the club to back his ambition.
Isn’t that why they chased him to join?
UTB
Over the past 17 seasons there have been matches were I have sat in the east upper fearful even though we led by 1 or even 2 goals, yesterday I never felt nervous throughout the whole match. Yes, we could have scored 4 or 5 and to say that Brett missed that chance when he bent his shot around the keeper for the second time, only to be out by an inch or so and rebound off the post, is in my opinion overly critical.
There was more good performances than bad yesterday, 7 points out off 9 with 3 league matches in the first week of the season, which on paper was a tough start, also bear in mind that Birmingham had nothing but to prepare and plan all week for yesterday’s match. I agree that at the Den we struggled for 60/70 minutes until TP made the substitutions then we found our feet and earned the point by coming from 2 down with about 3 minutes to play (anyone remember Fulham at the Riverside). Some people have criticised TP starting with the more experienced players that he did, saying why didn’t he start with the team he finished with ! Everything is easy in hindsight but I put it to you, if he had started with the young players and we got beat 3/4 nil, how many would be complaining “the Den is a notorious hard ground to get points at, so why didn’t he shore up the team with the likes of Leadbitter, Clayton and Howson using their experience”. Shef Utd are a good side but we made them look poor until we eased off to conserve energy for the Birmingham game and again Birmingham are a useful side but they didn’t really trouble us, yes we would have liked a bigger winning margin, I think hitting the woodwork 4 times, having a couple of shots blocked by our own players and getting a goal bound shot cleared off the line is more “fine margins” than poor finishing.
I really hope the reports of TP being close to walking because of transfer window are just malicious rumours as I think we have now got a experienced manager who has no hidden agenda other than to get the club into the Premier league and sustain it there. Maybe he has stirred up a vipers nest and disinformation is their way of preserving their position in the club as in my opinion, anyone who has the best interests of MFC at heart would not be telling tales out of class.
Come on BORO.
Yes, as I said earlier, a very confortable win. Really injoyed watching that through Riverside Live stream.
And no long balls from our side (except the goal made by Howson and converted by Britt – but that was not a headed goal, though).
Happy days. And three weeks to get cover for defence and one attacking midfielder. Up the Boro!
Exmil
I didn’t want Pulis as our manager, but nevertheless I agree that it would be foolhardy from Boro’s point of view if he felt he had to resign because of poor recruitment. Where would we find a replacement manager with his experience at this moment in time?
Got in and saw a couple of minutes of Liverpool v West Ham. Liverpool were leading 1-0 late in the first half and conceded a free kick in their own half. I was about ten yards from half way and five yards in from touch.
When you look at the situation the first thought would be ‘here is a chance, away from home 1-0 down, not going to get many opportunities, put people in the box and deliver a set piece.’
No, short square pass, then a succession of just behind short passes working their way backwards until under pressure back to the keeper.
I dont want hoof ball or Wimbledon style football but for goodness sake, take one of the few chances you are going to get to create an opportunity.
Last I saw Liverpool were cantering away with the game 4-0, West Ham with 35% possession and four shots, you cannot afford not to try and create something.
Does anyone know if TP is living in temporary accommodation or making a regular commute to Middlesbrough?
Not 100% certain but I believe in one interview he mentioned about getting promoted and said that’s why he had moved up here. I can’t imagine, given the distance involved, that he would be commuting from the south coast.
As far as I’m aware he stays at Rockliffe Park in one of the Boro flats within the complex and uses the gym facility at the club most mornings at 6am
He goes home when he can using the Newcastle Southampton flight
OFB
GHW, a good question I was wondering yesterday, too. I hope someone can help.
Secondly, as I am travelling abroad all week next week, any idea if the Notts County match in on Riverside Live on Tuesday?
UTB!
Jarkko
No it is not on the TV as the club is not allowed to broadcast cup games.
There, will however, be audio commentary available on a pay for listen basis from the Riverside.
Cheers, mate. UTB!
Last season after the chairman’s now infamous statement fans were optimistic, if the start had been the same as the current one then they would have been ecstatic and full of confidence.
Compare that to the gloom attached now. The loan window is still open and I expect new players to arrive. Lots of Chinese whispers emanating from the Riverside, manager mind games?
GHW
From afar we dont have the whispers that you and several posters have alluded to.
I see the TP pressers, I heard him being prodded by Journo’s but have little knowledge of other gossip.
Behind every rumour there’s an agenda.
Some excellent posts and questions being posed after what I thought was a fairly routine win.
And surprise surprise I was able to see the whole 90+ minutes as the stream worked faultlessly, on my phone but not my iPad.
When I open the app on the iPad and select the live stream option it comes up with a box saying I need to link my digital account to the app. When I try to then access my on line account it’s not recognised on the app. Despite my having already logged in on the MFC website not 10 minutes previous. I’ve absolutely no idea other than I’m on an iPad 3 with an older operating system 9.3.5 which is the latest my software will download. Maybe I need a nice new iPad.
And the irony is that as I found out from another Boro fan at work it was on the compound tv courtesy of Bein Sports, so I could’ve watched the game on a 40″ HD telly rather than my small phone screen. We won so alls well etc.
Onto the game and on another day we could easily have had 4 or 5. The back 3 (5) coped very well especially with the long cross fied ball to Lucas and the team defended virtually all their set pieces pretty comfortably, and when called upon Randolph made a couple of good saves and controlled his area.
Lewis Wing looks like he’s been playing at this level for years, Howson was looking like the player we thought he was when he signed and hopefully it’s not another false dawn. Clayton was everywhere, Downing and Shotton, my motm, played the wing back role very well and Brit and MB were a threat all game until subbed.
Plenty to be positive about and hopefully get a few good loanees in, who want to be at the club for the right reasons, and maybe the internal strife alluded to by OFB will turn out to be no more than a storm in a tea cup.
And finally thanks to RR for his usual high standard of post match reporting.
FAA now in Saudi
Just a thought, don’t log in via your Lap Top but go into the app and ensure that your iPad is linked to you MFC Digital account. The ipad should tell you you are not linked and ask you if you wish to link. Say yes and it should take you to the appropriate page and you just need to move a button from off to on.
Hope this helps – it was what i needed to do to enable me to watch videos and live streams.
MB could still be better. As we know here there is the RR level to aim for.
Love this blog, me. Up the Boro!
I missed that on Bien, damn could have watched it on my tv… will check next time
On the live stream yesterday The co commentator alongside Gordo Cox was ex academy director Dave Parnaby and I thought he was excellent. So much better than many of the “professional” pundits you get on the tv and radio.
His technical insights were very informative, he called things that hadn’t happened then did, an absolute fountain of footballing knowledge. Listening to him it’s no surprise that he earned all the praise and plaudits while in charge of the academy. Certainly be more than happy for him to have another go this season.
I love Bernie Slaven but he’s not in the same league as Dave Parnaby when it comes to describing the technicalities of the game.
Yes, I thought Daves comments and insights added to the coverage, not being much of expert myself, rather just a supporter no matter how the team does,.. I was very impressed and enlightened.
Yes, it was interesting to hear David Parnaby although he did keep on calling Flint Andrew instead of Aden. Also the quality of the picture was very good but for me the major bugbear was the producers insistence on using a camera shot if a player or manager who was being talked about and them keep that image even when play was going on somewhere else. On one occasion, they actually cut back to a corner for Birmingham with no idea how the play had reached that point. I don’t know if the producer thinks that he’s up for some creative award but for me the simple imperative is to show exactly what’s happening in the game. He can use a Picture in Picture if there’s some overwhelming reason to show two images.
It was a strange game to watch purely because of Boro’s inability to kill Birmingham off. It made all of us fear a Typical Boro moment but maybe TP doesn’t do ‘typical Boro’. He’s certainly an impressive person in his interviews and I look forward to watching him manage. Everyone played well and we do appear to have found a real player in Wing.
With all this transfer talk, I wonder how far he is away from his best side. He was adamant in his interview that’s the squad isn’t strong enough to get promotion but I don’t know if he’s talking about depth or the absolute quality of his best XI. One things for sure; the bench players and squad members will get a go on Tuesday.
Regarding transfers does anyone know when the Premier League have to lock in their squads as that will presumably mark the start of loan season.
I assume that two defenders, a creative midfielder and a winger are the likely minimum and then we add in a fit Hugill and Ayala and we’re off to the races. Personally, I very much hope that Braithwaite stays. He has real quality and could be this team’s Paul Merson.
UTB
Not a Boro subject, but I’ve just found a series of match reports on Redcar Athletic’s matches. Not nearly as comprehensive as Redcar Red’s Boro match reports, but I was surprised that somebody in the lower echelons should take the trouble to write about their local team. I wonder if Stockton Town, Marske United or Guisborough Town have their correspondents also? For any bloggers on this site who also take an interest of Northern League clubs it might be interesting to find out. Just saying like.
Ken
Holloway who was at QPR with our first team coach Curtis Fleming and got Blackpool promoted to the Prem on a shoestring !
Sorry bad dream! (Shudder )
Let’s do all we can to keep TP
OFB
Selwynoz….I believe that the 25 man squad names are in.
Thanks Pedro,
I did some checking. The squads were finalised 24 hours after the window shut but I can’t find an official list. Apparently the PL doesn’t announce them until September 1.
UTB
KP
Did that but then it asks for my login details and when I enter them, correctly, it says they’re not recognised. I shall try again on Saturday. Thanks.
Thats what happened to me at the Sheff game, this time I made sure I was only on one device all through the game and pressed f5 to refresh and not reboot the browser.
Watching the highlights of the game, it appeared that TP walked straight down the tunnel at the whistle without acknowledging the Birmingham bench.
Or did I miss something!
Yes I saw that and at the time thought it rather strange as normally TP goes straight to the opposition bench. Perhaps OFB or RR can shed some light on what might of happened?
Can’t say I noticed anything during the game or when the whistle went. Maybe they acknowledged each other before the whistle during added time?
No they didn’t do that RR
Sorry I didn’t see that but perhaps the legal action that was taken against Birmingham for trying to poach players when TP joined Boro was instigated by him and he knows what underhand tricks they were doing and it still rankles
I did see Braithwaite go to their bench before the game and shake hands with the coaches and he was the only Boro player to do that
OFB
I saw that at the time and then the internet stopped for 3 minutes.
I think that TP is referring to the depth of his squad, and is correct, because there are a lot of teams with high expectations this season, and with expectation goes extra effort, and for effort read plenty of kicking and thumping and cheating, remember Wolves last season?
Watched ‘Taxi Tales’ and thought it typical of Middlesbrough today, but it was ever thus. I was born and bred in Redcar and thought at the time what a lovely place for a child to live, beautiful long beach and wonderful Locke Park. I worked in Local Government all my life and eventually at Saltburn found the Valley Gardens with its idyllic Italian Gardens, Ha’penny Bridge, Cat Nab, Victorian Jewel Streets, Pier and the Ship Inn (seemed like Devon and Cornwall).
Then came Local Government reorganisation in the form of Teesside County Borough Council and having to relocate to Middlesbrough. What a culture shock! Had the place still to recover from the Second World War? Hated the transition, and the accent, yer know ‘terrd his derty shert at werk on the gerders’ but also couldn’t understand some of the accents from lads from mid Durham either till someone brought in a book called ‘Larn yerself Geordie’. As a child I was familiar with West Lane where my grandparents lived, and the Wilderness on the road to Stockton. That was bad enough and the bus journey before ICI existed through Grangetown and Slaggy Island to Middlesbrough was only marginally better than the train journey from Redcar to Middlesbrough, but how else was I able to see my beloved Boro at Ayresome Park? But having to actually work in the town I found so depressing after Saltburn.
I guess Middlesbrough is probably no worse than many other northern provincial towns, but what a beautiful coastline and countryside we have on our doorstep. There are some nice areas in Middlesbrough also, but the town centre – I hated it and still do. Sorry if that offends some of you, but if it wasn’t for the Boro I would never have wanted to visit it.
Ken, I was born in a council house in Norwich Road in Linthorpe, then moved to Nunthorpe when I was 7, before ending up, in my teens, in Brotton where my parents had a small Spar shop which we lived above, when my Dad was made redundant as an engineer over the border.
Later, when I got married we bought a small terraced house in Guisborough, where I’d gone to secondary school. Eventually, work took me to Co Durham and then on to Lancashire.
I’ve still got a massive affection for the area but more biased towards East Cleveland where I spent my formative years. I used to walk down to the Ship in Saltburn from Brotton with my dog for a beer and also have very fond memories of time spent on the Waltzers nearby (without the dog…).
For my friends at school in Guisborough, particularly those from the villages of East Cleveland, Middlesbrough was a distant place, for which they held no affection nor any connection and believed it to be an awful place. Nevertheless, plenty of them made the pilgrimage to Ayresome Park every week, presumably holding their noses until they could breathe the clean air east of Guisborough!
Martin
Your friends also held their noses as they got jobs with all the benefits which are of course no longer available in the world of work, and never were in the countryside surrounding the town.
This area is full of people who are living very comfortably on the pensions from ICI and British Steel.
And the world has welcomed an awful lot of our people who took their skills round the world, but remember you need the skill to move round the world.
Do you still live in Lancashire, Martin, and if so, where?
Clive, I’m still here on missionary work! I live in Leyland.
Sadly Ken Redcar is no longer like that much as i wish it was. Like many Towns it is run down with shopping now a very limiting experience with the town full of budget or charity enterprises. The knocking down of a beautiful old theatre hid for a generation by monstrous 60’s cladding to be replaced by an out of scale and monstrous looking office building which is 3/4 empty didn’t help along with the tilting helter skelter eyesore which many hope will finally seal its fate by crashing into the North Sea in the same manner as our much reminisced Piers of better days gone by.
The closure of the “Steelwerks”, Factories and the downsizing of Wilton that once employed tens of thousands in hard honest graft means there is little reason for optimism or honest endeavour for individuals who would have become the new generation of manual labourers. The Police in their ever reducing numbers are now struggling to deal with the consequential detritus. No prospects of employment, no chance to get on any ladder, no apprenticeships or factory skills required or available has left an area for those who used to be termed “werking class folk” now unemployable.
For the more fortunate its still fine for the academics as they can go onto higher education, gain skills and qualifications and in many cases inevitably move away to where decent money can be had. Teesside however isn’t famed for its academia and the Polytechnic/University despite its highly impressive successes can’t plug the huge socioeconomic chasm on its own.
For those whose Grandparents dirtied their hands grafting honestly in Mines, Steelworks, Shipyards and Chemicals whose life abilities unfortunately don’t permit an academic option there is literally nothing for them. They face a life empty of hope and aspiration with many now staggering around streets or literally up on roofs off their heads on garbage pedalled openly on corners from Cars doing their “rounds” in broad daylight. The saying “where there’s muck there’s brass” now has an entirely new connotation but without any brass.
Middlesbrough is not much different with a few additional challenges of its own thrown in. As an area Teesside is similar if not identical to many Northern Towns that have been left behind, stuck in the wake of the Industrial Revolution that brought their forefathers here in the first place. In just a little over 100 years its all gone, almost as quickly as it gathered momentum with Politicians and Leaders of all persuasions bereft of the intellect and drive to see the future that is now starkly staring them in the face.
It saddens me to read those words but you’re absolutely correct, RR.
How things will change I’ve got no idea. My brother, who’s a good few years older than me, worked at Wilton, coming home with those small plastic pellets falling from his work clothes. What he’d do now I haven’t a clue.
My rams colleague was in shock after the weekend. We missed the game on TV because it was a family weekend but Andrew was shell shocked.
Some of the people he went with stayed on the concourse because they couldn’t bear to watch. Derby were torn to shreds, the only consolation he could come up with was that Leeds wont be able to keep that tempo up all season.
He reckons they were the best team he has seen at this level for years.
Anyone on the blog see the match, it is always more painful when the team you support loses by a wide margin at home.
Depth of our squad? Sir Geoffrey Boycott always says look at the score and add two wickets.
In the same way, look at the squad and knock a couple of players out of it. Effectively we lost Fabio, Bamford, Besic, Traore, Gibson and brought in Flint, McNair, Hugill and one of those is injured.
That leaves the squad a bit light. We can ill afford to lose Braithwaite or Fletcher who we expected to leave and may well do this month in any case.
Ian, did not see the Leeds Derby match, only the highlights. However I did watch Leeds v Stoke. If they can keep up this intensity the could easily match Wolves.
What there squad depth is I do not know, may be like ours. But if they get in a couple of the right loans could turn out to be the surprise team.
Agree also on your ins and out list Ian, and you could add Ayala to those that have. However you could in reality add Braithwaite to those that have come in. Even Wing.
But one thing is certain, to sustain a top six place and challenge for one of the two top spots will need a bigger, better and more balance squad.
Defence looks really light on cover unless TP continues with three at the back and utilizes wing backs. That is easier to facilitate. I would hope some progress is made this week.
Strong stuff Ken
Bites tongue….
Ian
That’s an intersting way of looking at it. I suppose it depends which two you take out. We’ve haven’t had Hugill of Ayala fit yet – two players you’d expect to be in the first XI – whilst Gestede and McNair haven’t quite been ready. You could argue we’ve been playing a couple down already whilst still trimming the squad.
Either way, We’ve done very well to get seven points on the board against the odds. The next three league games look tasty and will give us more of an idea.
Tomorrow nights Carabao Cup game gives TP the opportunity to let whats left of his squad stake a claim. I’m expecting Grant, Dimi, Fletcher, McNair, Johnson, Tavernier and Chapman to get the nod plus maybe Nathan Wood. Not sure if there is anyone left standing that I have missed, maybe Mahmutovic?
There again TP likes to take every game seriously but with the squad as thin on the ground as it is then I would be worried if he took risks for Notts County. Can’t say that the competition excites me (despite it being our only historical success) compared to promotion. At the minute a cup run is a luxury we cannot afford thanks to the summer sales and corresponding lack of recruitment.
I doubt a home defeat would make the news as being top of the league certainly hasn’t interested the media in any way shape or form which is fine by me.
If TP is still wanting to make a point about the squad, he may go with a very strong team. I’m expecting Randolph to keep his place.
Leads and Fletcher would certainly make sense. Will he change shape to get Tav and Chapman in? I’m not so sure…
Given that SG fully supported GM in the transfer market then surely he has to back TP to a certain extent.
I would suggest that the recruitment team now need to go back to Everton/Besic and agree a loan deal which will be turned into a permanent deal in January. Whilst I am no fan of the role agent’s play in the game it may have to be a case of MFC swallowing their pride and agree to his fee.
I trust the club are not hoping that if they leave matters until the end of August (Besic becoming desperate for game time) that Besic will agree to sign and the agent will reduce his fee as this is fraught with danger. We saw what happened when they procrastinated over Waghorn and Bryan albeit I accept this was probably driven by the need for sales before purchases. The longer this goes on the less it is likely to come to pass in my view.
If Besic doesn’t come then I see it as more than likely that neither will Bolasie.
KP
Bolasie going to Villa
OFB
That’s fine by me
Well we’re into the third week of the season and as Boro sit on top of the pile what can there possibly be to worry about? Well Tony Pulis is feeling like a man who handed over a £50 note and got change for a fiver instead – he’ll not be happy until he no doubt sees some new faces in his squad. Will the recruitment team deliver the goods off the pitch or will the manager be left feeling he’s the only one delivering? He’s this week’s discussion preview…
https://diasboro.club/2018/08/13/2018-19-week-03-pulis-disappointed/
Thanks for another great preview Werder
OFB
Perhaps this is a little too bizarre or left field thinking for our recruitment/scouting department but maybe an enquiry with Barca in regards looking for a young fast tricky wide player may be of merit?
We now have a very good business example of a certain Adama Traroe who struggled to realise his potential but under the tutelage of our Coaches and Manager is now playing in the Premiership under his own merits despite La Masia writing him off. In the summer he was also called up to train with the Spanish squad pre the World Cup Tournament.
Timing in these things is crucial and striking while the iron is hot could be very beneficial long term to both Boro and Barca. MFC could be utilised as a development club for some of their finer talent who are too good for reserve football but not good enough for a Champions League side. The facilities that the club have to offer are excellent and the cultural experience in itself is valuable in bringing young players along. Barca retain their registration and a skilled negotiator (perhaps Besic’s agent and she seems to have more balls than many) could agree that the input that Boro put in has some future monetary benefit.
The advantage to Barca is more rounded youngsters for the experience and maybe a different environment that has recent proven unlocking potential (provided of course the club hangs onto TP for a while longer). Potentially getting game time in one of Europe’s top leagues despite being the English second tier rather than sat on a bench or playing against kids has to have appeal. That is assuming of course that Barca have a few decent youngsters on their books unlikely as that may seem. The deal could even be be balanced out by Boro having the opportunity of sending a few lads to La Masia for a few months in exchange for nurturing Barca’s finest.
The problem we had with Traore playing for Spain during the summer was he was told if you want to play for the national team then have to be playing in a higher league
So he did !
OFB